Nelson Mandela

 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, /maen’del@Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, /maen’del@ Xhosa [xolilala Machde:la]; 18 July 1918 - 5 December 2013), was a South African antiapartheid activist. Mandela was the first president of South Africa between 1994 and 1999. Mandela was also the nation's first head of state who was black and the first president elected through a democratically-run election. The government he led was focused on reconciliation between races and removing the legacy of apartheid. He was a socialist as well as an African nationalist from 1991 until 1997. Before becoming an Johannesburg lawyer, he was studying law at the University of Fort Hare as in the University of Witwatersrand. He was active in anti-colonial politics as well as African nationalist politics in the city. He joined the ANC in 1943, and was a co-founder of the Youth League in 1944. Mandela as well as the ANC pledged to take down the apartheid-era government that was exclusively white, known as the National Party. Mandela was elected president of the ANC's Transvaal Branch. The involvement he had in the 1952 Defiance Campaign, and the 1955 Congress of the People made him a well-known persona. He was frequently detained for inciting seditious behavior, but was not charged in the 1956 Treason trial. He was attracted by Marxism and was a secret member of the banned South African Communist Party. He initially embraced peaceful protest , but with the SACP they founded the militant uMkhonto we Sizwe and led an sabotage campaign against the government. In 1962 the year he was arrested in prison and sentenced to life prison.