Lauren Creque Mrs. Lucius English 10 Honors 24 April 2017 Civil disobedience: Nelson Mandela There are a lot of people in this world that have made change. One of those people is Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela created change in this world through civil disobedience by bringing South Africa out of apartheid. Nelson Mandela (His birth name is Rolihlahla) on July 18, 1918 in a South African village called Mvezo. He went to a local missionary school where it is not rare for teachers to give African kids English names.One of his teachers gave him the name Nelson. He went to Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Healdtown, a Methodist secondary school. When he was there he was very good at boxing and running track. In 1939 at age 21 he …show more content…
“Mandela studied and practiced the nonviolent methods of Mahatma Gandhii.”(Moral Heroes) In 1952 Mandela traveled all across the country to help lead the African National Congress’s Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws. He travelled to organize protests against discriminatory policies, and to promote the manifesto known as the Freedom Charter ratified by the Congress of the People in 1955. In 1952 Mandela and Oliver Tambo opened the first black law firm, which offered free or low-cost legal counsel to those affected by apartheid legislation in 1952. On December 5, 1956 156 activists were arrested and were on trial for treason including Nelson Mandela. “In 1960, the ANC was outlawed. They had to conduct their meetings in secret from then on. Despite that, he would go to other public meetings and speak out against the repressive regime and secretly organise civil action like strikes and sit ins. However, he had to move around a lot because the authorities were looking for him and he kept evading them.”(History’s Heroes). Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress had to hold meetings in secret because they were afraid that they would be caught. In 1961 he co-founded and was the first leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”) and armed wing of the African National Congress.
6) however, like Gandhi, he encouraged the volunteers not to retaliate. Mandela spent 26 years and 8 months in jail as punishment for his protesting however, he felt that “no sacrifice was too great in the struggle for freedom” (Doc. 9). He spent time in jail with other protesters that all felt that “whatever sentences [they] received, even the death sentence… [their] deaths would not be in vain” (Doc. 9). Freedom for the South African people from apartheid finally came in 1993. To Mandela this was not just the freedom of his people but “the freedom of all people, black and white” (Doc. 12). “South Africa’s New Democracy” rose after years of continuous nonviolence from the populace.
When we remember Nelson Mandela, most people think of social change, of leadership and of humanity. Mandela dedicated his life to his belief of equality and freedom for people in South Africa. As a strong supporter of freedom of speech, Mandela is one of the most revered speakers of the 20th century. He was born in a small village in the eastern cape of South Africa on July 18, 1918. Nelson studied law in the university of Fort Hare but never completed his degree. In 1941, he moved to Johannesburg where he encountered the racism led by the apartheid government. To further pursue his law studies, he began attending meetings of the ANC (African National Congress) – an anti-apartheid group. The ANC aimed to transform into a grassroots movement
1942 started Nelson Mandela’s participation in the racial oppression in South Africa. He joined the African National Congress (ANC), led by Anton Lembede. In 1944, Mandela joined up with Walter Sisulu, William Nkomo, Oliver R. Tambo, and Ashby P.
Throughout the history of the humanity, there were many events happened that show of the courage of many people. After the story “ Unbroken” that tells us about Louis Zamperini and his story , we can see that he is an example of a courage person, beside that, Nelson Mandela is another examples of this characteristic. Nelson was the democratic leader that fought for justice and freedom in South Africa, he spend over 20 years in prison for the apartheid regime. But with his courage and smartness, he won against the racism and became the leader of the new South Africa. And In 1993, he received a Nobel Peace Prize for all that he did and contributed for the humanity.
After getting arrested and maybe a death sentence Nelson would still not let his people down. He tells the judge that he “was prepared to die secure in the knowledge that [his] death would be an inspiration to the cause for which [he] was giving [his] life” (Doc. L). He was going to lead the people as an inspiration dead or alive for freedom. Mandela wasn’t the only person who knew how to make their name heard the world around for being a decent leader Gandhi was too. Gandhi wanted to fast and make the world equal again. He has protested, but occasionally you couldn’t actually tell if it was a protest. He would lead people on to fast and pray for him to mock the opposing side. Gandhi says “this idea came to [him] last night in a dream that we should call on the country to observe a general hartal” (Doc. A). Gandhi is always coming up with respectable ideas for the people and ways to obtain free rights. MLK also had a say in this just halfway around the world. King was all for giving a person a voice and leading them to ways to end segregation. After getting arrested for boycotting, one hundred African-Americans went to jail; some of the people were transformed. After this he started to walk “with this feeling of solitude around me, I walked with firm steps towards the rear end of the jail” (Doc. K).
