Fairtrade: a World of Difference
Nelson Mandela: History Maker Page 1 of 4
Part 1: Early Years
Rolihlahla Mandela was born in 1918. He
was given the name Nelson at primary
school. After university he and his cousin
Justice ran away to Johannesburg to
avoid arranged marriages and for a short
period he worked as a mine policeman.
In 1941 Mandela was introduced to a
lawyer who arranged for him to train in
law at his law firm.
At the height of the Second World
War, in 1944, a small group of young
Africans who were members of the
African National Congress, banded
together. Among them was Nelson
Mandela. Starting out with 60 members,
they wanted to transform the African
National Congress into a more radical
party because they believed that the
old political tactics of polite petitioning
and looking for change through
changing the law weren’t working. Black
South Africans were being continually
discriminated against.
Mandela was spurred on by the victory of
the National Party in the all-white general
election of 1948 who won because of
their policy of apartheid. After this,
the more radical programme of action
devised by Mandela and his friends was
accepted as official African National
Congress policy. The policy advocated
boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and
non-co-operation but not violence.
The idea behind the Defiance Campaign
which was launched in 1952 was that
it would be a mass civil disobedience
campaign which would snowball from
a core group to involve more and more
ordinary people, leading to mass defiance
and non-violent protest.
(adapted from www.nelsonmandela.org)
Questions
1. Why do you think Nelson Mandela and other members of the African
National Congress party wanted to use more radical actions like boycotts
and strikes to lobby for change?
2. Why wasn’t the election of 1948 fair?
3. Why do you think Mandela was “spurred on” by the victory of the National
Party in the election of 1948?
4. Do you think the Defiance Campaign was a good idea? Why/Whynot?
www.traidcraftschools.co.uk
Fairtrade: a World of Difference
Nelson Mandela: History Maker Page 2 of 4
Part 2: Becoming
a Leader
During the early fifties Mandela
played an important part in leading
the resistance to the removal of black
South Africans from the Western Areas
and to the introduction of the Bantu
Education Act.
During the 1950s Mandela was the
victim of various forms of repression.
He was banned, arrested and
imprisoned. In 1960 the African National
Congress (the primary party for Black
South Africans) was outlawed and
Mandela was arrested. After the trial
collapsed in 1961 the African National
Congress went underground, and
Mandela emerged as the leading figure
in this phase of the struggle.
Forced to live apart from his family
and moving from place to place so he
wasn’t caught by the police Mandela
had to adopt a number of disguises.
Sometimes dressed as a labourer, at
other times as a chauffeur, his successful
evasion of the police earned him the title
of the Black Pimpernel.
Mandela managed to travel around
the country and stayed with numerous
sympathisers such as in the servant’s
quarters of a doctor’s house where he
pretended to be a gardener, and on a
sugar plantation in Natal. It was during
this time that he, together with other
leaders of the African National Congress,
decided that they had to meet violence
with violence.
“It was only when all else had failed, when
all channels of peaceful protest had been
barred to us, that the decision was made
to embark on violent forms of political
struggle ... the Government had left us no
other choice.”
(adapted from www.nelsonmandela.org)
Questions
1. Why did the African National Congress “go underground” after 1961?
2. What sort of life did Mandela lead at this time?
3. Why did Mandela and the other leaders decide they would have to begin
a more violent campaign? Do you agree that “the Government had left
[them with] no other choice”?
www.traidcraftschools.co.uk
Fairtrade: a World of Difference
Nelson Mandela: History Maker Page 3 of 4
Part 3: Mandela
in Prison
When arrested for the third time
and accused of sabotage Mandela
and 12 colleagues from the African
National Congress were put on trial.
This time they decided that it was a
political trial and that they would take
the opportunity to make public their
political beliefs. Mandela and two
others also decided that if they were
given the death sentence, they would
not appeal.
All but two of the accused were found
guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment
on June 12, 1964. Nelson Mandela’s
time in prison amounted to almost 27
years. Twice in the 1980s he rejected
offers made by his jailers for cutting his
sentence short in return for accepting
policies he did not believe in.
“Prisoners cannot enter into contracts –
only free men can negotiate,”
“I have fought against white
domination, and I have fought against
black domination. I have cherished the
ideal of a democratic and free society
in which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities.
It is an ideal which I hope to live for and
to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal
for which I am prepared to die.”
(adapted from www.nelsonmandela.org)
Questions
1. Why was the trial a good opportunity for Mandela to make public his
political beliefs?
2. What do you learn about Nelson Mandela’s ideals from what he says?
3. Why do you think Nelson Mandela rejected offers from the
government to cut his prison sentence short?
4. What does it mean “only free men can negotiate”?
www.traidcraftschools.co.uk
Fairtrade: a World of Difference
Nelson Mandela: History Maker Page 4 of 4
Part 4: A Free Man
- A Free Country
Released on February 11, 1990, Mandela
plunged wholeheartedly into his life’s
work, striving to attain the goals he and
others had set out almost four decades
earlier. In 1991, at the first national
conference of the African National
Congress held inside South Africa after
being banned in 1960, Nelson Mandela
was elected President of the party.
Nelson Mandela accepted the 1993
Nobel Peace Prize along with FW de
Klerk – white President of South Africa,
on behalf of all South Africans who
suffered and sacrificed so much to
bring peace.
The era of apartheid formally came
to an end on the April 27, 1994, when
Nelson Mandela voted for the first
time in his life – along with his people.
He was inaugurated as President of a
democratic South Africa on May 10th
1994.
“We understand it still that there is
no easy road to freedom. We know it
well that none of us acting alone can
achieve success. We must therefore act
together as a united people, for national
reconciliation, for nation building, for
the birth of a new world. Let there be
justice for all. Let there be peace for all.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt
for all. Let each know that for each the
body, the mind and the soul have been
freed to fulfil themselves. Never, never
and never again shall it be that this
beautiful land will again experience the
oppression of one by another and suffer
the indignity of being the skunk of the
world. Let freedom reign.”
(adapted from www.nelsonmandela.org)
Questions
1. Why do you think Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize?
2. What do you think Mandela meant when he said in his inaugural
speech “We understand that there is no easy road to freedom”?
3. Mandela asked the South African people to “act together as a united
people”. What problems do you think the end of apartheid might
have brought?
www.traidcraftschools.co.uk