Nelson Mandela – Yuri

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?
Mandela was a South African freedom fighter and politician who lived from 1918 to 2013. He fought against apartheid, the system that separated people by the colour of their skin. Because of his fight he spent 27 years in prison, most of them on Robben Island. After his release he became South Africa’s first democratically elected president. He inspires people all over the world because he showed that you can forgive even your worst enemies and that peace is stronger than hate.

Choose one of his revolutionary acts and describe it. Why is it striking?
In 1985, the government offered Mandela freedom on the condition that he renounce violence. He refused, because the government itself was still violent and the ANC was still outlawed. His daughter read his answer to a big crowd: “Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.” This is striking because he chose to stay in prison instead of accepting an unfair deal – he put his people’s freedom before his own.

Nelson Mandela’s funeral

How did they mourn him?
The whole country was in mourning after he died in December 2013 – there were ten days of official mourning. People gathered in large crowds, lit candles, sang songs from the struggle against apartheid and danced. It was sad but also a celebration of his life. A big memorial service took place in a stadium in Soweto, many world leaders attended, and thousands of people queued to see his body in Pretoria before he was buried in Qunu.

What was remarkable about Obama’s speech and his behaviour prior to it?
Before he spoke, Obama shook hands with Raúl Castro from Cuba, even though the two countries were political enemies – a gesture that fitted Mandela’s message of reconciliation. His speech was very emotional and personal: he said that Mandela had inspired him as a young man and called him “the last great liberator of the 20th century”. He also criticised leaders who praise Mandela but do not respect freedom in their own countries. The crowd in the stadium loved it.

In which way did the pouring rain suit the occasion?
It rained heavily during the memorial service, but in South African tradition this is a blessing. People say that when it rains at the funeral of a great person, heaven is welcoming them and the gods are crying too. So the rain matched both the sadness of the people and the special importance of the moment.

Quotation

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”

Mandela was surely afraid many times – during his trials, when he could have been sentenced to death, and during his long years in prison. But he never let fear stop him from fighting for equal rights. I chose this quote because it shows that brave people are not people without fear, but people who act anyway. That is a message everyone can use, for example before a difficult exam or a hard decision.

2 Apartheid in 90 seconds – summary

Apartheid means “apartness” and was the official policy of South Africa between 1948 and the early 1990s. The National Party, which only represented the white minority, separated the population into racial groups. Black people were forced to live in special areas, needed passes to move around and were not allowed to use the same public facilities as white people. They could not vote, and marriage between people of different races was a crime. Over the decades, protests grew and became more radical, especially after massacres like Sharpeville in 1960. Because of mass protests and pressure from other countries, apartheid finally crumbled, and in 1994 everyone could vote for the first time.

3 Mandela: His Life – questions

1. When he was a child he never thought about freedom because he simply had it: he played and roamed freely in nature. Only as a young man he understood that freedom was just an illusion for Black South Africans – then he began to feel the hunger to be free.
2. He came from a royal family – his father was a tribal chief – so he was able to go to the best schools that were open to Black people.
3. Because there, in 1941, he saw discrimination against Black people with his own eyes for the first time. This experience shaped his political views.
4. He was a miner and later a clerk in a law office; he also joined the ANC.
5. With the expression “good neighbourliness”.
6. It was a document written by the ANC in 1955 as a plan for a democratic South Africa where all races are equal.
7. In 1956 – he was accused of high treason because he helped to create the Freedom Charter.
8. 1960 was the year of the Sharpeville massacre, where police shot 69 people who were protesting against the pass laws.
9. Because peaceful protests only led to more violence from the police and the government, so the ANC decided that it had to fight back, e.g. with sabotage.
10. 466/64 was Mandela’s prison number: he was prisoner 466 in 1964 on Robben Island.
11. The world helped with economic sanctions and boycotts, and with concerts by famous musicians. In South Africa itself, many other people – for example white activists and religious leaders – also fought against discrimination.
12. Because Mandela was released from prison that year.
13. Because it was the year of the first free election, and Mandela became the first Black president.

4 Trevor Noah – two gigs

Gig 1: White House Correspondents’ Dinner (2022) – Noah hosted the dinner in Washington with President Biden in the audience. He made fun of Biden’s age and popularity, of Republicans and Democrats, and of the news media. The jokes were sharp, but at the end he gave a serious speech: in America he is allowed to joke about the most powerful man in the world, while in other countries, like Russia, journalists go to prison for the truth. He reminded the journalists how important their work is.

Gig 2: “Afraid of the Dark” (Netflix, 2017) – In this show, Noah jokes about his travels and about how different languages and accents sound. He shows how learning someone’s language helps you to connect with them, and he also comments on politics in the USA from the perspective of someone who grew up in South Africa. The show is funny but also shows how much culture and language shape us.