Category: Nelson Mandela

A speech can be defined as an act of delivering formal utterances from the speaker to the audience. In this case, there are different types of speeches which include informative speech; persuasive and acceptance speeches among others. This assignment mainly gives an analysis of the first South African President Nelson Mandela’s speech at John Mark Ministries in South Africa (Williamson, pp. 190-191).

It can be argued that in his speech; the South African President, Nelson Mandela thought sensibly about the Christian belief. In this case, he gave a persuasive speech to the Christians urging them to pray hard so as to serve the world. From this speech it can be deduced that, Mandela who was imprisoned for about twenty seven years; contemplated intensely, read much and tried to comprehend the human nature. It can be argued that, Mandela in his speech convinced the South African Christians to have a strong faith in God and be at peace with one another (Williamson, pp. 190-191).

It is of importance to note that in his speech; Mandela was very sincere and direct especially when he was talking about the light that is found within the human soul. By this, he was referring to the hope and love that results to human’s ever continuing development and the precise comprehension of human being. It can be argued that, from Mandela’s speech; life is meaningless in the absence of hope and love. It should be noted that, his speech was full of powerful words as it can be seen in the statement that; one should be freed from his fear first, which would in turn involuntarily liberates others. Based on this, he urged South Africans not to be too much powerful beyond measure since it is the greatest fear that Africans have (Williamson 190-191).

It is of importance to note that, Mandela was using the English language when giving this speech that could be understood by many people not only in South Africa but also world wide. Further, Mandela convinced the Christians to humble themselves like children as it is seen from his statement that; all people are supposed to shine like children. It should be noted that, Mandela’s speech was meant to encourage Africans that; they have adequate resources and blessings as they are children of God. Additionally, his purpose of communicating this message to the South African Christians was to convince them that; they were created to show the magnificence of God within them (Williamson, pp. 190-191).

It can be argued that, Nelson Mandela was addressing to all people both men and women irrespective of the age bracket. In this case, he gave his speech in a church setting since his main theme was spiritual oriented. Based on this, Nelson Mandela used a language that could be understood by all kinds of people as can be seen from the minimum number of vocabularies he used. On the other hand, his voice was audible enough to be heard by all the audience and his body language expressed what he said. It should be noted that, Mandela involved the audience in his speech by asking rhetorical questions which helped the audience to clearly understand what was being said (Williamson, pp. 190-191).

To wind up, Nelson Mandela’s spiritual speech to the South African Christians was convincing and persuasive. In this case, the language used; both verbal and non verbal clearly outlined the theme of the speech.

References

Williamson, Marianne. “Nelson Mandela’s Speech.” Return to Love. 1992. pp. 190-191. Web.

Scientific research is a field of study that relies on the integrity of all those involved. As scientific experiments are conducted with other studies in mind, any one mistake or cover-up in an experiment report can lead to disastrous results. Therefore, it is extremely important for scientists to use proper methods of collecting and evaluating data. They must also write down all pertinent information to the study so that it can be closely examined for biased or flawed methods. If a scientist uses a flawed method of data-collection or data-analysis, his entire study could be skewed. If a scientist were to do a study on whether dogs had preferences between different kinds of foods, he would have to make sure that the foods were equidistant from the dog. If he did not, he would have a flawed method of data-collection. If he published a study as proof dogs liked one food better than another without recognizing that the dogs had simply picked the food closest to them, he would have failed at proper data-analysis. Incorrect analysis is very harmful because it can mislead readers and provide distorted views of a conclusion’s scientific merit (“Data analysis.”)

The paper by Morselli and Passini takes into account the autobiographies of three peaceful political activists: Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mohandas Gandi. The scientists noted that many autobiographies showed signs of bias; the authors picked events that correlated with their current ideals. They claimed that “narrators not only narrate, but also justify themselves” (Morselli & Passini, 2010). They wondered if this key phenomenon would show up in the autobiographies of Mandela, King Jr., and Gandi, so they decided to do a study at micro-level. This meant that their research population was “ a small group of individuals in a particular social context” (Schaffer).

