Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela Book Review " calm, patient determination to reclaim this country as your own, and now the joy that we can loudly proclaim from the rooftops--Free at last! Free at last! ... This is a time to heal the old wounds and build a new South Africa." Nelson Mandela fought his entire life. Nelson Mandela fought a fight for civil rights in South Africa on the streets and behind the prison walls. Even after 27 years behind those walls Mandela maintained his dignity and rose to be the first Black President of South Africa. Nelson Mandela's Autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" was written up to the point …show more content…
Nelson was an exceedingly popular and good student. He was involved in school boxing program and even won student office. Nelson's view for just causes is clear this early in his life by turning down the seat for student office because it was an unfair election. Because of turning down this offer he was expelled. At the age of 21, Nelson returned home to find out he has been set up in an arranged marriage and he ran from home to Johannesburg. By 1941 black oppression was clear in South Africa. Segregation was clear to Mandela from: hospitals, schools, busses, trains, townships, and even jobs. Africans couldn't walk the street without being stopped and forced to show there "passport". These domestic passports said when and where an African could be. During this time Mandela met Walter Sisulu an African Businessman and head of the African conference. The African conference was a group petitioning the segregation in South Africa by boycott, letters and petitions. Walter Sisulu saw a potential leader for the cause in Mandela, even though Nelson was shy about speaking in public because he thought his English wasn't good. Mandela was hired to be a clerk in the law office and at night Mandela went to night school. The end of World War II, blacks in South Africa were helping the war effort for freedom against oppression but had to deal with oppression at home. African's still had the "Yes, Master" attitude for the white minority. At this time Mandela formed
“From 1960 to 1983 3.5 million non white South africans were taken from their home and were involuntarily put into segregated neighborhood made for them.”(rights). 1970, non whites South Africans were not allowed apart on the political side of South Africa. They were banned from doing anything with the whites of South africa; The non whites were stripped of their citizenship. About that time Nelson Mandela was 25 years old, he became involved with politics. He became a part of the ANC, or the African National Congress. The ANC began going on strikes and boycotting after the general election in South Africa in 1948 in which whites were only allowed to vote. “ At a rally on 22 June 1952, initiating protests for the ANC’s Defiance Campaign Against
First, in Rolihlahla Mandela’s(Nelson Mandela) childhood many things happened. For example, his father died when he was only nine years old (www.History.com Staff). He was adopted by the new chief and lived with him from that point on(www.Biography.com). He was the first one in his family to go to school and to go to college(www.sahistory.com). He studied law in every college he went to but never got his degree because he didn’t feel like getting his degree(www.sahistory.com. He got his name Nelson from his teacher, and lived with that name since then. When Nelson
In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. In November 1961, a military branch of the party was organized with Mandela as its head. It authorized the limited use of arms and sabotage against the government, which got the government’s attention—and its anger! Mandela went into hiding in 1964, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was a sad day for black South Africa.
Nelson Mandela was an amazing person because he gave every human of color their freedom back. He believed that everyone should have freedom and those who take it away from someone is full of hatred. He once said, “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, his is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.”. He also
Nelson grew up farming, herding cattle, and attending a christian elementary school while being apart of an african tribe (Nelson Mandela 1). Mandela grew up around tribal chiefs and elders, that helped him understand african self government and heritage better (Tyle 1). Nelsons tribe name was Rolihlahla but was changed to Nelson by a teacher at the school he attended (Nelson Mandela 1). Rolihlahla translates to one who brings trouble upon himself, which describes the journey through fighting for his rights his whole life (Nelson Mandela 1). When Nelson grew older he renounced his hereditary right to the tribal chiefdom and he entered college hoping to graduate with a law degree. He attended the University college of Fort Hare which he was expelled from in 1940 for leading a student strike and Witwatersrand University. He graduated and received his law degree in 1942 from the University of South Africa (Nelson Mandela 1). Nelson married Evelyn Ntoko Mase in 1944 and had four children which were Thembekile, Makaziwe, Makgatho and another Makaziwe Mandela (Nelson Mandela 1). There is only one of them alive today and there is two of the children with the same name because the first one died at the age of nine months. So they decided to name the younger sister after her. Thembekile died in a car accident at a relatively young age and Makgatho died at the age of 54 from AIDS (Nelson Mandela 1). Nelson Mandela ended up getting divorced from evelyn in 1956 (Nelson Mandela 1). On June fourteenth, 1958 he married Nomzamo Winnie Madikileza, who was a political activist (Nelson Mandela 1). He had two children with his second wife which were Zenani and Zindziswa Mandela (Nelson Mandela 1). He divorced Nomzamo in 1996 and he married his third and final wife in 1998 (Nelson Mandela 1). Her name was Graca Machel and she was a human rights activist along with Nelson Mandela (Nelson Mandela 1). He died at the age of 95 on
“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountain top of our desires”. These are the words of a man, Nelson Mandela, who fought for something that many would shy away from. He led the anti-apartheid movement, became the president of the African National Congress Youth League, and later became the president of South Africa winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
“To deny people their right to human rights is to challenge their very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of hunger and deprivation is to dehumanize them. But such has been the terrible fate of all black persons in our country under the system of apartheid (“In Nelson Mandela’s own words”). Nelson Mandela was a moral compass symbolizing the struggle against racial oppression. Nelson Mandela emerged from prison after twenty-seven years to lead his country to justice. For twenty-seven years he sat in a cell because he believed in a country without apartheid, a country with freedom and human rights. He fought for a country where all people were equal, treated with respect and given equal opportunity. Nelson Mandela looms large in the
During many years, South Africa had its own system of racial segregation called apartheid, where white South Africans were separated from black South Africans because they wanted control over them. Unfortuanely, this type of segregation become law, and it took a while to remove it. The first person to take action about the apartheid was Nelson Mandela, an unique activism.
