eternal was destined to be the head of his tribe, but became in light of its people. With 92 years but does not occupy any political office, Nelson Mandela remains a critical consciousness in the construction d and a new South Africa 
She could have become chief of a tribe thembus, ethnicity Xhosa. His family tree as predestined. But in his child's head were spinning tales of the elders about "the good old days, before the arrival of the white man, when all was peace and harmony and balanced breathing.
their eyes, the wise old men in beards, gathered at a bonfire, also told stories of resistance and struggle of those idols that formed the pride of South African people. These talks, which began to "cook" his political position, collided with what was taught in school: a story full of white heroes, in which blacks were savages or cattle thieves, and rebellions against the colonizing presented in a pejorative way.
Mandela was determined to build his own path away from his hometown Qunu. His persistence had shown since childhood, when they stopped going to school one day if he had to wear the clothes of his father, adjusted to their size. Become a lawyer to defend the rights of their countrymen humiliated was not easy. When
was in the third year in the College of Fort Hare, was expelled for participating in a protest because the authorities reduced the capabilities of the Student Representative Council, which was a part. This institution, known for having trained potential leaders not only South Africa but the central part of the continent, met Oliver Tambo, who always accompanied him in the fight against apartheid.
was so bold that defied his godfather, who had arranged a marriage to assume his role as head of the thembus. It was an easy decision. It was like refusing to give up their tribal identity.
At only 22 years arrived in Johannesburg, a city that was crushing him. Prosperity distinguish the vast white suburbs, but the native Africans were confined to slums without electricity or running water, and where the police came looking for someone like beasts beaten and put in jail.
worked for a living in a gold mine, and then moved to Alexandra populous black suburb in the northeast of Johannesburg. Thanks to the advice of an acquaintance he met Walter Sisulu, who became another of his friends essential. Sisulu was in charge of a real estate agency that dealt with the open land to which access could still black and not a job offer soon two pounds.
Sisulu also helped him return to school of law. Helped him financially so he could get a degree in Arts by correspondence at the University of Witwatersrand, and introduced him to a white law firm where he could work while studying for his career. Later in the settlement with his first wife Evelyn Mase, a nurse Ntoko also helped pay for studies that race-, in Orlando, a township (neighborhood) located southwest of Johannesburg, will be reunited with his other friend Oliver Tambo who had come to the city to teach science and mathematics at St. Peter's School. Also lived very close and his wife Albertina Sisulu.
with Sisulu and Tambo also shared political activism and the bustle of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Youth League, which was its secretary general. The trio of friends, along with many other South Africans with dreams of emancipation, were arrested and persecuted by the racist authorities.
is said that a Polish Jew Mandela advised the firm to concentrate on his studies and stay away from politics. It was impossible.
In 1944 he joined the African National Congress (ANC), a movement to combat the heinous regime that had implemented whites, and of which he became secretary general.
In a country emerging as a melting pot of races (Indians, blacks, whites) Mandela concluded that there is need to form a multiracial face, not exclusively black, and to include other political resistance groups like the Communists , to oppose the white minority government and its apartheid policies. As much as the government struggled to divide a people by skin color, the oppressed were convinced that they must unite to defeat the white dictatorship. Mandela became the ANC in a great mass movement with a radical African nationalism.
His defense of the full citizenship, direct parliamentary representation, land redistribution, and health and education for all, became a stumbling block to the white oppressive dictatorship.
was one of the drivers, in 1955, the Freedom Charter, a sort of control program that brought together not only members of the ANC, but to other political groups. This document embodied the aspiration of a multiracial, egalitarian and democratic, and social justice policy in the distribution of wealth. The country's natural resources belong to their children, hence, once defeated the discriminatory regime, should be put in terms of building a society with equal rights for all.
"Forbidden" Repression reached unsuspected nuances once the National Party took power in 1948 and institutionalized segregation. Thereafter, discrimination injured each human fibers and seized all the social space of South Africa. At the entrance of many public and private schools, appeared a sign noting the prohibition of access to blacks.
Campaign launched in 1952 Challenge Unjust Laws, a mobilization that brought together all progressive sectors of South African society in addressing common to apartheid.
Miners, workers, teachers, intellectuals ... blacks, mulattos, Indians ... all took to the streets in demonstrations promoted by the Youth League, ANC and the South African Indian Congress to confront the segregationist measures ranging from black to prohibit its displacement by certain urban areas to establish a curfew just for these races. The dead also were many.
Weeks later he was tried and convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act. The "justice" and twisted white labeled as "forbidden" (banned in English). This meant he would cease his political activities and partisan. Even his name could go in the newspapers, television news or radio stations.
was totally isolated. It was a sick goal from the police that left no trace. His thought had been criminalized. Despite the vigilance, Mandela managed to continue the political struggle from the underground.
Prisoner 466/64 Until then, the ANC had chosen the peaceful struggle without achieving its objectives. On the contrary, far from curbing oppression, the regime became increasingly brutal. This was highlighted by the Sharpeville massacre, urban village where the police was launched with all the fury of a crowd of demonstrators and massacred 69 of them and another 187 were injured. Then came a strong wave of repression and the banning of the ANC.
From the underground, in December 1961, Mandela activated and assumed leadership of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), who attacked government installations and police.
I looked up under the rocks, so he was forced to leave the country and undertook a tour of several nations to call the attention of international public opinion about the excesses of the apartheid policy. His complaints echoed a Pan-African Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
After returning from a course of military training in Algeria, Mandela was captured. Very calmly, despite knowing they would not escape from injustice, summarized in his case the principles of their battle.
