International Nelson Mandela day: International Nelson Mandela day is an annual global celebration that takes place on 18 July to honour the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. This day is a call to action for individuals, communities, and organizations to take time to reflect on Mandela’s values and principles and to make a positive impact in their own communities.
International Nelson Mandela day
Nelson Mandela International Day (or Mandela Day) / International Nelson Mandela day is an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each year on 18 July, Mandela’s birthday. The day was officially declared by the United Nations in November 2009, with the first UN Mandela Day held on 18 July 2010. However, other groups began celebrating Mandela Day on 18 July 2009.
Mandela Day is not meant as a public holiday, but as a day to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former President, and his values, through volunteering and community service.
The Mandela Day campaign message is: “Nelson Mandela has fought for social justice for 67 years. We’re asking you to start with 67 minutes.” “We would be honoured if such a day can serve to bring people together around the world to fight poverty and promote peace, reconciliation and cultural diversity,” according to a statement issued on Mandela’s behalf.
To mark the first global celebration of Mandela Day on 18 July 2009, Mandela’s 91st birthday, a series of educational, art exhibit, fund-raising and volunteer events leading up to a concert at Radio City Music Hall on 18 July were organised by the 46664 concerts and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly formally declared 18 July to be “Nelson Mandela International Day”. In 2014, the UN General Assembly established the Nelson Mandela Prize, a quinquennial award recognising the achievements of those who dedicated their lives to the service of humanity.
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela popularly known as Nelson Mandela was a South African activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.
Nelson Mandela was born on 18th July 1918 in Mvezo, Cape Province, South Africa into the Thembu royal family in Mvezo, South Africa. He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg.
Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP ( South African Communist Party ) he co-founded the militant uMkhonto we Sizwe in 1961 and led a sabotage campaign against the government. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and, following the Rivonia Trial, was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state.
Mandela served 27 years in prison, split between Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison and finally released in 1990. He declined a second presidential term and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela became an elder statesman and focused on combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the charitable Nelson Mandela Foundation.
He gained international acclaim for his activism. Globally regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, he received more than 250 honours, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Most Important Facts
Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, then part of South Africa’s Cape Province.
Nelson Mandela’s father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa Mandela (1880–1928), was a local chief and councillor to the monarch; he was appointed to the position in 1915, after his predecessor was accused of corruption by a governing white magistrate.
His father had four wives, four sons and nine daughters, who lived in different villages.
Nelson’s mother was Gadla’s third wife.
Both his parents were illiterate, but his mother, being a devout Christian, sent him to a local Methodist school when he was about seven.
Mandela was given the English forename of “Nelson” by his teacher.
Nelson Mandela attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom of giving all schoolchildren “Christian” names.
He completed his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute, where he matriculated.
Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the degree there as he was expelled for joining in a student protest.
He completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.
Meanwhile, he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. By his own admission he was a poor student and left the university in 1952 without graduating. He only started studying again through the University of London after his imprisonment in 1962 but also did not complete that degree.
In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.
Nelson Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).
In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu’s cousin, Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had two sons, Madiba Thembekile “Thembi” and Makgatho, and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. He and his wife divorced in 1958.
A two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Mandela to practise law, and in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South Africa’s first black-owned law firm in the 1950s, Mandela & Tambo.
Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1956, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Mandela, were acquitted on 29 March 1961.
On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest in Sharpeville against the pass laws. This led to the country’s first state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on 8 April. Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among thousands detained during the state of emergency.
During the trial Mandela married a social worker, Winnie Madikizela, on 14 June 1958. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple divorced in 1996.
On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected President. On his 80th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel, his third wife.
Nelson Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund he set up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.
He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.
He was 95 years old. After his death was announced, his life was remembered and celebrated in South Africa as well as around the world. Numerous memorial services were held, including one by the South African government on December 10. He was laid to rest at Qunu, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, on December 15.
During his years in prison, Nelson Mandela’s reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom.
Nelson Mandela’s government focused on destroying the Apartheid government in the country, which had focused on racial segregation enforced by the law.
In school, Nelson Mandela studied law and became one of South Africa’s first black lawyers.
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned from 1962-1990 for treason and conspiracy against the government. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was released early when the ANC became legal again.
Nelson Mandela is considered the father of Modern South Africa. He was instrumental in tearing down the oppressive government and installing democracy.
Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for peacefully destroying the Apartheid regime and laying the foundation for democracy. In addition to the Nobel Piece Prize, he won over 250 other awards.
Apartheid was the official policy of the National Party, which became the governing party of South Africa in 1948. Apartheid, which means “separateness”, was the practice of official racial segregation in every aspect of life.
Under apartheid, everyone in South Africa had to be classified according to a particular racial group. This classification determined where someone could be born, where they could live, where they could go to school, where they could work, where they could be treated if they were sick and where they could be buried if they died. Only white people could vote and they had the best opportunities and the most money was spent on their facilities. Apartheid made others live in poverty. Black South Africans’ lives were strictly controlled. Many thousands of people died in the struggle to end apartheid.
Mandela’s vision during the apartheid era was for the eradication of racism and for the establishment of a constitutional democracy. He envisioned a South Africa in which all its citizens had equal rights and where every adult would have the right to vote for the government of his or her choice.
In 2009, the United Nations proclaimed Mandela’s birthday (July 18th) to be Nelson Mandela International Day. The holiday asks people to spend 67 minutes doing something good for others, which represents the 67 years he spent working toward change
Mandela was married three times. He was first married to Evelyn Ntoko Mase in 1944. They separated in 1955 and divorced in 1958. They had two daughters and two sons.
