Courage - Haiti Observer Blog

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, popularly referred to as Nelson Mandela was born on 18th July 1918 in South Africa's Transkei. He was the son of Tembu Tribe's chief Henry Mandela. He studied in College of Fort Hare and University of Witwatersrand. In 1942, he attained his law degree. In 1944 he joined the African National Congress and joined in a resistance in 1948 against apartheid policies of the then ruling National Party. During 1956-1961, he was held on trial for treason but in 1961 he was acquitted.

Newsmaker Interview: Nelson Mandela, 1990

In 1960 when ANC was banned, Mandela proposed a military wing in ANC. In 1961 however, this proposal was considered to be a violent tactic and yet allowed the willing members of ANC to join Neslon Mandela's proposal without any fear. As a result, Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed. Mandela was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labor for a period of 5 years. In 1963 several Umkhonto we Sizwe and ANC fellow members were arrested and Mandela was once again charged for plotting the overthrow of the ruling party/government by using violence. In 1964, Mandela along with 7 others was sent for life imprisonment.

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Every century is graced by certain men who have helped to write the course of many countries, including their own. At the turn of the 20th Century, in 1904 to be exact, Haiti gave birth to just one of its contributions to that circle.

When Emile Saint-Lot first caught the fever to defend his country, he was all but a boy, witnessing first-hand the military invasion by the US, which occupied Haiti between 1915 and 1937. He would go on to study and practice journalism and to teach law, finally becoming a senator and civil court chief justice. His election as senator of the West on the 19th of June, 1946 came a year after his taking the role of Haiti's first United Nations Ambassador. He also served as a Security Council member, with the task of voting on whole nations' independence. He would cast this powerful vote for countries like Libya (about whose independence he presented an impassioned speech to the UN in 1957), Somalia and Israel.

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