Nelson Mandela was one of the most important political subjects active against the discrimination process established by Apartheid, in South Africa. President of the country from 1994 to 1999, he became an international icon in the defense of human rights.
Sentenced to life imprisonment, he was released after 27 years due to enormous international pressure. After leaving jail, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993 for his fight against the racial segregation regime.
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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Mvezo, South Africa, on July 18, 1918. Mandela was one of thirteen children born to Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela and Nosekeni Fanny. From a tribal family, he was baptized as Rolihiahia Dalibhunga Mandela.
At the age of seven, he entered primary school, where the teacher named him Nelson, in honor of Admiral Horatio Nelson. It was a school custom to give English names to all the children who attended. Two years later, he lost his father and was taken to the royal village, where he was taken care of by the regent of the Tambu people.
In 1939, Mandela entered the law course at the University of Fort Hare, the first university in South Africa to teach courses for blacks. Due to his involvement in protests against the lack of racial democracy in the institution, he was forced to drop out of the course.
He moved to Johannesburg, completed a BA in Arts at the University of South Africa, and continued his law studies through correspondence. Outraged by the horrors of Apartheid, he founded the African National Congress (CNA) Youth League, which became the main instrument of political representation for the black population.
In 1964, several black leaders were persecuted, arrested, tortured, murdered or convicted. Among them was Mandela, who was sentenced to life imprisonment. With the end of the regime, after 27 years in prison, he was released and gave a speech calling the country for reconciliation.
For his fight against racial segregation, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993, and a year later, he was elected president of South Africa, remaining in office until 1999. Nelson Mandela died in Johannesburg, South Africa on December 5, 2013.
O Apartheid represented the transformation of racism into law in South Africa, legally accepted between 1948 and 1994. With segregation, interracial marriage was prohibited, registration of race on the certificate became mandatory, whites and blacks lived in separate areas. In schools, hospitals, squares, there were places established in different places for the two races.
Racial segregation, the lack of political and civil rights and the confinement of blacks in regions determined by the white government, caused a series of massacres and deaths of the black population.
One of the regime's justifications was the concept of separate development, which advocated the development of races without mixing with others.
As a form of protest to the regime, South Africa even suffered several trade embargoes. In 1973, Apartheid was condemned at the United Nations General Assembly with the signing of the International Convention on the Punishment and Suppression of the Crime of Apartheid.
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