Nelson Mandela og kampen for demokrati i Sydafrika

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a village near Umtata in the Transkei 1918. His middle name means troublemaker. His father, Henry Mandela himself was chief, and he was also adviser to over chief = (overhøvdingen) of Thembuland. The young Mandela himself was chosen both to an arranged marriage and a career as the next chief advisor, but he fled from both, determined to become a lawyer in Johannesburg. Mandela's education began in the local mission school, and ended with a legal degree (University of Fort Hare and University of Witwatersrand), which enabled him, along with his friend Oliver Tambo, to open South Africa's first black attorney's office. Nelson Mandela joined the ANC in 1942. Together with Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, William Nkomo and Anton Lembede formed Nelson Mandela in September 1944 the ANC Youth League (Ungdomsafdeling). Their goal was to transform the ANC. The organization tried at the time to fight racial segregation (raceadskillelse), which was already an integral part of South African society, by lobbying the white politicians. ANC's youth began to build a powerful and self-conscious (selvbevidst) mass movement. The following year they launched a sand wave of strikes, protest marches and disobedience campaigns (ulydighedskampagner). Their method was civil disobedience, it means that you intentionally violate laws that you think are unfair, to get the authorities (myndighederne) to respond/react. But even though the prisons were overcrowded, and the country was marked by unrest, the authorities would not negotiate (forhandle) with the ANC. Instead, Mandela, along with many other ANC'ere, both black, white and colored, charged with high treason (højforræderi) during the period from 1956 to 1961. The trial (retssagen) was called "The Treason Trial". At trial, he divorced his first wife with whom he had two children and married to Winnie Mandela. Although they used a non-violent strategy, operations had cost. Many were arrested, some were wounded (såre) and several dead (død) when police and the army was deployed (indsats) against the demonstrators. It was the Sharpeville massaken in 1960 that made Mandela and other members of the ANC's youth to abandon the idea of nonviolent resistance (modstand).