Nelson Mandelas Struggle for essays

Nelson Mandelas Struggle for essays Nelson Mandelas Struggle for Peace and Equality for All Races I have cherished the ideal of a free society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for...but if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela spoke these famous words and is known for transforming a model of racial division and oppression into an open democracy. Mandela is one the admired national figures of our age. Nelson says, I am not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances. From Nelsons childhood, as a member of the royal house, being stripped from his indignity in prison, to becoming president of South Africa, his life is an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope and ultimate triumph. Let us begin this journey of a true leader of peace. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Mvezo, which was the capital of Transkei. Mvezo was a tiny village removed from the world and the western civilization influences. Nelson was from a Thembu Royal house and his birth name, Rolihlahla, was given by his father, which means troublemaker. His English name, Nelson, was given to him by his teacher on the first day of school. Nelsons childhood was peaceful and he spent his time in the field herding cattle, plowing, and tending sheep. Transkei is eight hundred miles east of Cape Town, five hundred fifty miles south of Johannesburg, and lies between the Kei River and the Natal border, between the rugged Drakensberg Mountains to the north and the blue waters, of the Indian Ocean to the east. This land was fertile with hills, valleys and flowing streams. The Thembu people population was 3 Â ½ million and a minority of whites. Nelsons father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was a chief of Mvezo by the King of Thembu tribe. Due to some m isfortunes with ...