To collect precise data on the autobiographies, Morselli and Passini used an intricate procedure that they adapted from methodology used by K. Keniston. They created different categories of key factors in life (e.g., family, childhood, and adolescence) and used cross-sectional comparison (Morselli & Passini, 2010). QSR-N5 software was used to select relevant passages from the text. Then, two independent coders performed the analysis; they came together to compare results only after both had finished. Morselli and Passini took all the right steps to make sure the collection method was appropriate. Analysis of text can be subjective, so it can be hard to put into concrete results. Morselli and Passini smartly combated this obstacle by having two different coders work independently.

To further analyze the samples collected, Morselli and Passini took the units that the coders identified and divided them into groups based on which autobiography they were from. Then, they compared the passages from different books against each other. Morselli and Passini did a stellar job of documenting exactly what passages led them to come to their conclusions. They managed to show evidence that the three political activists had remarkable similarities in their recollections of their lives, despite the fact that they had grown up in completely different cultures.

Accuracy of data-collection and analysis is very important for any scientific study in order to ensure that misinformation is not spread. In their paper on autobiography analysis, Morselli and Passini used careful methods to ensure the integrity of their results. Using detailed documentation and independent researchers, they proved their results to be truthful and validly obtained.

References

Data analysis. (n.d.). In Responsible Conduct in Data Management Topics. Web.

Morselli, D. & Passini, S. (2010). Avoiding crimes of obedience: A comparative study of the autobiographies of M. K. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 16(3), 295-319.

Schaffer, S. (n.d.). Analytic tools: The levels of analysis. In Dr. Scott Schaffer – Courses. Web.

Since the first hierarchic systems appeared in society, the figures of political leaders have inevitably been at the center of public attention. Chiefs, emperors, and presidents have been ruling the destinies of whole nations and defining the course of history. When their policies ceased to satisfy the needs of the population, protests emerged and new leaders came to the fore giving hope to millions for a better life and a just world. Among such leaders of the twentieth century, one can observe two personages who embody whole eras in the life of their countries and whose actions have lead to a sharp turn in the course of events in the world political arena.

So significant is their political legacy that their lives and ideas have found reflection in multiple informative sources, among which are video biographies Madiba: The Life and Times of Nelson Mandela (directed by Robin Benger) and Fidel Castro: A Life of Revolution (directed by Terence McKenna). Featuring various aspects of the life course of the two leaders, the videos provide an insight into the events that contributed to the development of personalities and reveal both the similarities and the peculiarities of their actions, ideals, and achievements. The present essay aims at focusing on the details of Mandela’s and Castro’s biographies and the features of their characters which have determined the nature of their political activities.

Learning about the childhood and background of both leaders, one reveals a striking semblance. Both were born to relatively prosperous families which could provide a worthy education to their children who proved bright enough to be top students. As their university majors, both Castro and Mandela chose jurisprudence, and both of them subsequently worked as lawyers, often for free, as they were protecting the rights of poor people. Their formative years went under the sign of political education and activity. Nelson Mandela attended the meetings at the Royal Kraal where he listened to the debates over the burning issues of the time and learned a lot of things that further on influenced his leadership style, and the ideals of equality and democracy with minority right firmly established in his mind with a view to eradicating the social injustice that flourished in his country torn apart by the policy of apartheid. Fidel Castro developed an interest in Karl Marx’s theories, attempting to understand the historical process and to figure out the ways to overcome the poverty, illiteracy, and lack of medical care that brought his country to misery. Both the Cuban and the South-African ideologists openly and repeatedly displayed their active political positions, which consequently lead to Mandela’s expulsion from the Fort Hare University.

Further on the paths of leaders followed a course of severe and violent obstacles on the way they envisaged for their countries to achieve an ideal of constitutional states with equal rights and freedoms. Both Castro and Mandela rebelled against the existing regimes, but while Castro intended to overthrow General Batista by force, as a reply to the latter’s forceful capturing of power, Mandela preferred the way of nonviolent resistance to apartheid policy, resorting to armed struggle as a last way-out. On their way to approaching the ideals, both of them were aided and supported by loyal friends: the South-African Oliver Tambo was a central figure in the African National Congress playing a key role in the anti-apartheid movement, and the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara acted as a major figure in the Cuban revolution and the military operations in Congo.

