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Nelson Mandela 's Fight For Freedom And Equality

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The underlying need-structure of the individual is what motivates his behavior in various leadership situations. Leadership style thus refers to the consistency of goals or needs at different situations (Fred Fiedler, 1967). One major individual from history that, in his lifetime fulfilled the above quote is the former South African president, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, commonly known as Nelson Mandela. Mandela has been described as one of the most influential figures in the fight for freedom and equality in South Africa.

Mandela was born in 1918. His farther, Henry Mandela, was a tribal chief of Tembu. At the time South Africa was ruled by white minority, Mandela helped to unite South Africa as it dismantled apartheid, the cruel system of white minority rule. He symbolized for all of Africa a commitment to democracy and freedom. For effective transformative education and transformative leadership, a sympathetic position must be taken (Preece, 2013). Mandela demonstrated this thought his life time as he was not only sympathetic to African indigenous values, but also able to see that taking the same approach as his adversary’s was not going to help further his cause, this is seen through his encouragement of his followers to seek education to better their situations not violence.

Through out the 1940s and 1950s Mandela witnessed and was frequently victim to frequently subject to detention, police harassments, and banning.In 1962 Mandela was sentenced for five years of
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