Nelson Mandela is a former freedom fighter who became the first
president of South Africa in the post-apartheid period. He was
born in a village in the South African Transkei on 18th July
1918. His father was the principal advisor to the chief of
Thembuland. His ambition as a child was to study law and make a
contribution to the freedom movement in South Africa. An
association of young blacks, whose aim was to improve the
situation of black people in the whole of Africa, was formed in
South Africa in 1912. It became the African National Congress
(the ANC), and Mandela joined it in 1942. During the 1939-45
war, he was one of a small group of intellectuals which tried to
transform the ANC into a mass movement. The wanted to represent
the millions of working people in the towns and country side who
had no vote and no power. During the 1950s, Mandela was banned
from working as a lawyer and was often arrested and imprisoned.
In the early 1960s, the ANC was made illegal and went
underground. Mandela was a leading f