Nelson Mandela My hero (Research Paper Sample)

Surname Tutor Subject Date Nelson Mandela My Hero Nelson Mandela is well known for his leadership and commitment to African National Congress. He joined the movement while he was at the University of Witwatersrand studying law, in 1942. Together with other young people, they formed a movement referred to as African National Congress Youth League with ANC. The aim of the youth movement was to transform ANC, which had failed to achieve a number of goals for long. Under the leadership of the youth movement, ANC adopted new strategies to reach out to millions of Africans in both urban and rural areas, who have been oppressed by the apartheid regime (Limb 34). They urged people to agitate for their rights through methods such as boycott, strike, civil disobedience among others. The policy goals of the movement were to call for full citizenship, redistribution of resources, trade union rights, and free education without discriminations. Mandela advocated and supported non-violent approaches of defiance against the government. In 1952, he and other young leaders started a defiance campaign and they launched congress of the people in 1955. “Mandela was the coordinator of the massive 1952 Campaign of Defiance against Unjust Laws” (Limb 50). He also used his profession to fight for the end of apartheid. He joined hands with Oliver Tambo to form a law firm which offered low cost services to Africans in need of legal counsel. This led to his arrest in 1956 and being charged as perpetrator of treason. In 1961, Nelson Mandela changed his philosophy of non-violent protests and declared that the only arm struggle would assist in the achievement of the objectives. He co-founded a militia under ANC whose role was to be involved in a guerilla war against the government. He also successfully called for a nationwide workers’ strike in the same year. The government was feeling the head of the new strategies and resolved to disrupt the leadership by arresting and imprisoning the leaders (Ellis 657–676). Mandela and ten other black leaders were put into trial and convicted to life imprisonment. He was jailed at Robben Island for 18 years out of the 27 years he stayed in prisons. Due to the poor conditions the black prisoners were kept under Mandela suffered from tuberculosis and received relatively poor services from prison staff members. However, he successfully received a Bachelor of Law through the correspondence of the University of London. In 1981, Gordon Winter, who was a senior South African intelligence agent, wrote a memo on how to kill Mandela. In this case, Mandela would have been declared to have escaped from the jail and shoot in a recapture mission. However, this plot was despised by the British intelligence; hence,Mandela continued to stay in prison. He and other African leaders were transferred to Pollsmoor prison to facilitate communication and interaction with the government. In 1985, the president offered Nelson the opportunity to be released in exchange to preaching peace and renounce the armed struggle. However, Mandela rejected the offer by President Botha. At this time, pressure had mounted from governments in the local and international scenes for Mandela and other leaders to be released. Botha suffered stroke before releasing the leaders and was replaced by Frederik Willem, who announced the release of the leaders in 1990. This was followed by unbanning of the ANC and removed restriction to political parties and the freedom of expression. The release of ANC leaders gives the opportunity for the leaders to fight for constitutional reform in South Africa, to give the black people who were the majority the right to vote. Mandela was elected to be the president of the ANC and Oliver Tambo as the national chairperson. ANC called upon the international community to support their agitation for the African rights. Africans agitated for a complete transfer of power from the whites while the whites wanted the power sharing. Mandela as the African leader had to strike a balance. He embarked on negotiations and convinced the African people that it was not possible or right to do away with the whites. The negotiations were completed in 1993, and the first general election was held in 1994. Mandela was elected the president and inaugurated as the first black president, Klerk the former white president become the deputy president (Finlayson 100). Mandela ruled from 1994 to 1999 during the period when he strove to bring about reconciliation between the Africans and the whites. He encouraged the African people to forgive and work together with the whites who had over the years despised and mistreated them. The aim of Mandela was to ensure that peace prevails and South Africa became an internationally respected country, and the need to spearhead economic growth and development (Kalumba 161–171). During his inauguration, Mandela had a powerful statement and said “I stand here before you filled with deep pride and joy-pride in the ordinary people of this country. It is time to heal the old wounds and build up a new South Africa” (Finlayson 100). In 1996, the new constitution was adopted where the rule of the majority was recognized and the freedom of expression which had been suppressed by the apartheid. Mandela could not serve for another term; he had achieved a lot in bringing apartheid to an end and reconciliation of the citizens. He had also made South Africa one of the most respected countries on the map of the world. Even after retiring Mandela remained very instrumental to both ANC and leadership. In other words, he was a senior elder of the nations and his voice was highly appreciated. The estrangement from active politics opened the opportunity for Mandela to serve in another area. He formed a foundation through which he collected money and resources to build learning institutions and health care facilities, particularly in rural areas. He also participated in the international community as a peace and reconciliation mediators (Limb 123). For example, he participated actively as mediator in Burundi’s civil war. One of the areas where he was very devoted was on the fight against HIV/AIDS. “In 2003, Mandela stated that he had not done enough to fight AIDS, while he was the president. He devoted himself to fight the diseases which ended up killing his oldest son in 2005’’ (Finlayson 103). As a scholar, historian, and a leader he published a number of books with an aim of giving hope and communicating sense to the future generations. Some of the books written by Mandela include Walk to Freedom; The Struggle Is My...