"I have dedicated my life to the struggle of African people. I have fought against white domination and black domination. I dreamed of the ideal of a free and democratic society. It is an ideal which I hope to live. But it is also an ideal for which I am prepared to die. "
man tagged as a "dangerous", was transferred to maximum security prison on Robben Island, located on a small island in the sea 11 kilometers from Cape Town where he was forced to work in the quarries of lime. 466/64 prisoner's resistance was stoic. Its second stage took place in the prison's maximum security prison Pollsmoor.
love classical music, practice gymnastics, reading, and a correspondence course in law helped him endure the horrors of confinement, where he was a victim of racism.
could hardly have visits from his second wife, Winnie Mandela, and their children.
sublime moments and scored some very sad family without Nelson Mandela may be present. Unable to attend the funeral Madiba Thembekile, his eldest son, with only 25 years old was killed in an accident. Neither was allowed to attend the funeral of his mother, and could not accompany his daughter Zenani, who was married to Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini, son of the king of Swaziland, Sobhuza II. Not even taken into account when, at age 70, health risk from tuberculosis.
Twenty-seven years in prison without wavering. Could have gone in 1985, when the government, pressured by the international community, he proposed freedom in exchange for political concessions and accept to live in a Bantustan, as he was called to the territories where they were confined to blacks. But Mandela showed again his enormous courage to not betray their ideals.
His thought and its resistance to the blackmail and pressure made him a symbol of the lack of freedom of all black South Africans. The complaint and the claims for their release were felt worldwide.
Cuba in his heart From prison, Mandela was aware of the battle of Cuito, through news that came highly fragmented. This epic, with the help of the Cuban internationalist combatants, was the death blow to the regime of Pieter W. Botha, known as the "old crocodile" - which is already crumbling, and contributed to the independence Angola and Namibia. Once defeated, South Africa began to negotiate the agreements in South-West Africa, through which Namibia could gain independence. He also was forced to negotiate with the ANC and Mandela himself once Frederik de Klerk, Botha's successor, gave him freedom in 1990.
Cuba was an obligatory stop for Mandela during the international tour that began then to explain to the world the need to maintain pressure on South Africa since apartheid was still alive.
with great political savvy, Mandela warned that although it had been deleted Pretoria racist laws recognized as an international crime, it was time to premiársele. "The apartheid still exists. You have to force the regime to remove it. And only when this process is irreversible we start thinking about reducing the pressure, "he warned.
His brief stay here could not be more symbolic. It was July 26, 1991. Our people celebrated the 38 anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes. That day, Mandela personally thanked Fidel and his people, all that small, intrepid Caribbean island had done for Africa.
"We came here with great humility. We came here with great emotion. We came here aware of the great debt that is with the people of Cuba. What other country can show a history of greater selflessness than Cuba has exhibited in its relations with Africa? "he told the crowd in the province of Matanzas.
"(...) When you, Comrade Fidel, said yesterday that our cause is your cause, I know that feeling comes from his heart and that is the feeling of the whole revolutionary people of Cuba."
In a news conference with Cuban and foreign journalists, Mandela stressed the solidarity of Cuba since the triumph of the Revolution, turned over to Latin America, Asia and Africa, his love for the land and the possibility to receive education , care medical and other professional talent. Cuba was based on full of strength and hope, he said.
Fidel emphasized the moral stature of Mandela to catalog it as "one of the most outstanding symbols of the age ',' a man quite full" and "immovably firm, courageous, heroic, calm, smart, capable."
African leader considered the leader of the Cuban Revolution as one of his "great friends" and expressed his pride to be among those who "support the right of Cubans to choose their own destiny."
"The sanctions that punish Cubans for choosing to oppose self-determination world order that we establish. The Cubans gave us both resources and training to fight and win. I am a loyal and never forget that in the darkest moments of our country, in the struggle against apartheid, Fidel Castro was on our side. "
always been Once elected president democratic multiracial elections in 1994, Mandela became South African people hoping to clear as much humiliation and build a new society with equal rights for all, on the basis of the peace and reconciliation. A race that even the ANC remains alive despite Nanny will also call their countrymen, and not the President.
Today, retired from politics 11 years ago, Mandela enjoys much more to his family, especially her grandchildren, whom he adores. Nearly all of his life had been far from that other part of his soul. However, it continues to pulse both a young and vibrant democracy, full of challenges. His anti-imperialist and colonialist thinking continues to radiate, not only African country and complete, but to every corner of the world where they are loved and respected.
Madiba, an honorary title they gave to the elders of his tribe, and which is also known, has been at the forefront of other battles very hard for their country, the fight against HIV / AIDS. It is a crusade that touches your most intimate sensitivity and assumed as a personal challenge. His son, Makgatho Mandela, the only son he had left, died in 2005, with 54 years of age because of the pandemic. Across Africa are reported approximately 25 million illnesses, and South Africa is precisely one of the countries of the continent with the highest rate (5.5 million).
childhood is also concerned because, as once stated, "there can be an intense revelation of the soul of a society the way it treats its children." One of his first acts as president was to waive the third of his salary to devote to establishment of the Nelson Mandela Fund for Children. "To be imprisoned for 27 years without children is a terrible experience," said then who with love and tenderness is known as "Mkhulu" (grandfather).
This Sunday, when Madiba is serving 92 years, from different corners of South Africa and the world will embrace for that symbol of immeasurable strength, love and peace.
Everyone celebrated. South Africa rocked the entire 92 years of his birthday "Tata." The tribute to Nelson Mandela was felt in each of the cities. It is a sacred date. 
