C Band

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18 1918 in the village of Mvezo Umtata in Africa. Born into the royal house of the Thembu people, which did not mean he was considered someone of high Nobel status, but it was still important to him. He was the first of his family to attend school. At age nine he lost his father who bequeathed that Nelson Mandela was to be in the care of regent David Dalindyebo. This bequest that his father made brought Mandela to the Thembu capital, Mqhekezweni “Great Palace” in which he was adopted into the royal family. Dalindyebo and his wife treated him as one of his children. During his time with the royal family the regent taught Mandela one of the most important lessons in his life. The lesson was always to hear the opinions of everyone involved in a conversation before offering his own. Due to his adoption to the royal family, it opened up educational opportunities to Mandela and at age 19 he attended Fort Hare University College, which at the time was South Africa’s only Black University. While at school his ambition was to achieve the highest position that a black man could aspire to become a civil servant and interpreter. However we also got the first glimpse as Mandela being a revolutionary due to his becoming a representative of the student council and starting a rebellion over the poor food quality. With Mandela getting thrown out of school and returning back to his birth home, he encountered more problems. Upon his arrival in Mqhekezweni he discovered that there was an arranged marriage planned for him. He had no desire to be married and ran to Johannesburg where he worked as a night watchman guarding an entrance to a goldmine. During this job he was introduced to the ANC leader Walter Sisulu, who took Mandela to a local law firm. Witkin, Sidelsky and Eidelman who took him on as a clerk while he worked towards his BA by correspondence at the University of South Africa. During this time in his life he married, had kids, divorced and made contacts with more radical members of African society.
In 1944 Mandela entered public politics when he launched ANC Youth League, whose goal was to radicalize or replace the old leadership of the ANC. In 1948 the exclusive Afrikaner Nationalist party won the white-only general election, and started the policy of apartheid across South Africa. Due to his youth league the ANC had be rejuvenated and Mandela was the deputy to Chief Albert Luthuli. In August of 1948 Mandela was able to achieve far beyond his expectations and become a lawyer. He started the first black law firm with his partner Oliver Tambo. In the years that followed Mandela was still pursuing his atavistic activities that lead to December 1956, as that was when Mandela was arrested for high treason with other activists. He was released on bail two weeks later and spent years fighting for his innocence. In 1961 Mandela finally persuaded the ANC leadership to start using more violent tactics to evoke change. In that year Mandela was