Castro’s and Mandela’s open and active opposition to the existing regimes did not go unnoticed, and the governing parties reacted by multiple trials and arrests. But while fortune smiled on Fidel Castro, and he was graciously released under general amnesty from General Batista and he escaped to Mexico in order to assemble new revolutionary forces, Nelson Mandela’s confinement was much more prolonged and tedious, extending to as much as twenty-seven years on Robben Island, in Pollsmoor Prison, and in Victor Verster Prison. But even the humiliating segregation policy and the restrictions to communication did not break down Mandela’s stoic spirit, and when in 1985 he was offered freedom in exchange for his renunciation of struggle, he proudly replied, “Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts”. His resilience and fortitude under the hard blows of fate are exemplary, resembling the revolutionary determination of the Cuban leader who had the willpower to stand his ground and encourage the Cuban population to unity and patriotism even in the times when the Soviet Union collapsed and Cuba was left alone in face of its mighty opponent, the USA.

“The struggle is my life”, said Nelson Mandela, and this statement can be applied to both of the champions for independence. However, the ideals and methods approved by them differed drastically: while Mandela’s action was that of unaggressive though vigorous struggle, Castro led the way to his dream through a gory path of war, terror, and dictatorship. Hence comes Fidel Castro’s debatable position in the world’s opinion both as a tyrant and a savior, while Nelson Mandela is seen as an undisputed messenger of peace and equality to the world community.

References

Kapoor, S. (2013). The life and times of Nelson Mandela: A long walk from prisoner to president.

Introduction

Any engagements of people, groups or nations create opportunities for conflicts that must be reported for peaceful coexistence. Nelson Mandela is among few global leaders that have exercised strong and effective negotiation skills that are collaborative and competitive to bring a consensus in a middle of conflicting positions with their rivals. With proper negotiation skills and consensus, people or nations can come into a mutual understanding that is acceptable to all. Various regions such as the DRC have experienced consistent conflicts involving external influencers, national leaderships, bordering nations and the citizens.

Nelson Mandela’s Negotiation Competence

Nelson Mandela has proved commendable his negotiation approach which led to a lifelong impact on contemporary negotiation practice. He can project his needs, values and rights through global affairs diplomacy of a qualitatively new kind. A good outcome of negotiation in practice is dependent on the competence of those involved in the process, Mandela proved to be one of such. He had strong democratic perspectives that placed people’s interest in the frontline having a clear vision of expected outcomes.

Relationship And Substantive Interests

The focus of each parties negotiating is to build trust within a relationship so that they can be cooperative with their counterparts. Without respecting the views of the others, the negotiators cannot come to an understanding easily. A good and functional relationship would unearth negotiation partner’s hidden interests and a better agreement can be achieved in the process.

Integrative And Distributive Modes

Mandela appealed for peace and respect toward human dignity and DRC’s sovereignty. He pushed to minimize human losses and settle military conflicts by peaceful means, as it was in the Congolese Conflict settlement demonstrates that he was bound to integrative approach. Nelson pushed for a win-win strategy that would allow positive outcomes and one that prioritized the results of bargaining, not competing over his interests.

Power

Nelson Mandela invested in creating a relationship and this was an opportunity to have his opponents appreciate his views despite them having a higher power. Mandela understood the influential power of the West, and through the understanding of the opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, he pushed his ideals of defending the human rights and freedom of the people. Mandela’s opponents had a higher power based on their overruling position in terrorizing people. However, Mandela was powerful mentally as he was confident on the values he was seeking leverage on.

Persuasions

Mandela convinced his followers that they must ensure their human dignity and justice was upheld. He painted his opponent in a negative light, which is an aspect of competition, but geared to persuade the people to see his ultimate goal. The ANC led by Mandela had persuaded a number of people to their side, even though the government had the power and authority. The whites were not expecting Mandala to shift his dedication to ANC’s Alliance with the South African Communist Party.

Mediation Culture

The impression that the Whites are powerful and able to influence other regions depicted what their opponents would think about them. The resolution of a conflict is a result of negotiation and considerate conversation that is examined from various angles. The qualitative change in conflict resolution and fighting for human rights on an international level were obtained through the competence and mediation skills of Mandela as a negotiator.

Ethical Considerations

Understanding cultural aspects of the opposing party is key in how to relate with them so that a relationship for negotiation can be created by prioritizing their grounds. Both parties should endeavor to learn each other’s formalities so that they approach the issues at hand with trust. Also, the attitudes that each party has is significant since this determines whether they will be collaborate in their approach or confrontational. Mandela understand his opposing party and sought to collaborate and focus his efforts on solving the problems at hand, even at the expense of his interest.

