COURTE BIOGRAPHIE ET CITATIONS
Nelson Mandela naît le 18 juillet 1918 dans le village de Mvezo, en
Afrique du Sud. Il est le fils d'un chef de tribu, membre de la famille
royale des Thembus.
Nelson Mandela s'appelle en réalité Rolihlahla, mais une
institutrice comme le voulait la coutume et influencée par la langue
anglaise lui donne le nom de Nelson.
Il passe son enfance à Qunu, mais son père meurt en 1927. Le régent des Thembus adopte Nelson.
Ses études se poursuivent au collège de Clarkebury puis au lycée de
Healdtown, et enfin à l'université pour la population Noire de Fort
Hare.
En 1941, une dispute avec son tuteur le fait quitter sa ville pour rejoindre la ville de Johannesburg.
Il s'engage en politique en participant d'abord aux réunions tenues
chez Walter Sisulu. Avec les amis qu'il y rencontre, il fonde en 1944 la
Ligue des jeunes pour le parti de l'ANC (African
National Congress).
L'organisation prône une opposition pacifique et l'abolition des
lois d'apartheid. Nelson Mandela accède à la tête de l'ANC du Transvaal
en 1952 et ouvre le premier cabinet d'avocats Noirs à
Johannesburg.
Pour avoir rédigé une partie d'une "Charte de la liberté", Nelson Mandela est arrêté, mais est acquitté.
Après avoir eu quatre enfants avec Evelyn Ntoko Mase qu'il marie en
1944, Nelson Mandela noue une seconde union en 1958 avec Nomzamo
Winnifred Madikizela, avec qui il a deux filles.
La situation s'aggrave en Afrique du Sud lorsqu'en 1960,
soixante-neuf manifestants d'un parti dissident de l'ANC, meurent après
la répression policière. L'ANC est en effet alors interdit.
Constatant que l'opposition pacifique est inefficace, Nelson Mandela
met en place en 1961 Umkhonto weSizwe, soit "la lance de la nation",
qui lutte avec les armes et mène des opérations de
sabotage.
En exil pour continuer le combat, il parcourt l'Afrique et parvient
même à Londres. La presse relate ses exploits, mais Nelson Mandela est
arrêté en 1962 et ses camarades en 1963. Il est alors
condamné à la prison à vie.
Prisonniers, le groupe parvient à poursuivre des études, tandis que
les contestations contre l'apartheid prennent de l'ampleur. Nelson
Mandela est érigé en icône de la lutte, et sa libération est
exigée par une large partie de population.
Malgré des tentatives de négociations pour libérer Mandela, celui-ci
ne sort de prison qu'en 1990, grâce au départ de Botha, remplacé par le
président Frederik De Klerk.
Dès sa libération, Nelson Mandela est élu en 1991 président de
l'ANC. Il reçoit le prix Nobel de la paix avec Frederik De Klerk en 1993
pour ses efforts de négociations entre Blancs et Noirs,
pour sa résistance face aux menaces qui lui sont adressées.
Son travail est couronné de succès en 1994, le 27 avril, lors qu'il
participe pour la premières fois à des élections libres où Blancs et
Noirs peuvent se présenter. Il est élu président de la
République quelques jours plus tard, le 9 mai. Son mandat est marqué
par la volonté de redresser une "nation arc-en-ciel", c'est-à-dire une
nouvelle société sud-africaine après la fin de
l'apartheid.
Nelson Mandela s'éteint à l'âge de 95 ans à son domicile de
Johannesburg, le 5 décembre 2013. Ses obsèques auront lieu dix jours
plus tard, le 15 décembre à Qunu.
Les citations suivantes peuvent tout à fait s'insérer dans la courte biographie présentée ci-dessus.
« En faisant scintiller notre lumière, nous offrons aux autres la possibilité d'en faire autant. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Extrait du Discours d’investiture - 10 mai 1994
« Aucun de nous, en agissant seul, ne peut atteindre le succès. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Extrait du Discours d’investiture - 10 mai 1994
« J'ai appris que le courage n'est pas l'absence de peur, mais la capacité de la vaincre. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Un long
chemin vers la liberté, 1994
« Il est difficile d'expliquer à quelqu'un qui a les idées étroites
qu'être "éduqué" ne signifie pas seulement savoir lire et écrire et
avoir une licence, mais qu'un illettré peut être un électeur bien plus "éduqué" que quelqu'un qui possède des diplômes. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Un long
chemin vers la liberté, 1994
« Un homme qui prive un autre homme de sa liberté est prisonnier de la haine, des préjugés et de l'étroitesse d'esprit. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Un long
chemin vers la liberté, 1994
« Je ne suis pas vraiment libre si je prive quelqu'un d'autre de sa
liberté. L'opprimé et l'oppresseur sont tous deux dépossédés de leur
humanité. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Un long
chemin vers la liberté, 1994
« La politique peut être renforcée par la musique, mais la musique a une puissance qui défie la politique. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Un long
chemin vers la liberté, 1994
« Pour faire la paix avec un ennemi, on doit travailler avec cet ennemi, et cet ennemi devient votre associé. »
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Un long
chemin vers la liberté, 1994
« Etre libre, ce n'est pas seulement se débarrasser de ses chaînes ;
c'est vivre d'une façon qui respecte et renforce la liberté des autres.
