Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela of South Africa

 (Born: July 18, 1918 - Died: December 5, 2013)
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, affectionately known as Madiba, his clan name, 
was the first native African president of the Republic of South Africa, serving from 1994 to 1999.

On July 18, 1918, Mandela was born along the Mbashe River in the village of Mvezo, in the Umtata district. AllAfrica.com and the BBC both report that Mandela was "born Rolihlahla Dalibhunga." Mandela explains in his 1994 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, that he was given the English name "Nelson" by his teacher Miss Mdingane on his first day at school, which he explains was a common practice within white South African institutions, where whites were unable or unwilling to pronounce African names.

In Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela writes that "[a]part from life, a strong constitution, and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name, Rolihlahla. In Xhosa, Rolihlahla literally means 'pulling the branch of a tree,' but its colloquial meaning more accurately would be 'troublemaker.'"

Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was chief of Mvezo in the Transkeiean territories, and from the African indigenous Thembu royal family line. His mother was Nosekeni Fanny, the third of his father's four wives. Mandela was one of thirteen children and had three older brothers.

The Education of Nelson Mandela

In 1930, when Mandela was nine years old, his father died. He was adopted by the paramount chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo. Under the Regent Jongintaba's guardianship, Mandela attended Wesleyan Mission School, where he was trained for leadership. He also studied at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Wesleyan College. He also studied at Fort Hare University before he and Oliver Tambo were expelled in 1940 after boycotting against university policies. In a turn of history, the University of Hare would later establish the Nelson R. Mandela School of Law.

Mandela began his law studies at the University of Witwatersrand, but would earn his law degree in 1942 from the University of South Africa. Mandela's political activism made his legal studies a challenge; he initially failed the exams required for his LLB law degree in 1948. This was the same year the apartheid promoting National Party won its political victory. Along with Sisulu, Tambo, and others, Mandela organized the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in Johannesburg.

By 1952, Mandela opened his law office, teaming up with Oliver Tambo to create the first black legal practice in South Africa. Mandela became the ANCYL's deputy national president. Here, he challenged institutional apartheid and fought for civil rights through land redistribution, trade union rights, and free and compulsory education for all children. The same year, the apartheid government banned Mandela's attendance at any political meetings or from holding an office within the ANC under the Suppression of Communism Act. In response, Mandela and Tambo initiated the M-plan (M for Mandela), which broke the ANC down into cells that could operate underground if necessary.

The Treason Trial and the Start of an Armed Struggle

On December 5, 1956, in response to the adoption of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People, Nelson Mandela and Chief Albert Luthuli, then ANC President, were among the 156 people arrested and charged with high treason for their political activism. Punishment for high treason was death. Those arrested included most of the leadership of the ANC, Southern African Indian Congress, Coloured People's Congress, Congress of Democrats, and the South African Congress of Trade Unions, known collectively as the Congress Alliance. Eventually acquitted, during the treason trial Nelson Mandela met and eventually married his second wife Nomzamo Winnie Madikizela (aka Winnie Mandela, Winnie Madikizela Mandea and Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela). She would be his champion during his 27 years of incarceration as a political prisoner.

Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba in concert with Dizzy Gillespie in 1991

Mariam "Mama Afrika" Makeba

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on March 4, 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa to a Xhosa father and Swazi mother. The death of this famous South African singer and human rights activist was mourned the world over on November 10, 2008.

"I lived briefly at her house in Guinea back in the struggle days, she was a goddess; gave with all her heart - never really belonged to our country, she was just too big for that; she belonged to the world. No wonder they called her, Mama Afrika," said Tswagare Namane to Rashidi Runoko in describing Miriam Makeba.

Miriam Makeba - Qongqothwane or "The Click Song"

(A 1979 South African Apartheid Era Performance)

She was raised under traditional African customs as her mother was a sangoma practitioner of herbal medicines and counseling within the Nguni tradition. The Grammy Award winning artist started her studies in Pretoria, South Africa at the Kilmerton Training Institute. In the 1950s she joined the Manhattan Brothers before starting The Skylarks group. Her music development became a blend of African jazz and traditional music.

Showtime Magazine (Cleveland Press) March 1, 1968

The opportunity to travel outside of South Africa arrived when she appeared in Lionel Rogosin's independent documentary "Come Back, Africa" in 1959. She traveled to London where she met Harry Belafonte who assisted her with entering into the United States, which is where many of her famous songs like "The Click Song" (Qongqothwane in Xhosa) and "Pata Pata" were originally recorded. Mariam Makeba had brief marriages to the musical legend Hugh Masekela and human rights activist Stokely Carmichael.

In 1974, Mama Africa performed in Zaire at the famous Muhammad Ali and George Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle" match. In 1990, after living in the U.S., West Africa, Nelson Mandela convinced her to return to South Africa to end her three-decade-long exile imposed by the apartheid-era South African government. Her spread of the beautiful music of southern Africa, her synthesis of the music of the African diaspora with her native music, as well as her resilence on the question of human treatment within socities, made her a Queen within the African struggle. She died at age 76 after a concert performance in Italy.