Structural And Strategic Approach To Negotiations

Concerning structural approach to negotiations, relative power of every parties influences their propensity to attain their personal goals through negotiations. Power refers to the ability of a party to win through having resources and monopoly of ideas. The dual concern model should bring on board conflicting and accommodative ideas, which is opposed to the emphasis that Mandela reinforced that people’s rights had to be respected. This is an opposing approach on issues that could be better explained through structural approach that exemplifies issues. Strategic approach thrives on critical thing so that the winning view has been thought and determined to be workable.

Concluding Remarks

Negotiators should be concerned with how to create value and come up with mutual principles that are foundation for the critical thinking or moral reasoning. The integrative bargaining grants parties opportunity to apply problem solving behavior such as was supported in Nelson Mandela’s case. Integrative models prioritize dimension that creates value so that parties can share more from their negotiation. Mandela wanted to solve infringement of rights and he was willing to suppress his interests to make the opponents see value in his line of reasoning.

Bibliography

Balton, Neeshan. “Principles, Tactics, and Negotiations with the Oppressor.” Yale Hum. Rts. & Dev. LJ 20 (2019): 31.

Havlik, Vratislav, and Petra Kuchyňková. “Cities and regions in competition? Negotiations for the 2014-2020 programming period in the Czech Republic.” Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences 13, no. 50 (2017): 90-109.

Houston, Gregory. “Nelson Mandela’s leadership during negotiations: collective versus individual leadership.” (2018):1-29.

Makgetlaneng, Sehlare. “Mandela’s Call for a Negotiated Settlement of the Congolese Conflict.” The Thinker, 79 (2019): 8-18.

Introduction

Nelson Mandela rose at a critical time in the history of South Africa. After being elected to the office in 1948, the Nationalist Party initiated a racial segregation policy of apartheid. This led to resentment of the repressive laws, and some African leaders were arrested while others got killed by the authorities. Of great importance was the apprehension of Mandela that further awakened the clamor for independence in the Africans especially after delivering a speech on the trial day, in his defense. As evident, Mandela’s address highlighted the injustices of the segregationist regime against Africans.

Mandela and Nationalism

At the center of struggle for independence in South Africa was a great nationalist, Nelson Mandela. In his youthful days, he grew up in Transkei and spent quality time with his elders listening to their folk tales (Mandela 2). The traditional stories which he was told inspired in him the strong desire to defend his fatherland. Later, in his political life after joining African National Congress (ANC), he helped in the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe, a radical wing of the ANC party (Mandela 1). Mandela became the driver of ANC resisters by acquiring driver’s license in March 1952 (Harms 578). He was arrested in 1962 and later tried in 1964 alongside other nineteen leaders of ANC by the segregationist government for their substantive roles against apartheid policies (Mandela 1). Remarkably, Mandela’s efforts awakened nationalism among the indigenous people of South Africa.

Mandela’s Speech at the Dock

Oratory skills were evident from Mandela’s speech right at the onset of his defense statement to the end of his presentation. In fact, historians contend that the discourse was the best among the addresses he ever gave. The actual audience to whom this particular speech was directed was the presiding judge in his case as he kept on referring to the honorific word “My Lord” (Mandela 1). From further analysis of the talk, the intended target audience was the apartheid regime that was oppressing the indigenous Africans. The reason as to why Mandela could be viewed as addressing the government was because his articulation justified the reason as to why he through his organization resorted to ferocity despite their strong adherence to non-violence policies (Mandela 3). Moreover, Mandela ends his speech by reaffirming the ideals which he stood for and his preparedness to die for them. Unarguably, he was presenting the grievances of his African people to the government and at the same time communicating the importance equality to all races.

Again, choosing to speak for long by Mandela during his trial is an indication of clear objectives, his speech was to achieve. He knew quite well that as they had been charged, the authorities had powers to corroborate all the evidence it had against them for purposes of prosecution. Therefore, he was informing the government and the world, of the atrocities that had been committed against them as the South African natives. Nevertheless, the court allowed him to proceed with making his case because it was the opportune moment that the judicature had granted Mandela to defend himself as an accused person. Evidently, the long speech served his purpose of justifying his actions and explaining the course he championed.

