FAMOUS PEOPLE

NELSON MANDELA

 (Umtata, Transkei, 1918 - Johannesburg, 2013) South African politician who led movements against apartheid and who, after a long struggle and 27 years in prison, the first Government which put an end to the racist regime presided over in 1994.Renouncing his hereditary right to be head of a tribe xosa, Nelson Mandela became a lawyer in 1942. In 1944, he joined in the African National Congress (ANC), a movement of struggle against the oppression of South African blacks. Mandela was one of the leaders of the League of the youth of the Congress, that would constitute the dominant group of the ANC; its ideology was an African socialism: nationalist, antiracist and anti-imperialist.

DESMOND TUTU

 (Klerksdorp, current South Africa, 1931) Ecclesiastical and South African politician whose work in defence of human rights was awarded in 1984 with the Nobel Peace Prize. Son of a school teacher, wanted to study medicine, but financial difficulties prevented from it.In 1961 he was ordained priest Anglican and, during the following years, he was Professor of theology in Johannesburg. At the end of the 1960s he moved to London, where he studied at King's College, and between 1971 and 1975, worked for the World Council of churches.