Description

Mandela's Scream: “I AM PREPARED TO DIE!” Painted by Caravaggio

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, nicknamed "Madiba", before being the symbol of the fight against apartheid, the first black President of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1993, was a political activist who founded the ANCYL (African National Congress) in 1944 Youth League) and in '61 founder and president of the MK, short for Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), the armed wing of the ANC. In the '64 trial Mandela, who had studied law and carried out legal work for the defense of the rights of the black population, decided to testify before the court, then gave a passionate speech lasting 4 hours which concluded with the famous words: "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.”