8 Interesting Facts about Nelson Mandela
Monday, 06 July 2020
Nelson Mandela was the first freely elected President in South Africa.
Nelson Mandela was 27 years in prison before he became the first South African President. He won in the first free election in the history of South Africa on April 29th, 1994. He remains an emblem of the struggle against apartheid, racial segregation system in the country, because he committed to putting an end to segregation in South Africa and made it his life mission.
He was loved and admired by the whole world, his story was told in books and films, and he was awarded with honours and prizes. However, there are many other aspects about his life that remain unknown by the common public. Discover some astonishing facts about his tough life.
1. He honoured his name: Rolihlahla was his name of birth. “Rolihlahla” means “to pull down a branch of a tree”, or troublemaker. (In his first day at primary school, his teacher named him Nelson. It was around 1920 and kids were given other names -of english origin- so that British colonizers would be able to pronounce them easily).
2. Unusual things were named after him: from Cape Town to California, there are plenty of streets called in his honour. In addition to that, he has been also subject to many uncommon recognitions. In 2017, a group of scientists named a prehistoric woodpecker “the Australopicus nelsonmandelai” in his honour. Also, in 1973, Leeds University’s Physics Department named a nuclear particle the “Particle Mandela”.
3. He was a costume master: He dressed in many different ways when he escaped from the authorities during his protests against apartheid. The media named him “the Black Pimpernel” because of his audacious tactics to evade the police. In his biography “Long Walk to Freedom” the author described him as a “creature of the night”: “He became a creature of the night, keeping to his hideout during the day and emerging only in darkness”.
4. He quit his regular job: he studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and founded the first Black lawyers Law firm in Johannesburg, in 1952.
5. He briefly appeared in a Spike Lee film: he participated in “Malcolm X”, Spike Lee’s biography. Almost at the end of the film, he interprets a teacher that recites Malcolm X famous speech to a room full of students in Soweto. However, Mandela was not willing to say “under no circumstances”. For that reason, Lee had to cut a sequence in order to finish the film.
6. He was intrigued by a bloody sport: Mandela’s passion was boxing. “I didn’t like boxing violence” he said. He said he was interested in its science, its moves to protect yourself and its tactics to attack the opponent.
7. He was in the US “Most Wanted Terrorists” list: His name wasn’t removed from the list until 2008. He was 89 years old. He was added to the list, together with other members of the African National Congress, because of their constant fight against apartheid.
8. He was inspired by a poem: during his incarcerated years in Robben Island, which lasted decades, Mandela read “Invictus” by William Ernest to his peers prisoners. The importance of never giving up was highlighted in the poem. “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul” reads the poem.
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