Portal:Law/Biography/Week 19 2006

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (born 18 July 1918) was the first President of South Africa to be elected in fully-representative democratic elections. Before his presidency he was a prominent anti-apartheid activist committed to non-violence, but later became involved in the planning of underground armed resistance activities.

Mandela's 27-year imprisonment, much of which he spent in a prison cell on Robben Island, became one of the most widely publicised examples of the opposition to apartheid in South Africa. Although the apartheid regime and nations sympathetic to it considered him and the ANC to be terrorist, Mandela's support for the armed struggle against apartheid is now regarded as justified by many. However even today, pacifists such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other groups have criticised Mandela for using "violence too readily" and for using "terrorist tactics". Nevertheless, the switch in policy to that of reconciliation, which Mandela pursued upon his release in 1990, facilitated a peaceful transition to fully-representative democracy in South Africa.

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