Nelson Mandela

 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, /maen’del@(/maen'del@/; Xhosa [xolilala machde.la]; 18 July 1918 - 5 December 2013) was a South African antiapartheid activist. He was the first president of South Africa between 1994 and 1999. He was also the country's first elected black head of government and was the first to be elected through an electoral process that was democratically conducted. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by encouraging racial reconciliation. Theologically, an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997.A Xhosa, Mandela was born to the Thembu royal family in Mvezo, Union of South Africa. Before he became a Johannesburg lawyer, he was studying law at the University of Fort Hare as in the University of Witwatersrand. He was engaged in the fight against colonialism and African nationalist politics. He joined the ANC in 1943 and co-founding its Youth League in 1944. After the National Party's white-only government instituted apartheid, the system of racial segregation that was a privilege for whites, Mandela and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. Mandela was elected as the president of the ANC's Transvaal branch, rising to fame for his participation in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He was arrested several times for seditious conduct and not prosecuted during the 1956 Treason Trial. Inspired by Marxism, he secretly joined the banned South African Communist Party (SACP). The initial commitment was to peaceful protest , but with the SACP and the SACP, he formed the militant uMkhonto we Sizwe and led a sabotage operation against the government. In 1962 his arrest, he was placed in prison and sentenced to life imprisonment.