There are different themes regarding Mandela’s “I Am Prepared to Die” famous speech. Mandela’s defense on the misdeeds he was accused of by the regime is one of the arguments that was evident in the speech. Although he firstly admitted that he organized the sabotage and committed violence he then refuted claims of instigating attacks against persons in the country (Mandela 3). His defense was based on the ideals of democracy, autonomy, peaceful-coexistence and equality for all (Mandela 15). Additionally, Mandela argues on the plight of the indigenous South African people. He speaks of the poor working conditions, the killings and the repressive policies which the Africans have been subjected (Mandela 14). Mandela was guided by the need to attract both national and international sympathy and therefore persuade them to champion for equality in South Africa. As evident, the main arguments in the speech were defense against the charges, and the plight of the native Africans under the apartheid regime.

Principles and Practice of Apartheid

Mandela’s speech is of great importance in understanding the principles and practice of apartheid. First, Africans were invariably under police surveillance through the pass laws (Mandela 13). Secondly, the indigenous South African children got deprived of opportunity to acquire education (Mandela 13). Thirdly, the non-white workers were receiving poor pay for their labour (Mandela 14). Moreover, apartheid policies segregated black inhabitants from the cities by moving them to suburb townships (Iliffe 282). Truly, Mandela’s speech captures the fundamental concepts in which the segregationist policies were grounded.

Conclusion

In summary, Nelson Mandela’s speech was a great tool in emancipation of the African masses from the colonial atrocities. Mandela’s liberation ideals and beliefs were acquired while still a young man in Transkei, South Africa. With his great eloquence, Mandela addressed the apartheid regime indirectly while justifying his actions. Interestingly, the court allowed him enough time to argue his case. Mandela’s mentioning of atrocities of the oppressive government helped further in discrediting the regime’s reputation before the international community. Therefore, the famous speech served the important purpose of disclosing the principles and practice of apartheid to the whole world.

Works Cited

Iliffe, John. Africans: “Industrial and Race in South Africa, 1886-1994.” The History of a Continent, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp.273-287.

Mandela, Nelson. “I Am Prepared To Die”. The Supreme Court of South Africa. Opening of the

Defense Case in the Rivonia Trial, 20^th Apr. 1964, Palace of Justice, Pretoria. Defense Statement.

Harms, Robert. “Struggles For Political Independence, 1940-1968.” Africa in Global History with Sources, WW Norton, 2018, pp.577-584.

This speech was delivered by Nelson Mandela during his journey across South Africa shortly after his release from prison. This is the time when he became the de facto leader of the country and when he was actively urging the people to continue the struggle for unity. This speech was addressed to all of the citizens of South Africa and was one of the four speeches that ultimately became a part of his presidential campaign, which led to his success. In this speech, he addressed the continuing violence against the blacks and proclaimed his commitment to fight for freedom and democracy.

In the speech, he urges to seek compromise with the ruling government through peaceful methods, as the use of violence provides a justification for the aparthy to continue the maltreatment. He states, “Great anger and violence can never build a nation. The apartheid regime uses this strife a pretext for further oppression…” (Mandela 1990). He argues that the resort to violent methods of struggle ends up supporting the regime.

The speech shows that the struggle was still on the go and needed encouragement and a push for further unfolding. Thus, it provides a reliable overview of the historical context, which was characterized by a sense of stagnation within the movement, as the oppression continued. With his speeches, Mandela breathed life into the last spurt of the victory.

Work Cited

Mandela, N. “We are Committed to Building a Single Nation in Our Country.” 1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War’s End: A Brief History with Documents, edited by Padraic Kenney, Bedford, 2009.

Background

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18th, 1918 and died on 5^th December 2013. He is well known for being an anti-apartheid. He served as president from 1994 to 1999 as South Africa’s first Black president. He focused on defeating apartheid through the elimination of racism, inequality, and extreme poverty. He also served as the Secretary General of the Nonaligned Movement from 1998 to 1999 in the international front. In his quest for freedom, Mandela was jailed for twenty-seven years.

Influence

Mandela has inspired me in many ways. He is a man with many great achievements including the Nobel Peace Prize, Presidential Medal of Reedom and the Ghandhi Peace price award. The personality attributed to Mandela is worth recognizing. His great achievements make him my hero.

