Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

I will tell you why I respect Nelson Mandela, why I praise him, and how he changed my life.

Nelson Mandela was born in 1918, in a small village of South Africa.
At seven years old, he attended a school where he was given the name "Nelson" by a teacher.
His father died when he was nine.
At the age of nineteen, he entered college. After matriculating, he started to study at a university where he met Oliver Tambo (they became lifelong friends). But in his first year, he was involved in a boycott against the university policies; consequently he was asked to leave the university, so he completed his degree via correspondance at another university.
Later, he decided to go to lawschool.
During his life, Nelson Mandela was involved in the political opposition against the white minority government.
In 1948, after the election victory of a party with an apartheid policy of racial segregation, he provided low-cost legal counsel to many black people.
In 1956, he was arrested and charged with treason given that he committed a non-violent struggle.
In 1990, he made a speech to the nation: he advocated peace and reconciliation to the country's white minority.

I took Mandela as my hero because he tried to talk people into believing in peace, and because he fought against injustice to gain equal rights for all people.
Not only did he advocate some of the greatest values of humanity, but he was also ready to die for these ideas.
Each day, I try to help people in order to live my life with serenity.

Nelson Mandela was one of the greatest persons of the past century.
He obtained the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.