A leader that I admire

NELSON MANDELA
( 1918-2013 )

Nelson Mandela or Madiba (his Xhosa clan name) a man known by many for his success in helping to end the apartheid policy in South Africa and was the first black president of South Africa. 

The apartheid policy was defined as (in South Africa) a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. In which was Adopted as a slogan in the 1948 election by the successful Afrikaner National Party. This policy was introduce to protect the minority of the white people living in South African but due to it being bias. The policy cause the black people to suffer with the lack of human rights.






Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, into a royal family of the Xhosa-speaking Thembu tribe in the South African village of Mvezo. His father was a chief while his mother was the third wife. After his father died, at the age of 9 Mandela was adopted by Jongintaba Dalindyebo, a high-ranking Thembu regent who began grooming his young ward for a role within the tribal leadership. Mandela was the first of his tribe to receive formal education. In which he excelled in boxing and track as well as academics. After a year in the elite University of Fort Hare, he was sent back along with several other students for boycotting the university's policy. He then fled to Johannesburg and worked first as a night watchman and then as a law clerk while completing his bachelor’s degree by correspondence. He studied law at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became involved in the movement against racial discrimination and forged key relationships with black and white activists. In which got him arrested several times due to his involvement in the fight against unjust law in South Africa. 

He resorted to both a peaceful and armed approach

At first he use peace as a medium for his movement but was backfired when the police starts to shoot at civilian in the sharpeville massacre on 21st March 1960. He then quoted “[I]t would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and nonviolence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle.”

Therefore, he joined the armed resistant force in 1961, Nelson Mandela co-founded and became the first leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), also known as MK, a new armed wing of the ANC in which lead to his 3 decades of being in prison. 

After attaining his freedom, Nelson Mandela led the ANC in its negotiations with the governing National Party and various other South African political organizations for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. Though fraught with tension and conducted against a backdrop of political instability, the talks earned Mandela and de Klerk the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993. On April 26, 1994, more than 22 million South Africans turned out to cast ballots in the country’s first multiracial parliamentary elections in history. An overwhelming majority chose the ANC to lead the country, and on May 10 Mandela was sworn in as the first black president of South Africa.

As president, Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human rights and political violations committed by both supporters and opponents of apartheid between 1960 and 1994. He also introduced numerous social and economic programs designed to improve the living standards of South Africa’s black population. In 1996 Mandela presided over the enactment of a new South African constitution, which established a strong central government based on majority rule and prohibited discrimination against minorities, including whites.

Improving race relations, discouraging blacks from retaliating against the white minority and building a new international image of a united South Africa were central to President Mandela’s agenda. To these ends, he formed a multiracial “Government of National Unity” and proclaimed the country a “rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.” In a gesture seen as a major step toward reconciliation, he encouraged blacks and whites alike to rally around the predominantly Afrikaner national rugby team when South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Reason why I adore him:

- He was a man who saw the struggle of his countryman and sought to fight for their rights even though he was born in a Royal family.

- He was willing to spend him long life for the sake of his noble ambition which was a unified multiracial “Government of National Unity”

- He was a realist which is something very hard for me to do 

And that's all about it. Tq