Nelson Mandelas Life - Essay Example

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the 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 it needs to be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die” (Nelson Mandela- Wikipedia-the free encyclopedia, 28 November, 2006) Nelson Mandela got this discourse in the beginning of his defense at the Rivenia Trial and in fact was a message transmitted to the whole word and a proof about his character. Nelson Rolihlaha Mandela was the first South African President who was elected under democratic circumstances. However, as the message above shows, he was not a common president and his fame is not entirely related to politics. His other name , Rolihlaha, means the “one who brings trouble to himself” , and this can be seen as a part of his definition as a human being, as an individuality. Nelson Mandela, indeed brought trouble to himself but in the human kind advantage. He indeed had problems in his life but only because he was not an ordinary man, but one with ambitions and ideals and above all, he had the strength to accomplish them. The discourse was addressed before his career to develop , but this was the evidence that Nelson Mandela didn’t have any hidden purposes. Nelson Mandela was born in a special family, belonging to the Thembu group, which existed before the British conquest. It can even be said that he was born in a royal family, because his father was a member of the royal council of Thembu, and Mandela himself should have inherited this position. After his father’s death, he was adopted by the Regent, Dalyndiela, in gratitude to his father loyalty. Belonging to such an important family he was initiated in the Thembu culture, and according to its traditions at age sixteen, he attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute, and proved that he was a brilliant student, graduating Junior High in two years, instead of three years. As a young man he couldn’t stay apart from different organizations or manifestations. From this early age he demonstrated an initiative and leadership sense. Thus he was chucked from the university, after involving in a boycott against university administration. In this period he meets Oliver Tambo, a prolific lawyer, who will become a very good friend and colleague. So far Nelson Mandela followed the Regent indications and thus of his culture, but his enterprising and innovative personality didn’t allow him to bound under some rules. So, after the Regent arranged some marriages to his real son and to Mandela , they both left in Johannesburg, working in a mine, and then at a law firm. Mandela was aware of the fact that education was very important ( thing strongly sustained by him much later in his campaigns ) so he graduated from University of South Africa and then attended to the Law University in Witwatersrand. Mandela was a member of the African National Congress(ANC) which advanced the Defiance Campaign. This was against Unjust Law and the Freedom Charter was a document , a program which was against the apartheids. Mandela’s affiliation to this group and the causes promoted announced his great career: all people should be equal independently of their national or political group, their skin color or place of living. ANC said that everyone has the right to a full and free live because , in their point of view , this was the only way to a democratic and free country. This position was adopted by Mandela himself , who, together with his old friend , Oliver Tambo founded a law firm to help blacks with legal counsels. At a certain moment the ANC leaders felt insecure, made an alliance with White Colored Indian parties, and thus it lost its credibility, and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) formed. During a visit in Algeria, Nelson Mandela discovered the real support of the PAC and that ANC was manipulated by white communists. In 1961 , determined by the transformation in the South Africa, Mandela forms a guerrilla group named “Spear of the nation”(MK). Thus he controls and coordinates a sabotage campaign against the government, which culminates in the 1980’s with the war against the regime. After the trail from 11 July 1963 Nelson was charged and imprisoned. Even if in great difficulty he does not abandon his ideals, encouraging the ANC and refusing a release offer, because this stipulated he should stop the armed fight . The message from the defense trial was the one that showed people who is indeed Nelson Mandela, and after his reclusion ANC and many other organizations requested his releasing under the famous slogan:” Free Nelson Mandela”. This slogan was according to his principles and it even suggested hidden messages: it was a message for the releasing of a man , but the slogan sounded like a manifest for a country. Africans had already associated Nelson Mandela with their country. Their struggle didn’t remain with no echo and Mandela was set free. After this period Mandela didn’t renounce to the armed battle , but he focused more on the peaceful part of the war. So the main goals were now the freedom of people and the right to vote. This effort was rewarded in April 1994 when he was elected as the first black president. It can be said that after this event Mandela’s career as a militant for freedom and human rights developed and completed. He tried to solve the conflict between Libya and United States, United Kingdom by offering his country as a neutral land, South Africa launched the first SUNSAT Satellite used to photograph vegetation and forests in South Africa, country that held the Rugby World Cup in 1995, event that was seen as a step in the reconciliation between white and black South Africans, Mandela’s direct implication in the Megrahi’s case trial which led to Megrahi’s move in a Muslim country . Nelson Mandela sacrificed his personal life for his country and the rewards didn’t wait long. The president accomplished many things, and many have said that he carried out to