Oliver Tambo

Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo was born on 27 October 1917 in the village of Nkantolo in the Eastern Cape. He attended Fort Hare University, where he met Nelson Mandela and formed a friendship that would last a lifetime.

After completing his studies, Tambo taught mathematics and science at a missionary school in Johannesburg. In 1943, he joined the African National Congress and quickly rose through its ranks. In 1952, he and Mandela opened South Africa's first black law firm in downtown Johannesburg, providing affordable legal representation to those oppressed by the apartheid system.

In 1960, following the Sharpeville Massacre, the ANC was banned, and Tambo was sent abroad to mobilise international support for the liberation struggle. He would not set foot in South Africa again for thirty years. Based first in London and later in Lusaka, Zambia, Tambo travelled the world, addressing the United Nations, meeting with heads of state, and building the global anti-apartheid movement.

As president of the ANC from 1967 to 1991, Tambo held the organisation together through its most difficult years. His famous 1985 address to the European Parliament was a turning point in the international campaign. Yet even at the height of the armed struggle, Tambo remained committed to a negotiated settlement.

In 1989, Tambo suffered a devastating stroke that left him partially paralysed. He returned to South Africa in 1991, just as the final negotiations to end apartheid were beginning. Oliver Tambo passed away on 24 April 1993, less than a year before South Africa's first democratic election. He was buried in his home village of Nkantolo. The Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg stands as a permanent tribute to his legacy.