did nelson mandela try to stab a man during a meeting in the sixties or seventies?

Question

a missionary from south africa told me this in 1986. he said that is why he was in prison. I've never been able to verify this.

Answer 1

1. I have never heard that before, and I find it factually dubious. Nelson Mandela was a defendant in the Treason Trial which began in the second half of the 1950s, and was still under way in 1960 when the ANC was outlawed, with Mandela being detained. On his release in 1961 he went underground. For a large part of 1962 he was out of the country, and was arrested on his return, being detained from thereon until his release in 1990. So the only real opportunity for such a crime would have been while he was moving around the country in disguise for the few months between release in 1961 and going abroad in 1962. The idea that he would carry a knife, and try to stab someone at a meeting, at at time when he was trying to avoid attracting the attention of the police, is risible. Even if it were true, it is not the reason he was in prison.

2. Nelson Mandela was commander-in-chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. That's basically why he was imprisoned. He left South Africa illegally in 1962 to organise guerrilla training. On his return, he was arrested and charged with illegal exit from the country, and incitement to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment. During that time he was also charged with sabotage (at the infamous Rivonia Trial). Again he was found guilty, but this time he was sentenced to life imprisonment, and sent to the notorious Robben Island Prison.

Answer 2

Possibly