Nelson Mandela Research Paper

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.

While the students were protesting the police were ordered to fire and almost half of the students who protested were killed. Because of the incident, the South African government started dismantling Apartheid in 1986. In 1994, the country worked to gradually introduce fairness and equity also they held the first elections in which all South Africans could vote, and Nelson Mandela was elected president. In 1995, Nelson Mandela establishes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help South Africans solved their country’s horrible past and also has managed to move forward.

One piece of evidence to support this claim and reason is the Cape Town Peace March which was partly led by Desmond Tutu. The Cape Town Peace March started on September 13, 1989. Over 30,000 Capetonians (people from Cape Town) marched in support for peace and the end of apartheid, which is a system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. This peace march was led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other white and black religious leaders. This peace march also contributed to further marches in South Africa and also led to the removal of the ban on the African National Congress (ANC) which is the Republic of South Africa’s governing political party today. The peace march also led to the freeing of Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black head of state and president from 1994 to 1999, from prison. This piece of evidence supports my claim and reason because the peace march drew attention to many Capetonians who eventually addressed the issue and this led to the removal of the ban on the ANC. To add on, this issue gathered so much attention that the political leader Nelson Mandela was automatically freed from prison when the ANC was

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

Mandela and some members of the ANC opposed the racial segregation and apartheid imposed on South Africa by the National Party. He took action against apartheid by doing boycotts and strikes. The president of the ANC did not support these actions and was removed due to no confidence and was succeeded by James Moroka. In 1950 Mandela (the new ANC National Executive) opposed a African, Indian and communist anti-apartheid strike since it was not ANC led, but many took part in the strike. The strike gave rise to the Suppression of Communism Act and affected all the protest groups. Mandela was later elected as the national president of the ANC and continued arguing against a racially united front. After being outvoted Mandela changes his views and was influenced by

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.

In 1964, he was found guilty of sabotage and treason and spent three decades in the Robben Island Prison. Mandela turned the prison experience into an ANC school, teaching other blacks about politics and other freedom fighters like Gandhi (Lockard 959). Nelson Mandela fought against apartheid for years with protests/strikes and by leading the ANC.

One large problem that occurred because of apartheid and was the cause of many protests was from 1961-1994, 3.5 million colored people and their families were forced out of their homes while their property was sold for very low prices to white farmers. This was just one example of events that were completely unfair to the colored population. Nelson Mandela was the person who stopped these acts from happening. In 1994, Mandela became the country’s first colored president. Instead of trying to make the people who put him into jail for 27 years suffer in consequences, he embraced them and used peace to unite everyone as equals, and not oppressing the people who had oppressed him for most of his life. Apartheid was a very rough time for anyone who lived in South Africa before Nelson Mandela and his peace helped to stop it.

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.

Drastic times lead to drastic measures, so Mandela sought temporary refuge in neighbouring countries, ruled by Blacks to set up militia groups. Mandela study military tactics for a long time and used that knowledge to train his group to sabotage electricity supplies for White neighbourhoods, strike government buildings and cause a general disruption for the Whites. But in 1962, on Mandela’s return to South Africa, he was arrested. This is a key factor in which opinion disagrees with Mandela solely ending Apartheid.

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 was involved with leading the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and joined forces with the African National Congress in 1942 working towards a democratic government. For 20 years he led a campaign for equality to promote non-violence, anti- racism and peace for the people against the South African

A. Shortly after Mandela was released, he worked with South Africa’s then current white President, F.W. de Klerk to abolish apartheid.

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.

From 1964 to 1982, Mandela was kept in a maximum-security prison. In 1988, he was hospitalized for tuberculosis. Amidst increasing global pressures, the South African government under President F.W. de Klerk released Mandela from prison on February 11, 1990. On March 2, Mandela was chosen deputy president of the ANC, and he replaced the president in July 1991. Mandela and de Klerk worked to end apartheid and bring about a peaceful transition to nonracial democracy in South Africa.