In 1993, Nelson Mandela was elected the first multi-racial president of South Africa. During his term, he created a new constitution of law that declared majority rule and South Africa became racially united. Every race was granted their human rights in South Africa thanks to the hard work and struggles of Nelson Mandela, and his work was recognized nationally. Nelson Mandela later worked on economic improvement within South Africa and focused on issues such as poverty and AIDS.
Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1955, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial (https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography, website, Accessed 27/6/16). The trial went on for nearly five years and during this time period led to the militant faction of the ANC to split with the ANC in 1959 to form the Pan Africanist Congress. However on 21 March 1960, police killed 69 unarmed people due to a protest in Sharpeville against the racist laws directed to the black Africans. This protest led to the banning of both the ANC and the PAC which led to the movement losing much of it militant support. Mandela and 155 other activists were acquitted in 1961 and led to Mandela believing that armed struggle was the only way
(Mandela 1). Nelson Mandela had a different method than most, as he used his platform to create change and give freedom and rights to his people. The text also says, “It is from these comrades in the struggle that I learned the meaning of courage… I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear myself more times than I can remember, but I hid it behind a mask of boldness” (Mandela 4). One great characteristic of Mandela is that he had the ability to never show fear or doubt, no matter the circumstances, he always proved to be a leader and thus the reason he was able to accomplish so much. Finally, the text says, “I never lost hope that this great transformation would occur. Not only because of the great heroes I have already cited, but because of the courage of the ordinary men and women of my country” (Mandela 5). Mandela fought through the toughest of situations and even went to prison for 27 years, just for his people, and continued to fight for them and their rights. These individuals all had hopes and dreams for their people, and they put everything they had into making sure that they was accomplished.
The South African government began arresting more nonconformists and banning resistance organizations, such as the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress. However, the government’s method of controlling people who resisted the apartheid laws didn’t have the same effect from the early 1970s and onward. The Black resistance began to gain more momentum and increasingly became more threatening. The movement in this period that revived the political opposition against the apartheid was the Black Consciousness Movement. This movement sought to overcome the subjugation the racist South African government and apartheid laws imposed on Blacks. The Black Consciousness Movement sparked mass protests among Blacks and prompted other liberation movements to demonstrate against the apartheid. In the late 1980s, one of the most popular anti-apartheid movements that contributed to the end of the apartheid was the Free Mandela campaign. Nelson Mandela was a member of the banned African National Congress and led an underground armed movement that opposed the apartheid by attacking government buildings in South Africa during the early 1960s. Mandela and was given a life sentence in prison for treason against the South African government in 1964. The
He describes exploring with the ANC and makes the claim that he was “met with sympathy… and promises of help” for their grounds in South Africa (paragraph 38). He names a generous quantity of world leaders as his supporters. This respect makes the trial of his cause seem all the more undeserved.
Nelson Mandela took part in ending the apartheid. An apartheid is a restriction that started around 1949, on nonwhites’ basic rights and barred them from government while white minority rule. On January 8, 1912, in South Africa, the African National Congress was created by a group of Africans, colored, and Indians. In the 1940s, Mandela became the leader of peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime in a racially divided South Africa. In 1950, the ANC adopted the African National Congress Youth League’s plan to achieve full citizenship for all South Africans through boycotts, strikes, civil disobedience and other nonviolent methods. In 1952, Mandela and another member of the ANC opened South Africa’s first black law firm, which offered free or low-cost legal counsel to those affected by apartheid legislation. The black law firm also helped lead the ANC’s campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws. Mandela and 155 other activists were arrested and put on trial for treason on December 5, 1956, due to acts of civil disobedience. While Mandela was locked up, tensions throughout the ANC started to escalate. The next year, on March 21, as nonviolent black protestors were protesting by singing Africans songs all day, so that they could overload the prisons, police opened fire on the crowd. Sixty nine people were killed, along with another 189 wounded.
Rolihlahla Mandela (Nelson Mandela) was born on July 18, 1918. Rolihlahla attended primary school in 1925, and that’s where a teacher gave him his name now Nelson Mandela. Nelson’s father dies in 1927 and then Nelson is entrusted to Thembu
Nelson Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela, on July 18, 1918. Mandela grew up in the village of Qunu for most of his early years but both his parents were illiterate, they realized the importance of education and sent Mandela to a Methodist school when he was seven. Two years later, Mandela received the first name, Nelson, which was given to him by his teacher.
Nelson Mandela defended the rights of African-Americans in the pursuit towards the pinnacle of human equality, by giving encouraging speeches and protesting peacefully even though he could and was wrongly imprisoned.
Mandela lived a long life and made so many differences for the people of today in