The Hardships of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
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Running head: WEEK ONE ASSIGNMENT #2 Ð- THE HARDSHIPS
The Hardships of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Team I:
Mikeshia Curl
Shameika Franklin
Alex Eckhardt
Deborah Anderson
Douglas Fraser
LeTourneau University
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for BUSI 3783
Dr. Linda Fontenot
November 5, 2007
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 in a small village in the district of Transkei, South Africa. His name, which could be prophetically interpreted as “troublemaker”, could possibly be symbolic to his heroic resistance to the apartheid in South Africa.
In the early 1940s, Mandela began his political career by joining the African National Congress (ANC), and marrying Evelyn Mase, the cousin of Walter Sisulu, an executive of the ANC. Years later, however, his marriage began to suffer greatly due to his increased involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle and after eleven years of marriage, Evelyn left him citing irreconcilable differences. Little did Mandela know, but life, as he knew it, was about to change.
On 5 December 1956, the Apartheid government arrested 156 people in response to the adoption of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People. Nelson Mandela was amongst the arrested. The charges were “high treason and a countrywide conspiracy to use violence to overthrow the present government and replace it with a communist state.” The punishment for this type of crime was death. Thankfully, the treason trial dragged on for years and Mandela was soon acquitted. This incident, however, did not deter Mandela from his anti-apartheid involvements. In fact, the ANC movements was still underway during the treason trial.-
By 1961, the ANC and PAC, under Mandelas direction, setup military wings in retaliation to the South African police opened fire on demonstrators, killing 180 black Africans and injuring 69. The South African government banned these wings under the Unlawful Organizations Act in 1961 and the ANC and PAC showed their discontent by commencing with campaigns of sabotage. The South African Government went after Mandela with a vengeance forcing him to flee the country to evade arrest.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
His freedom was short lived.