Nelson Mandela

My Hero is Nelson Mandela. He was born July 18, 1918 in a small village in Qunu which is in the district of Mthatha in South Africa. In 1948 the Apartheid policy began and so did the racial segregation. Nelson Mandela grew up under the Apartheid.

At the age of 7 years old he became the first person in his family to go to school. Years later he was a lawyer in Johannesburg and joined the African National Congress or ANC in 1944. He was well known in the ANC’s 1952 Defiance Campaign that he directed for 20 years. The campaign was against the South African government and their racist policies in 1961 and they led a three-day strike.

Nelson Mandela

He was to lead a non-violent mass struggle. After years of activism Nelson Mandela was arrested with 150 other people on December 5, 1956 and charged with “Political Treason.” He was also on the run for 17 months. On October 25, 1962 Nelson Mandela was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Then two years later on July 11, 1964 a verdict was reached concerning his previous actions in the ANC. Nelson Mandela said this in the opening case of the defense trial on April 20, 1964 at the Pretoria Supreme Court, “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all person live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal, which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Nelson Mandela

When he went to prison his cell was on Robben Island, his cell number was 46664. They are the most famous numbers in South Africa. On Robben Island prisoners were segregated by race, with the blacks receiving the least rations. The Political prisoners were kept separate from ordinary criminals and they received even less privileges. In 1982, Nelson Mandela was moved from Robben Island to Pollsmoor Prison. He was in there for 27 years! Then in 1989 South Africa reached a crossroads when the then President Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced by Frederik Willem De Klerk. De Klerk announced Nelson Mandela’s release in February of 1990. Nelson Mandela led South Africa to its first ever Democratic Presidential Election. He was President for 5 years and nearly 19 million people voted in the election. Apartheid has been banished after 46 years!

Nelson Mandela is my hero because he has changed so much in the land of South Africa. I don’t look up to people who discriminate, because I just think everyone should respect other people’s differences. I really look up to Nelson Mandela because he didn’t do that, and he made it so African children can go anywhere they want without getting in trouble.