In June 1958 Mandela married Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. They divorced in 1996.
On his 80th birthday in 1998 Nelson Mandela married Graca Machel, who brought two children and two step-children into the marriage.
Mandela helped to found the African National Congress Youth League in 1944. He also helped in 1961 to establish Umkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress and was its first Commander-in-Chief. When he was President of South Africa he started the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and donated one-third of his salary every month to the organisation.
In 1999 after he stepped down as President he started the Nelson Mandela Foundation as a post-presidential office and charity to assist in various causes. In 2003 he founded the Mandela Rhodes Foundation to assist postgraduate students from throughout Africa to further their studies. He also established the Mandela Institute for Education and Rural Development.
Nelson Mandela had authored 3 books. His autobiography Long Walk to Freedom published in 1994; Conversations with Myself published in 2010; and Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorized Book of Quotations published in 2011.
From Cape Town to California, streets named after Mandela abound. But he’s also been the subject of some rather unusual tributes. Scientists have named a prehistoric woodpecker after him: Australopicus nelsonmandelai. In 1973, the physics institute at Leeds University named a nuclear particle the ‘Mandela particle.’
Besides politics, Nelson Mandela’s other passion was boxing. “I did not like the violence of boxing. I was more interested in the science of it – how you move your body to protect yourself, how you use a plan to attack and retreat, and how you pace yourself through a fight,” he says in his biography.
One of his favorite meals was tripe, which is served in many African cultures.
Mandela wasn’t removed from the US terror watch list until 2008 – at age 89. He and other members of the African National Congress were placed on it because of their militant fight against apartheid.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela was awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna in 1990 for his role in the anti-apartheid movement. Apart from Pakistan national Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, he is the only non-Indian to have received the award.
Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” was published in 1994 and became an international bestseller.
He was known for his iconic fashion choice, the Madiba shirt, which was a colourful, loose-fitting shirt that became synonymous with his style.
Mandela was an honorary citizen of many countries, including Canada, the United States, and Brazil.
Nelson Mandela’s prison number on Robben Island was 46664. This number later inspired the name of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s global HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, 46664.
Famous Quotes by Nelson Mandela
1. “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
2. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
3. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
4. “One cannot be prepared for something while secretly believing it will not happen.”
5. “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
6. “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
7. “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
8. “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
9. “I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”
10. “Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front”.
11. “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
12. “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
13. “As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.”
14. “Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”
15. “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.”
16. “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.”
17. “Live life as though nobody is watching, and express yourself as though everyone is listening.”
18. “I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, Henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.”
19. “I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I fight it now and will do so until the end of my days.”
20. “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great, you can be that generation.”
21. “It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”
22. “We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”
23. “There is a universal respect and even admiration for those who are humble and simple by nature, and who have absolute confidence in all human beings irrespective of their social status.”
24. “I have never cared very much for personal prizes. A person does not become a freedom fighter in the hope of winning awards.”
25. “I never lose. I either win or learn.”
26. “I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.”
27. “Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.”
28. “I learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate. Even as a boy, I defeated my opponents without dishonoring them.”
29. “Although I am a gregarious person, I love solitude even more.”
30. “As long as many of our people still live in utter poverty, as long as children still live under plastic covers, as long as many of our people are still without jobs, no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom.”
31. “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.”
32. “It is not our diversity which divides us; it is not our ethnicity or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.”
33. “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
34. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
35. “Where you stand depends on where you sit.”
36. “I am the captain of my soul.”
37. “A leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”
38. “Appearances matter — and remember to smile.”
39. “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
40. “Nothing is black or white.”
41. “Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.”
42. “Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.”
43. “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
44. “Know your enemy — and learn about his favorite sport.”
45. “Quitting is leading too.”
46. “When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.”
47. “It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.”
48. “Keep your friends close — and your rivals even closer.”
49. “Let your greatness blossom.”
50. “Tread softly, breathe peacefully, laugh hysterically.”
51. “I love playing and chatting with children…feeding and putting them to bed with a little story, and being away from the family has troubled me throughout my…life. I like relaxing at the house, reading quietly, taking in the sweet smell that comes from the pots, sitting around a table with the family and taking out my wife and children. when you can no longer enjoy these simple pleasures something valuable is taken away from your life and you feel it in your daily work.”
52. “Success in politics demands that you must take your people into confidence about your views and state them very clearly, very politely, very calmly, but nevertheless, state them openly.”
53. “In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one’s social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one’s success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one’s development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others – qualities which are within reach of every soul – are the foundation of one’s spiritual life.”
54. “In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
55. “Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.”
56. “When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.”
57. “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
58. “Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savor their songs.”
59. “A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”
60. “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
61. “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
62. “You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.”
63. “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
64. “Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.”
65. “The brave man is not the one who has no fears, he is the one who triumphs over his fears.”
66. “There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”
67. “Men have different capacities and react differently to stress. But the stronger ones raised up the weaker ones, and both became stronger in the process.”
68. “Those who conduct themselves with morality, integrity and consistency need not fear the forces of inhumanity and cruelty.”
69. “There are few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a personal triumph if you have the iron will and the necessary skill.”
70. “We owe our children – the most vulnerable citizens in any society – a life free from violence and fear.”
71. “I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”
72. “Difficulties break some men but make others. No axe is sharp enough to cut the soul of a sinner who keeps on trying, one armed with the hope that he will rise even in the end.”
73. “Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.”
74. “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
75. “Courage is not the absence of fear — it’s inspiring others to move beyond it.”
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