Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, into the small tribe of Thembu located at Qunu, near Umtata in the Transkei, South Africa. As the son of Nonqaphi Nosekeni and henry Mgalda Mandela, a chief councillor of the Tehmbu tribe, he was initially named as Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela, but later changed his named to Nelson Mandela to fit into the 'white mans society'. He spent his early childhood in the Transkei, being groomed to become a chief, and after his fathers death in 1930 he became the paramount chief's ward to be trained to assume high office. Although after seeing many of the cases that came before the chiefs court's he decided to become a lawyer and went onto further education at the University of Fort Hare. At fort Hare Nelson Mandela met a significant influence in his life Oliver Tambo and they were later both expelled for participating in a student strike. He then left Transkei partially to avoid an arranged marriage and he moved onto to Johannesburg where he found work as a mining policeman.
             Life in Johannesburg exposed him to the real South Africa and the way different races were discriminated against, specifically the injustices against the black people. It is here that he met Walter Sisulu who helped him in gaining access to documents with a legal firm and then in 1941 he completes his law degree by correspondence at the University of South Africa. He went on to the University of Witwatersrand 1943 and by 1952 Mandela had managed to open the first black law firm in the country with his friend from Fort Hare University, Oliver Tambo.
             In 1944 along with Tambo and Sisulu, Nelson Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC). These three men in the same year founded the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), and by 1948 Mandela was the national secretary of the association. Mandela was known as a man of action and he showed this through his work with the ANC and in 1949 it pa
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