Nelson Mandela

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“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. 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.”


Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a small village in Transkei near Umata the 18th of July in 1918. He had thirteen brothers and sisters and among them he was the first one to get a school education. His father, Henry Mandela, was the leader of the Tembu tribe. Nelson’s family was very respected in the village. Nelson Mandela went to the University College of Fort hare and the University of Witwatersand. In 1942 he was an educated lawyer. In 1944 he joinded the ANC (African National Congress.) ANC was created by a group of African chieftains, lawyers and teachers. It was the first organisation that turned to the black part of the South African inhabitans.
In the 40’s, during the second worldwar Nelson and 60 other fanatic ANC members started a line of the ANC who was going to transform the ANC organisation to a mass movement against the white domination. Nelson worked hard with this task and got promoted to secretary of the ANC.
When National Party won the election in 1948 the ANC reacted very strong. For the first time of ANC’s history they started to protest violently and the black civilians stopped following the rules that the white government had set up for them. ANC also decided that they were going to demand equal rights for everyone.
The ANC wanted the black people to understand what was going on in the South African society so they started to educate analfabetic adults and they let children go to school for free.
Their next big project was to travel all around South Africa to request the black people to civilian disobedience. Nelson Mandela was one of the them who did this travel. Of course the white government classed this travel as illegal and Nelson Mandela was arrested just like many other ANC members. Nelson was sent to trial and his penalty was sixth months without the ANC. He wasn’t aloud to write letters to other ANC members and he couldn’t visit the meetings that the ANC held. During these six months Nelson Mandela wrote the “M-plan” which got him promoted to vice president of the ANC.
During the 50’s Mandela kept working with the ANC. He fought againts the apartheid system in South Africa even though he was herrased by the white government and the police. Mandela did also predict that South Africa, in the future, would become a military state and it appeared that he was right.
In Sharpville the 21st of March 1960 their was a huge demonstration against the passportlaws. The black people were not allowed to visit other countries if they didn’t show their passport.
During the demonstrations the police killed 69 black women and children and 400 of the demonstraters were wounded. After this demonstration the government banned the ANC. They had no longer any right to be part of the South African society. The leaders of the ANC had to hide so they wouldn’t get arrested. But Nelson Mandela kept doing official shows and he kept encourage the people to fight for their freedom.
Mandela and many other ANC members were now hunted by the government. ANC realized that their struggle against apartheid couldn’t remain peaceful. They decided to create a military resistmentgroup and to train soliders in Algeria. Mandela went to Algeria to train but as he got back he was arrested because he had left the country without permission. He was sent to trial and got sentenced to five years in prison.
During his time in jail he got accused for sabotage and sent to trial once again. At that trial, the 11th of June, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Denis Goldberg was sent to life imprisonment. Nelson Mandela started his prison years in the Robben Island Prison, a prison on a small island 7 km off the coast near Cape Town. In April 1984 he was moved to Pollsmoor Prison in cape Town and in December 1988 he was moved to the Victor Verster Prison near Paarl.
On the 11th of February 1990 he was released. When he got out he started to negotiate with South Africa’s primeminister F.W de Klerk. Nelson Mandela demanded equal rights for all persons in South Africa and he won the negotiations and the apartheid system was cut off.
In 1991 the first ANC conference was held since it had been banned in the 60’s. At that conferenece Nelson was chosen to be the president of the ANC. In 1993 Nelson Mandela and F.W de Klerk recived the nobel peace prize. At the 10th of May 1994 the first democratic election was held in South Africa and Nelson Mandela was elected president!


Nelson Mandela’s ideal was achived. He survived and reached his goal. But I wonder what was in that man that made him keep fighting, to never give up. To stand up and say that you are prepared to die for your vision, that’s unbelivable to me. Was he so convinsed by his belive? I can not understand that a man can be that brave. I wonder what he felt during those years of struggle, he sure must have been scared sometimes. And it also surprises me that he wasn’t even bitter after almost 30 years in prison. Maybe he thought those years in prison were nothing compared to the freedom of all African people. I belive that the story of Nelson Mandela is like a fairytale for many of us. The good people are always the one who win. Isn’t that what fairytales are all about? The constant struggle between good and bad.
I can without any doubt say that I admire Nelson Mandela more than anyone and that he is worth to be called one of the most brave men ever. Maybe the struggle for freedom was worth all the blood, swet and tears. The struggle for freedom will always be going on and on in many countries. But we can’t give up! We must continue to fight for our rights and we can not let other people decide what we should do. All the racism and hate in this world, it’s unbelivable to me to. We are after all very intelligent – how can this cruel things be going on in this world then? It surprises me that people can be so full of hate. What is left of the world then, when everyone hates, when everyone gives up? We can not give up...