change a country only in four years, but the truth is Mandela influenced his people before and mainly after his presidency period. The nation saw in him the militant for a better life that could bring them on the right path, saw in him the best image of their country. As Mandela himself admitted, the only weak point in his professional life was the fight against Aids which was not so prolific. In this battle not only that he was not as good as in other campaigns , but he suffered the most terrible defeat: his son died of Aids in 2005. He still allocates time for his movement, the war against Aids being the only one after the retirement from the public life: “It is never my custom to use words lightly. If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact upon the way people live or die. (…)The experiences of Uganda, Senegal and Thailand have shown that serious investments in and mobilization around the sections make a real difference. Stigma and discrimination can be stopped; new infections can be prevented; and the capacity of families and communities to care for people living with HIV and AIDS can be enhanced.”(Closing address at the 13th International Aids Conference, Durban, 14 July, 2000) From this speech held at the 13th International Aids Conference from Durban in 2000 it is very obvious that what changed Mandela very much were the years spent in prison. He is now aware of every word he utters, for every deed he does because a man without freedom starts to cherish all the simple things in life and is much more aware of his mission in life. Maybe that is why he understood so easily that the key for harmony and even for such a horrible illness as Aids is the tolerance, but at the same time he thought the human kind has to see Aids as a fight , as a war which is imperative to win. This is a particularity in Mandela’s actions. He is a militant for human rights , but he does not blame violence if this is necessary(as in his battle against apartheids).A relevant proof for this is that Mandela appeared in 1992 in a film, Malcom X, playing a teacher who states a speech related to the human rights. Thus a person should be respected, should have the same rights in the society. The main scenario included a last reply…”By any means necessary” which was said by another character because Mandela was afraid that others might use this sentence against him. But that statement was entirely according to Mandela’s beliefs, because otherwise he shouldn’t have agreed to say it. Nelson Mandela’s strategy is a mixed one. The violence associated with his figure it doesn’t sound so bad. Nelson Mandela was married three times and the main reasons for the divorces were his absence and the exaggerate devotion to his ideals and country. In the present Mandela seems he has found the right wife for him. As his name tells he cannot separate totally from this political and social world, not being afraid of saying his opinions about some events. Thus he criticized the political policy of the USA, accusing Bush administration of the attacks with atomic bomb against Japan and of discrimination(because the UN secretary-general is a black, Kofi Annan, and the USa didn’t consult them before attacking Irak). Nelson Mandela was criticized too for this opinions and positions , but the fact he was always sincere and faithful to human rights, not only the African rights, made him a popular politician and brought him many awards: he received many honor merits as the Order of Merit, Order of St. John from Queen Elizabeth II, The Presidential Medal of Freedom from G.W. Bush, his support for the international Make Poverty History was rewarded, United World Colleges and Round Square orders and decorations, but the most important one, the recognition of all his merits was the Nobel Peace Prize from 1993, which it demonstrated him that all his sacrifices were not in vain. One of his greatest merits is that he is considered to be one of the four great people who influenced the 20th and the 21st centuries together with Bill Gates , Pope John Paul II, and Oprah Winfrey. All these four personalities are different and at the same time very important. It cannot be said which of them are greater . Bill Gates influenced these centuries in the field of knowledge, of information , he opened the path to a more accessible and communicative world, but was not so close to human soul, to human rights. The closest to Nelson Mandela was maybe Pope John Paul II who also fought for a better word in which the color of your skin, your religion or politics, your condition are not important and do not make you a superior or a better person. Oprah Winfrey had an impact mainly in the USA, so she is not known internationally. Other thinkers or respectable personalities of the world took their energy and their determination from a certain past, that especially happened in the childhood, event that influenced them and after it that decide to make something for the world. This is not Nelson Mandela case, but maybe he was so impressed by his people destiny and decide to change it or maybe the years spent in prison convinced him that this is his mission , that he has to continue the fight until he wins. Looking backward at all the fields in which he was involved it can be said that the commitment of Mandela for the world was meant to be. His natal country is Africa, but through his campaigns in so many domains, the whole world became his home. Reference Books BBC News, Africa, Profile: Mandela’s magic tour, 29 August 2001 < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1513244.stm > Honours, Awards and Titles bestowded upon Nelson Mandela, 25 March http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/awards/ Nelson Mandela, Wikipedia, the encyclopedia, 28 November 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela , 14 July, 2004 http://www.anc.org.za/people.mandela.html The Mandela Page, 14 July, 2004 http://anc.org.za/ancdors/history.mandela/2000/nm0714.html Read More