Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - February 2014 | Page 23

The Peaceful “Troublemaker” - p1

“ Troublemaker." That is what his
forename “Rolihlahla” meant and
certainly there were many throughout
the years who believed this was so, yet
his parents could not have guessed then,
just how prophe c their naming of their
newborn son would turn out to be ...
depending upon which side of the
poli cal divide you did reside that is.
July 18th, 1918 in the village of Mvezo in
Umtata South Africa, marked an important
date and loca on in the history of our World,
not just the country of South Africa. It was the
day that brought Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela to
this Earth. Mr. Mandela was most known for
being a South African an -apartheid
revolu onary and poli cian, South Africa's first
black Chief Execu ve and first freely Elected
President. This man did what no one in the
United States could have done -- spent a 27year term in prison only to find himself elected
to his country's highest office soon a er
release.
There is no easy walk to freedom
anywhere, and many of us will have
to pass through the valley of the
shadow of death again and again
before we reach the mountaintop of
our desires. – Nelson Mandela
But this driven man was so much more than
many of us realize or remember. Nelson
Mandela's leanings toward ac vely speaking
his mind through protes ng began during his
educa on at Fort Hare University when he was
expelled for joining in a student protest. A very
different world than many of us understand or
have experienced.

Having studied law at Fort Hare University and
the University of Witwatersrand, he'd become
involved in an -colonial poli cs and joined the
African Na onal Congress as a founding
member of its Youth League only to later in his
life serve as its President from 1991 to 1997.
His early professional years saw him rising to
prominence in the ANC's 1952 Defiance
Campaign and finding his appointment to
superintendent of the ANC's Transvaal chapter,
presiding over the 1955 Congress of the
People. From 1956 to 1961, while working as a
lawyer, Mr. Mandela became quite familiar
with being arrested for alleged sedi ous
ac vi es and even prosecuted from 1956 to
1961 in the Treason Trial ... unsuccessfully.
Yet while his ini al efforts to abolish apartheid
began with non-violent protest, in associa on
with the South African Communist Party
(SACP), in 1961 he co-founded the militant
Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) which led to a
campaign of sabotage against the apartheid
government and ul mately his arrest and
convic on in 1962, for conspiracy to overthrow
the state.
I was not a messiah, but an ordinary
man who had become a leader
because of extraordinary
circumstances. – Nelson Mandela
Prior to his imprisonment, Nelson Mandela
was a very angry young man who considered
violence for solving problems but fate
intervened. There are those today who even
s ll label him as a terrorist yet, nothing could
now be further from the truth. He was o en
heard over the years, making various
statements over how grateful he actually was
for his incarcera on, because it gave him a
great deal of me to reflect and realize what an
Nu Vibez Magazine - February 2014 - 23