»
Citation de Nelson Mandela, Un long
chemin vers la liberté, 1994
BIOGRAPHY (cf Fondation
Nelson Mandela)
Rolihlahla
Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on July 18,
1918, to Nonqaphi Nosekeni and Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela,
principal counsellor to the Acting
King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo.
His
father died when he was a child and the young Rolihlahla became a ward
of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. Hearing the elder’s
stories of his ancestor’s valour
during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own
contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.
He
attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave
him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom to give all school
children “Christian” names.
He
completed his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and
went on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute, where
he matriculated.
Nelson
Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts Degree at the
University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the degree there as
he was expelled for joining in a
student protest. He completed his BA through the University of South
Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.
On
his return to the Great Place at Mkhekezweni the King was furious and
said if he didn’t return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and
his cousin Justice. They ran away to
Johannesburg instead arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a
mine security officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent,
who introduced him to Lazar Sidelsky. He then did his
articles through the firm of attorneys Witkin Eidelman and Sidelsky.
Meanwhile
he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. By
his own admission he was a poor student and left the university in 1948
without graduating. He only
started studying again through the University of London and also did
not complete that degree.
In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.
Nelson
Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined
the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped formed the ANC
Youth League.
In
1944 he married Walter Sisulu’s cousin Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had
two sons Madiba Thembekile ‘Thembi’ and Makgatho and two daughters both
called Makaziwe, the first of whom
died in infancy. They effectively separated in 1955 and divorced in
1958.
Nelson
Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its work the
ANC adopted in 1949 a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of
Action.
In
1952 he was chosen at the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance
Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his Deputy. This campaign of civil
disobedience against six unjust laws was
a joint programme between the ANC and the South African Indian
Congress. He and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of
Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine
months hard labour suspended for two years.
A
two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Nelson Mandela to
practice law and in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South
Africa’s first black law firm, Mandela
and Tambo.
At
the end of 1952 he was banned for the first time. As a restricted
person he was only able to secretly watch as the Freedom Charter was
adopted at Kliptown on 26 June 1955.
Nelson
Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop of 156 activists on 5
December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of
all races found themselves in the
dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused,
including Mr. Mandela were acquitted on 29 March 1961.
On
21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest at
Sharpeville against the pass laws. This led to the country’s first state
of emergency on 31 March and the banning of
the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress on 8 April. Nelson Mandela
and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among the thousands
detained during the state of emergency.
During
the trial on 14 June 1958 Nelson Mandela married a social worker Winnie
Madikizela. They had two daughters Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple
divorced in 1996.
Days
before the end of the Treason Trial Nelson Mandela travelled to
Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which
resolved he should write to Prime Minister
Verwoerd requesting a non-racial national convention, and to warn
that should he not agree there would be a national strike against South
Africa becoming a republic. As soon as he and his
colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial Nelson Mandela went
underground and began planning a national strike for 29, 30 and 31
March. In the face of a massive mobilization of state
security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was asked
to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe
(Spear of the Nation).
On
11 January 1962 using the adopted name David Motsamayi, Nelson Mandela
left South Africa secretly. He travelled around Africa and visited
England to gain support for the armed
struggle. He received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia and
returned to South Africa in July 1962. He was arrested in a police
roadblock outside Howick on 5 August while returning from
KwaZulu-Natal where he briefed ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli
about his trip.
He
was charged with leaving the country illegally and inciting workers to
strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment which
he began serving in Pretoria Local
Prison. On 27 May 1963 he was transferred to Robben Island and
returned to Pretoria on 12 June. Within a month police raided a secret
hide-out in Rivonia used by ANC and Communist Party activists
and several of his comrades were arrested.
In
October 1963 Nelson Mandela joined nine others on trial for sabotage in
what became known as the Rivonia Trial. Facing the death penalty his
words to the court at the end of
his famous ‘Speech from the Dock’ on 20 April 1964 became
immortalized:
“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.”
On
11 June 1964 Nelson Mandela and seven other accused Walter Sisulu,
Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias
Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni were convicted
and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment. Denis Goldberg
was sent to Pretoria Prison because he was white while the others went
to Robben Island.
Nelson Mandela’s mother died in 1968 and his eldest son Thembi in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.
On
31 March 1982 Nelson Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in
Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada joined them in
October. When he returned to the prison in
November 1985 after prostate surgery Nelson Mandela was held alone.
Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee had visited him in hospital. Later Nelson
Mandela initiated talks about an ultimate meeting
between the apartheid government and the ANC.
In
1988 he was treated for Tuberculosis and was transferred on 7 December
1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl. He was released
from its gates on Sunday 11 February
1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC and
nearly four months after the release of the remaining Rivonia comrades.
Throughout his imprisonment he had rejected at least three
conditional offers of release.
Nelson
Mandela immersed himself into official talks to end white minority rule
and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend
Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and
President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27
April 1994 he voted for the first time in his life.
On
10 May 1994 he was inaugurated South Africa’s first democratically
elected President. On his 80th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel,
his third wife.
True
to his promise Nelson Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as
President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund
he set up in 1995 and established
the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela-Rhodes Foundation.
In April 2007 his grandson Mandla Mandela became head of the Mvezo Traditional Council at a ceremony at the Mvezo Great Place.
Nelson
Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and
learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with
racism. His life has been an inspiration
to all who are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to
oppression and deprivation.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire