Nelson was on the front lines in the movement from the very beginning. He had an apprenticeship from a young age of Paramount chief of Thembuland. He was originally around the office because of his father who was the principal counselor, but when he died, Nelson was placed to be trained to exceed the position of his father.
However, influenced by the cases that came before the Chief’s court, he determined to become a lawyer. Hearing the elder’s stories of his ancestors’ valor during the wars of the resistance in defense of their fatherland, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people. (ANC, par 8)
According to ANC.org, later on, during his early years at the University College of Fort hare where he was studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree, he was suspended for knowingly joining in on a protest boycott (par 9). He never did return to that university. According to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, in late 1961, after painfully having to agree with his comrades that peaceful change was far from possible, he assisted in forming an extremely militant group within the African National Congress (ANC), called Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), after his previous paramilitary wing he had helped set up, the ANC Youth League, failed to get the desired effect (113). While he was imprisoned, eventually he was able to meet with the other convicts but soon enough he was doing more than just conversing with them, he began teaching the young captives all he knew. According to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, Mandela was teaching so much that the prison became known as ‘Mandela University’ (116).
Unlike some front men, he was willing to push the boundaries to get his point across and he was respected for it. According to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, while in the ANC, most of his time was spent on hours upon hours of political activity, which is why he was put in a position of power in the ANC Youth League where he was elected league secretary, and eventually the ANC itself where he became a member of the central directorate of the organization (111). All those hours dedicated to endless work, had to wear the man out. According to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, in early 1962, Mandela somehow slipped out of the country where he accomplished something that not many South African natives had achieved - being a free man. While he was out in the world he helped create awareness of the atrocities that had been performed against his people. Very well knowing what was going to happen to him when he returned, he returned anyways so he could continue to help free his people and was charged with sabotage and eventually incarcerated (114). According to Mary Benson, in Nelson Mandela- the Man and the Movement, in 1964, when his trial began he had given casual observers the impression of being an able lawyer and a delightful man after his extremely impressive speech and his defense that eventually followed. Now his political maturity was noted, “the articulate attack of his evidence,” as one of the defense team put it, “but there was something more profound, a question of growth under challenge. (88)” His stature was a measure of the caliber of the ANC’s powers at be. According to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, in 1985, the Prime Minister P.W. Botha openly offered his release if he would renounce violence as a political weapon. After even serving 21 years of his lifetime sentence he still refused to have any conditions upon his release. Nelson responded with a smack in the face by instead invited Botha himself to renounce violence (118).
Nelson R. Mandela organized so many different things that all helped the liberation movement. Being the true diplomat that he is, when he was out of the country, he also made arrangements for the members of Umkhonto we Sizwe to be trained in other countries. According to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, when he was elected into office in the ANC he drew up programs for boycotts, strikes, and various forms of civil disobedience and non-cooperation (114). Eventually the entire ANC organization grew more militant and demanded more of the African people, saying that deserve representation in parliament, improved education, full trade and union rights, and a much farer share of land. According to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, during the 1950s, Mandela and Oliver Tambo established South Africa’s first black law office, where they provided low cost legal counsel to blacks that had until then had been completely without representation (112).
Nelson Mandela was the primary force behind the liberation front in South Africa for about half a century. There was not a single person more responsible for the natives being freed than Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. For instance, according to Kent Rasmussen in Modern African Political Leaders, Mandela’s health was a major priority of the Prime Minister’s because he felt that Nelson would be much more dangerous as a martyr and they knew already that he had health problems such as Tuberculosis (118). And because of this his role in the end of the apartheid in South Africa was one of major importance. Nelson was on the front lines in the movement from the very beginning. Unlike some front men, he was willing to cross the boundaries to get his point across. He organized so many different things that all helped liberation movement. For these and many other reasons he had a primary role in the end of the apartheid in South Africa.