The national party achieved power in South Africa in 1948 the government, usually comprised on “white people”, and racially segregated the country by a policy under the Apartheid legislation system. With this new policy in place the black South African people were forced to live segregated from the white people and use separate public facilities. There were many attempts to overthrow the Apartheid regime, it persisted to control for almost 50 years.
Nelson Mandela was a man who learned from his previously violent ways and thoroughly used peace to his advantage in his fight against apartheid, and in the leading of South Africa. Nelson Mandela grew up as a peaceful person and in 1943 went to law school for his degree. While in law school, he got very interested in politics and joined a radical protest group, the African National Congress (The ANC). The ANC got into a lot of trouble with the government for their ideas about a place without apartheid. Mandela was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to life in prison. The government let him out of
Nelson Mandela was the man who abolished Apartheid, freeing South Africa from the binds of racial segregation forever. However, it was not an easy road and Mandela needed patience, strength of character, focus, passion, understanding, perseverance, and most importantly, forgiveness, to achieve this. For more than forty years, black South Africans were subject to the harsh racial segregation of the Apartheid system; despite making up over 70% of South Africa’s population, they had little to no rights.
Imagine being systematically oppressed from the moment you exited the womb. All your civil rights, based on the amount of melanin in your skin. Drinking from the wrong water fountain, could even get you thrown into jail. Coincidently; this was the life, of black South Africans from the moment of Dutch colonization in 1652, to the first true democratic election in 1994. Apartheid, meaning “separateness” in Afrikaans; was legal segregation enforced by The National Party (NP) from 1948 to 1994. It legally imposed preexisting policies of racial discrimination on the Majority of the South African population. The entire basis of the racist policies, was the darker your complexion the less legal rights you had. Presumably this injustice, could have continued much longer if it weren’t for all involved in the fight against the NP, however the man who arguably contributed the most, was Nelson Mandela. He ended an apartheid, with both his philanthropy and political prowess. He united a nation that used to be segregated; which seemed a daunting task at the time, but through the sweat and bloodshed he achieved the impossible. This alone exhibited his heroic characteristics, but to be more precise: both his actions and inactions lead to his success. Furthermore, Mandela was both a strong leader and forgiving at the same-time. Being in the forefront of the abolishment movement, was an extremely risky move during the apartheid. He risked his life for what he believed in, and this personal
Nelson Mandela in his book, Long Walk to Freedom argues through the first five parts that a black individual must deal, coop, and grow through a society that is hindering their lives' with apartheid and suppression of their rightful land. Rolihlanla Mphakanyiswa or clan name, Madiba was born on July 18, 1918 in a simple village of Mvezo, which was not accustomed to the happenings of South Africa as a whole. His father was an respected man who led a good life, but lost it because of a dispute with the magistrate. While, his mother was a hard-working woman full of daily choirs. His childhood was full of playing games with fellow children and having fun. In school, Mandela was given his English name of Nelson. After his father's death, he
I have always thought that Nelson Mandela has been one of the most important people in history. I find it very fascinating that one man could end the Apartheid and that is why I want to find out more about this. South Africa is a country with a past of enforced racism and separation of its multi-racial community. The White Europeans invaded South Africa and started a political system known as 'Apartheid' (meaning 'apartness'). This system severely restricted the rights and lifestyle of the non-White inhabitants of the country forcing them to live separately from the White Europeans. I have chosen to investigate how the Apartheid affected people’s lives, and also how and why the Apartheid system rose and fell in South Africa.
Nelson Mandela is recognized for his leadership as a peacemaker and for distinctive aspects of his peacemaking practices all throughout the world. He was the leader of one of the most incredible political transitions in human history. Mandela is known as one of the great moral and political leaders of our times; an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa, won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country.