Nelson Mandela – Julian

1 Worksheet: Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela’s biography

Who was Nelson Mandela? Why is he seen as one of the most inspirational figures in history?
Nelson Mandela was a South African leader who spent his life fighting against apartheid and for equal rights for all people. He was born in 1918, studied law and joined the ANC. In 1964 he was sentenced to life in prison and stayed there for 27 years. In 1990 he was released, and in 1994 he became the first Black president of South Africa. He is an inspiration because he never gave up and, after all he had suffered, he still reached out to his former enemies to build a peaceful, democratic country for everyone.

Choose one of his revolutionary acts and describe it. Why is it striking?
The Freedom Charter (1955) and the treason trial: Together with other ANC leaders, Mandela helped to create the Freedom Charter, which said that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white”. The government reacted by charging him and 155 others with high treason in 1956. The trial lasted almost five years, but in the end all of them were found not guilty. It is striking because the Charter was a peaceful document about equality – and the government saw this simple idea as a crime.

Nelson Mandela’s funeral

How did they mourn him?
When Mandela died on 5 December 2013, people all over South Africa and the world mourned him. In South Africa there were ten days of national mourning. People came together, sang and danced in his honour and laid flowers in front of his house. A huge memorial service was held in the FNB Stadium in Soweto with leaders from all over the world, and he was finally buried in Qunu, his childhood village.

What was remarkable about Obama’s speech and his behaviour prior to it?
Before the speech, Obama shook hands with Cuban president Raúl Castro, which surprised many people because the USA and Cuba were enemies – it was seen as a sign of Mandela’s spirit of forgiveness. In his speech Obama praised Mandela as “a giant of history” and said that he personally owed him a lot. He also said that the world should continue Mandela’s work against poverty and inequality. The crowd cheered for him more than for any other speaker.

In which way did the pouring rain suit the occasion?
It rained the whole time, but nobody left. In African culture, rain is a blessing and a sign that the gates of heaven are open for a great person. So the heavy rain fitted the occasion because it showed that Mandela was welcomed by the ancestors, and it matched the emotions of the people.

Quotation

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.”

This quote sums up Mandela’s whole fight against apartheid. Apartheid taught people to hate and fear each other because of race. Mandela believed that this could change – and after his release he really tried to teach South Africans to live together. I chose this quote because it gives hope: racism is not natural, so it can be overcome through education and contact between people.

2 Apartheid in 90 seconds – summary

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation that the National Party introduced in South Africa in 1948. It lasted for more than four decades. People were divided by race, and the white minority had all the power. Non-white people had to carry passes, were forced to live in poor separate areas and had to use separate public facilities like buses, toilets, schools and hospitals. They could not vote, and interracial marriage was illegal. Protests grew, especially after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the Soweto uprising in 1976. International sanctions and mass protests weakened the government until apartheid crumbled. In 1994 the first democratic elections were held.

3 Mandela: His Life – questions

1. He means that as a young boy he was free in the countryside – he could run, swim and ride – so he had no reason to long for freedom. His hunger came later, when he realised that as a Black man in South Africa he was not free at all.
2. Because he was the son of a chief, he got the best education that a Black person could possibly get at that time.
3. Because in Johannesburg he faced discrimination for the first time (1941). This discrimination later became law, and it made him start his political fight.
4. He worked as a miner and as a clerk in a law firm, and he joined the ANC.
5. “Good neighbourliness”.
6. The Freedom Charter was a document by the ANC from 1955 which was a blueprint for a free, democratic South Africa where all races have equal rights.
7. He was charged in 1956 because he was one of the people responsible for the Freedom Charter.
8. The police shot 69 people at a protest against the pass laws in Sharpeville.
9. Peaceful opposition was no longer possible because the police and the government were extremely brutal. So the ANC went underground and turned to sabotage.
10. It refers to Mandela’s prisoner number on Robben Island (prisoner 466, year 1964).
11. Many countries punished South Africa with sanctions, and musicians organised concerts against apartheid. Besides the ANC, other people from all walks of life protested and many were imprisoned.
12. Mandela was released after 27 years in prison, and the ANC was allowed again.
13. 1994 was the year of the first free elections for everyone; Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president.

4 Trevor Noah – two gigs

Gig 1: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2012) – This was Noah’s first appearance on American late-night TV. He talks about growing up as a mixed-race child under apartheid, when his parents’ relationship was illegal – “I was born a crime.” He describes how his white father had to walk on the other side of the street and his mother pretended not to know him when the police came. He uses humour to show how crazy racist laws were.

Gig 2: White House Correspondents’ Dinner (2022) – Noah was the host of this famous dinner, where the president and journalists meet. He joked about President Biden, about different politicians and about TV news channels. At the end he said something serious: being able to laugh at the president without going to jail is a special freedom, which journalists in other countries like Russia don’t have. He told the press to use this freedom responsibly.