Nelson Mandela :: essays research papers

South-Africa was settled by Dutch spaking whites, the boers, in the seventeenth century. Later they were followed by the British, who they several times fought against to keep the power. In 1948 the white people felt that the bladks threatened their position, so the national party, that has formed all the governments since then, introduced the policy of apartheid. Apartheid is a term that originally is Dutch and means separation. The system was in practice used to retain the white minority's economical, political and cultural supremacy. There came new laws that devided the population into white, black, coloured and Asian groups. the foundation of apartheid was already made when the first European settlers came to South-Africa, and since then the suppressed have been fighting to abolish it. Maybe the most famous opponent of the apartheid regime throughout the years have been Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. He went to college to study law in1938, but already two years later he was expelled because he participated in a student strike. Luckily Mandela got a job at daytime so he could study in the evenings, and in 1942 he received his university degree. Mandela has been politically involved since he was a teenager, nad already as a twentysix year old he started his political career in the African National congress - ANC (Black people established the African National Congress in 1912 to fight against apartheid and for civil disobedience). Nelson early became one of the most important leaders in the party because ofhis strong opposition against aparheid. Mandela was jailed for the first time in 1952 for having arrranged a peaceful civil rights campaign. This demonstration did no change any of the apartheid laws, but the work wasnt useless. When some got arrested, others came to take the arresteds place. the number of members in ANC rose from 10000 to 100000. The racial discrimination created a special concord among all the people that was called "non-white". The campaign got attention also internationally. The participants dicipøine, their self sacrificing work and relationship to eachother was noticed all over the world. After a while Nelson Mandela was considered South-Africa's national foregrounds-figure in international media. ANC was banned in 1960 because the party opposed strongly to white supremacy. Mandela was forced to work underground, but he managed to travel abroad to obtain support and understanding. He turned up in the most unexpected places, and even had speeches at big conferences.