NELSON MANDELA

BIRTHDAY OF NELSON MANDELA

THURSDAY, JULY 18

He was a fighter for freedom and self-determination: the civil rights activist and politician Nelson Mandela was born 106 years ago today, on July 18, 1918, in South Africa.

26 years in prison

Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 during the racist apartheid regime. As one of the leaders of the African National Congress (ANC), he actively protested against the policy of racial segregation and demanded self-determination for South Africans.

Mandela remained in prison for 26 years, unyielding and unwilling to give up his political demands in exchange for early release.

Mandela's release from prison in 1990, which came under pressure from the black population and the world public, marked the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa.
The years after

In the years that followed, Mandela worked with the white South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk to prepare the peaceful end of apartheid.

Both received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 as a result of this. In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first black president of the Republic of South Africa during the first elections in which whites and blacks were granted equal voting rights. In 1999, he left his position.

December 5, 2013, was Nelson Mandela's birthday.

There was rigorous racial segregation in the Republic of South Africa from 1948 to 1993 during the apartheid era. The system worked to maintain white population dominance.