Mandela Trials Papers

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): ICS 52

Title: Mandela Trials Papers

Date(s): 1962 - 1964

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 0.5 box

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Joffe, Joel, b 1932, Baron Joffe of Liddington, lawyer

Administrative/Biographical history: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born at Qunu, near Umtata on 18 July 1918. His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was chief councillor to Thembuland's acting paramount chief David Dalindyebo. When his father died, Mandela became the chief's ward to be groomed to assume high office. However, influenced by the cases that came before the Chief s court, he determined to become a lawyer. After receiving a primary education at a local mission school, Mandela matriculated at Healdtown Methodist Boarding School and then started a BA degree at Fort Hare. As an SRC member he participated in a student strike and was expelled, along with the late Oliver Tambo, in 1940. He completed his degree by correspondence from Johannesburg, did articles of clerkship and enrolled for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand.

In 1944 he helped found the ANC Youth League, whose Programme of Action was adopted by the ANC in 1949.

Mandela was elected national volunteer-in-chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign. He travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. He was given a suspended sentence for his part in the campaign. Shortly afterwards a banning order confined him to Johannesburg for six months. By 1952 Mandela and Tambo had opened the first black legal firm in the country, and Mandela was both Transvaal president of the ANC and deputy national president. A petition by the Transvaal Law Society to strike Mandela off the roll of attorneys was refused by the Supreme Court.

In the 'fifties, after being forced through constant bannings to resign officially from the ANC, Mandela analysed the Bantustan policy as a political swindle. He predicted mass removals, political persecutions and police terror. For the second half of the 'fifties, he was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. With Duma Nokwe, he conducted the defence.

When the ANC was banned after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, he was detained until 1961 when he went underground to lead a campaign for a new national convention.

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, was born the same year. Under his leadership it launched a campaign of sabotage against government and economic installations.

In 1962 Mandela left the country for military training in Algeria and to arrange training for other MK members. On his return he was arrested for leaving the country illegally and for incitement to strike. He conducted his own defence. He was convicted and jailed for five years in November 1962. While serving his sentence, he was charged, in the Rivonia trial, with sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Shortly after his release on Sunday 11 February 1990, Mandela and his delegation agreed to the suspension of armed struggle. He was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 - June 1999. Nelson Mandela retired from public life in June 1999. He currently resides in his birth place - Qunu, Transkei.

Mandela biography

Nelson Mandela's Testimony at the Treason Trial extracts 1956-60

The Rivonia Trial extracts

Archival history: The original papers were deposited at the ICS in 1986, and transferred to the Legal Resources Centre, Bram Fische, Memorial Library, Elizabeth House, 18 Pritchard Street, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa, in 1995.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: Photocopies of papers collected by Joel Joffe, lawyer acting for Nelson Mandela, relating to Mandela's trial in Pretoria (1962) and the Rivonia Trial (1963-1964); including Mandela's application to have the Pretoria trial postponed, Oct 1962; Mandela's address to the court in mitigation of the sentence of five years imprisonment, detailing his political commitment and activities in the African National Congress (ANC), Nov 1962; copy of the indictment in the Rivonia Trial, initial statement made by Mandela to his lawyers, giving details of his early life; notes by Mandela on his life and ANC accociation; copy of Mandela's statement from the dock, signed by Mandela, manuscript notes by Mandela to use if he were sentenced to death, and manuscript notes by Mandela referring to the tribal council called Imbizo.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement: Chronological

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access:

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals: The original papers were deposited at the ICS in 1986, and transferred to the Legal Resources Centre, Bram Fischer, Memorial Library, Elizabeth House, 18 Pritchard Street, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa, in 1995.

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description: Several collections at ICS contain material about Mandela, South Africa and the ANC, including African National Congress Papers (ICS 1); Mary Benson Papers (ICS 6); Ruth First Papers (ICS 117); Foreign Correspondents Association of South Africa (ICS 102). ANC archives are held at the University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and at the Mayibuye Centre, University of Western Cape, South Africa.

Publication note: Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (Macdonald Purnell, Randburg, South Africa 1995)
The ANC website contains material about Mandela and the Treason Trials

Mandela biography

Nelson Mandela's Testimony at the Treason Trial - extracts 1956-60

The Rivonia Trial - extracts

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2002

Interest: Black

Specific group:

Subjects

Racial discrimination

Human rights

Administration of justice

Courts

Ethnic groups

Black peoples

Interethnic relations

Racial segregation

Sharpeville massacre

Political movements

Political prisoners

Liberation movements

Democratization

Civil and political rights

Anti-apartheid movements

Apartheid

Personal/Corporate names

Joffe, Joel, b 1932, Baron Joffe of Liddington, lawyer

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla, b 1918, President of South Africa

Transvaal Law Society

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)

ANC

African National Congress

South African Native National Congress

Places

Southern Africa

South Africa