Nelson Mandela was born 18 July 1918. After his father's death in 1927 he was adopted by a high-ranking Thembu regent who began grooming him for a role within the tribal leadership. He was the first to complete high school in his family. He ran away from home after learning of an arranged marriage and began working in Johannesburg. In 1944 he joined the ANC.
On the 5th December 1956, Nelson Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and were put on trial for treason. They were all acquitted in 1961 but tensions in the ANC were running high and factions began branching off in 1959, forming PAC (Pan Africanist Congress). After the Sharpville massacre both the ANC and PAC were banned and forced to go underground. Mandela decided that the time had come for a more radical approach.
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Under his guidance the MK launched a sabotage campaign against the government. He travelled illegally and on return was arrested and sentenced to five years in jail in 1961. In 1962 an ANC hideout was raided, MK leaders were arrested and evidence was found which implicated Mandela and other activists. They all stood trial for sabotage, treason and violent conspiracy alongside their associates.Him and a few others escaped the gallows but were instead sentenced to life in prison after an 8 month trial. He spent the first 18 years at the Robben Island Prison. His situation brought international attention to South Africa's racist regime, as well as pressure on the government. The government offered Mandela his freedom in excange for political compromises but he refused