The selfless nature and humility Mandella portrayed has helped become humble. In most cases, things do not happen the way we plan. However, being humble in such situations helps us become victors in the long run. Mandela displayed humility in various ways in his fight for the liberation of the Black people in South Africa.

Another attribute that I have learned from Mandela is that of tenacity and firmness. Even after being captured and detained in prison, he never gave up. I have learned from him that one should not despair when faced with challenges. The world requires people of strong will and zeal, and Mandela is that great person who has displayed these attributes. His persistence in the fight for freedom is an indication that he is a strong willed man who does not give up in the quest for what he pursues.

Being a humanist is an attribute worth admiring. Mandela was born to a chieftain. However, he pursued law in order to serve his people. He strongly battled apartheid policy enacted by the White government. He began his mission through peaceful struggles. Negotiations, civil defiance campaigns, and peaceful demonstrations accompanied the struggles. After realizing that the peaceful movements were not bearing fruit, he decided to adopt violence in order to win the struggles and liberate his fellow countrymen.

The ambition, love, and leadership skills in Mandela have also ignited my passion for becoming an ambitious man. While still in college, Mandela had the determination of building a better South Africa by defending his people. His quest for liberating his people portrayed him as a leader who is out to fight for the rights and freedoms of his people. He was not frightened by the obstructions that he met in life. He courageously turned these challenges into stepping stones to greater achievements. He could be filled with courage when faced with trouble. These are the true traits of a hero, and Mandela is my true hero.

The life and achievement of Nelson Mandela will remain an inspiration to me. There are many achievements that I have realized by emulating Mandela. I strongly believe that without him, my life would not be as successful as it is today. Therefore, his deeds and achievements should be treasured for future generations as well.

Introduction

For a person to have a significant influence on me, he/ she would have to be somebody that has surpassed complicated tribulations and puzzles by going out of his/ her way with one strict ambition; to make this world a better place.

My understanding of a significant influencer is based on such understanding because, in the current world, human life is faced by countless challenges primarily because at some point we all became selfish and took a direction of caring for ourselves not unless we stood a chance of benefiting from some good deeds to our neighbors.

Brief Biography

Nelson Mandela was born on the 18th of July 1918, in Transkei South Africa. He went to the University of Witwatersrand, after that qualifying in law in 1942. After two years, he joined the African National Congress and fought against the ruling party’s apartheid rule after 1948.

Consequently, he went for a trial and was acquitted in 1961. Within a year, Mandela was rearrested for planning to overthrow the government with violence and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labor for five years. Latter on in 1964, his fellow ANC member was arrested, where Mandela stood another trial with them, to be sentenced for life imprisonment (Nobel foundation 1)

His reputation ironically grew rapidly and steadily during his poisoned years. All over Africa and the whole world, he was looked at as being the most viable black leader in South Africa. His vigor made him the potent symbol of rebellion when the anti-apartheid movement gathered strength.

He was offered freedom intermittently, but he rejected on the grounds of keeping his political position intact. He was released in 1990 and got elected the president of South Africa in 1994 after which he set out to realize the liberty and terminate oppressive policies.

Significant Influences

According to Stengel (1), Mandela is the closest the world has come to a secular saint. I utterly agree with him. Mandela had one big ambition in life; to make the life of black South Africans oppression- free.

There were moments that he refused freedom offered to him provided he stopped causing public uproar against the apartheid rule (Nobel foundation 1). I would like the significant lessons about this single ambition and commitment that Mandela had would be to never back down from your ambitions no matter how hard discouragements come along.

After studying law, Mandela immediately joined the ANC to restore fair laws to all the South Africa individuals. I can bet that there were many opportunities for him to join private firms and make big amounts of salaries while living a silent and comfortable life.

With such opportunities, Mandela still decided to make the most practical and life-changing application of his career. This is a significant influence on me; life is not about being comfortable with your talent and skill; it is about using your capabilities to better the life of those who need help.

Nelson Mandela Join the ANC as an arena for him to engage in peaceful campaigns against the apartheid rule. However, after his arrest, ANC was disbanded. On his first release from prison in 1961, Mandela set out to secretly reorganize ANC with a military agenda to physically fight against the apartheid rule. There is a very significant lesson learned for this episode; when you have a dream, you have to fight against all odds to make sure that you realize it.

