Analysis Of Nelson Mandela's Essay 'Working Towards Peace'
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
-Nelson Mandela, (from “Working Towards Peace”)
He tried to live by these words that appeared in his essay “Working Towards Peace”. Nelson with this quote answers all who wonder how he could forfeit such a large percentage of his life for what he believed.
Nelson Mandela lived in South Africa at a time of apartheid, or racial separation. The Afrikaners, or people of Dutch descent, were a minority in South Africa who sought to seize control of a majority of the land. Through a new legal system called apartheid they were able to do so, at the expense of the majority of people, the so called “non-whites” limiting them to about twenty three percent of the land.(Leo80) Nelson who was a lawyer, that created the first black law firm in South Africa joined the African National congress, and tried to follow in Gandhi steps on nonviolence. Through the use of civil disobedience, strikes, and trials he challenged the National Party at the time, and for this in Rivonia 1963, he was sentenced to …show more content…
For the duration of the a state of emergency any policeman, of any rank, could potentially detain any individual. This continued until 1989. Thousands died while in prison, many times because of the torture they underwent. Those who were lucky enough to be addressed by a court, were entering a rigged system, where they could be banished, killed, or imprisoned for life, and the year was 1963, when just that happened to Nelson Mandela. In Rivonia, after admitting to many of the charges of the Sabotage Act of 1962, he and eleven others were linked to MK. Mandela and another six non-white defendants were sent to the prison on Robben Island, a former leper colony located off the coast of Cape Town.
-Nelson Mandela, (from “Working Towards Peace”)
He tried to live by these words that appeared in his essay “Working Towards Peace”. Nelson with this quote answers all who wonder how he could forfeit such a large percentage of his life for what he believed.
Nelson Mandela lived in South Africa at a time of apartheid, or racial separation. The Afrikaners, or people of Dutch descent, were a minority in South Africa who sought to seize control of a majority of the land. Through a new legal system called apartheid they were able to do so, at the expense of the majority of people, the so called “non-whites” limiting them to about twenty three percent of the land.(Leo80) Nelson who was a lawyer, that created the first black law firm in South Africa joined the African National congress, and tried to follow in Gandhi steps on nonviolence. Through the use of civil disobedience, strikes, and trials he challenged the National Party at the time, and for this in Rivonia 1963, he was sentenced to …show more content…
For the duration of the a state of emergency any policeman, of any rank, could potentially detain any individual. This continued until 1989. Thousands died while in prison, many times because of the torture they underwent. Those who were lucky enough to be addressed by a court, were entering a rigged system, where they could be banished, killed, or imprisoned for life, and the year was 1963, when just that happened to Nelson Mandela. In Rivonia, after admitting to many of the charges of the Sabotage Act of 1962, he and eleven others were linked to MK. Mandela and another six non-white defendants were sent to the prison on Robben Island, a former leper colony located off the coast of Cape Town.