Conclusion

Nelson Mandela has lived a fulfilling life that has seen the whole world give him much recognition and credit. However, giving a critical look at his style of chasing dreams, I know that we can all achieve on whatever we set out to do. He has been such a significant influence on me.

Works Cited

Nobel Foundation. Nelson Mandela – Biography. 2010. Web.

Stengel Richard. Mandela: His 8 lessons of leadership. 2008. Web.

Introduction

Nelson Mandela was born in the year 1918 in a small village called Qumu Transkei in South Africa. He was born to Chief Henry Mandela whose origin was from a tribe called Tembu. Mandela in his childhood was a herdsman and was also involved in community works. When his farther died, he was then left under one of his relatives care. He was then taken to a missionary school where he used to mobilize his fellow students against the colonial rule. For this case, he was expelled from school for inciting the other students. He then proceeded to the university collage of Fort Hare and later joined Witwatersrand University where he qualified in law in the year 1942.

Main body

After completing his education, he then fully got involved in politics from the year 1944. He joined a party called the Africans National Congress whereby he was at the fore frond to stage rebellion against apartheid policies imposed by the then ruling National Party. He was later arrested and imprisoned for disloyalty from the year 1956 to 1961. After the African National Congress was disallowed in 1960, Mandela then suggested that there was need to form an army from the ANC. His suggestion was accepted by the ANC top leadership that would involve violent strategies to air their views. He was once again arrested in the year 1962 and sent to prison with hard work. He was again brought to trial in 1963 following the arrest of the fellow ANC members for planning a coup de tatagainst the government. While in prison Mandela became more famous and widely accepted as the only leader of the African origin who could save the people.

Actually, we will look deeply into Mandela’s humanistic nature as well as his traits. Mandela can be described as humanistic because when we consider all his decisions that he used to make whenever he did anything, they were very personal. In all his life from his childhood, we find that Mandela at no time acted under pressure. This strange personality that he had really helped a lot in his life because he never did anything that made him regret later.

For instance, when he was in school, he was expelled because he was accused of inciting fellow students against the ruling party. He did this alone without being influenced by anyone. Again we find that after he had completed his education, he was in the fore front leading his party fellows against the ruling party by advising them to use violent tactics to air their views. Surely, it was very difficult at that time to find someone opposing the powerful government because there was a lot of oppression and intimidation. But Mandela went against this mentality and did the contrary which landed him severally in jail.

In addition, after the African National Congress had been illegalized, he did not want to feel finished, neither did he want to be under the colonial government’s instructions, but instead, he wanted to feel free in their own nation where they could do things without interference, therefore he proposed to his party members to form an army that could continue fighting for their rights. This struggles that Mandela made can be correctly matched with the theory of Humanistic which was introduced to describe the situation of doing things under no influence whether environmental or physical. This applied to Mandela whereby he chose to go contrary to the colonial government by choosing to do what he felt was right.

On the other hand, Mandela had some traits that also helped him achieve his dreams. He had some unique traits that could be found in a few people. For example, we can say that he had a trait of involvement. He used to fully dedicate himself in whatever decisions he made and always defended them to the bitter end. When he started the road to liberation, he could not stop no matter the cruelty of the colonial government. He can also be described as empathetic because he would not like to see people suffer as a result of apartheid rule system and this made him fight for them. Since this theory can be said to be a tendency to satisfy the biological survival needs, it closely relates to Mandela’s traits because he could not just feel comfortable when he saw people suffering.

Conclusion

Comparing the two theories on how they relate to Mandela’s way of life, it is clear that the theory of humanistic outweighs that one of traits in that, the theory of traits needed that of humanistic to survive. Most of the characters that best describes Mandela that led to his achievements are closely related the theory of humanistic. For instance, there is no way he could fully involve himself in all that he did according to the theory of traits and succeed without having made the right decision by choosing to do as his heart directed him without influence. Another example is that he could be empathetic according to the traits theory but fail to act accordingly by fearing to make an independent decision of going contrary to the ruling National Party hence fighting for their rights regardless of the ruthlessness of the colonial government.

References

Mandela, Nelson. “Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela” Little Brown, 1994:34-88