summary - Übung

Voices for Free­dom

Mi­cha­el Green, 2015



Nel­son Man­de­la was born in 1918 in South Afri­ca. At that time, the coun­try was con­trol­led by the sys­tem of apart­heid, which se­pa­ra­ted people based on their skin co­lour. Black people had far fewer rights than white people. They were not al­lo­wed to vote, had li­mi­ted ac­cess to edu­ca­ti­on, and were forced to live in cer­tain areas. Man­de­la wan­ted to chan­ge this sys­tem and crea­te equa­li­ty for all ci­ti­zens.



Man­de­la stu­di­ed law and be­ca­me ac­ti­ve in po­li­tics. He joi­ned the Afri­can Na­ti­o­nal Con­gress (ANC), an or­ga­niza­ti­on that fought for equal rights. In the be­gin­ning, he be­lie­ved stron­gly in peace­ful pro­test and hel­ped or­ga­ni­ze de­mons­tra­ti­ons, strikes, and cam­pai­gns against un­fair laws. These ac­tions were part of a gro­wing mo­vement that wan­ted to end apart­heid.



At the same time, in the United Sta­tes, Mar­tin Lu­ther King Jr. was lea­ding the Civil Rights Mo­vement. Afri­can Ame­ri­cans were also fa­cing discri­mi­na­ti­on and se­gre­ga­ti­on. Like Man­de­la, King fought for equal rights and ju­sti­ce. Howe­ver, he al­ways be­lie­ved in non-​violent re­sis­tance. He or­ga­ni­zed peace­ful pro­tests, such as mar­ches and boy­cotts, and gave pow­er­ful spee­ches to in­spi­re people.



Alt­hough both lea­ders had the same goal, their me­thods were not al­ways the same. After vi­o­lent re­ac­tions from the South Afri­can go­vern­ment and at­tacks on pro­tes­ters, Man­de­la began to be­lie­ve that peace­ful pro­test alone was not enough. As a re­sult, he sup­por­ted stron­ger ac­tions against the sys­tem. In con­trast, King re­main­ed com­mit­ted to non-​violence th­roug­hout his life.



Both lea­ders suf­fe­red be­cau­se of their be­liefs. King was ar­res­ted se­ve­r­al times and lived under con­stant th­re­at be­fo­re he was as­sas­si­na­ted in 1968. Man­de­la was ar­res­ted in 1962 and sen­ten­ced to life in pri­son. He spent 27 years in jail, many of them on Rob­ben Is­land, where con­di­ti­ons were very hard.



De­spi­te these chal­len­ges, both men be­ca­me in­ter­na­ti­o­nal sym­bols of hope and re­sis­tance. People all over the world sup­por­ted their cau­ses and joi­ned mo­vements for human rights and equa­li­ty. Their ideas in­flu­en­ced mil­li­ons and hel­ped to bring chan­ge in their coun­t­ries.



In 1990, Man­de­la was re­leased from pri­son. In­s­tead of see­king re­ven­ge, he worked for peace and re­con­ci­li­a­ti­on. In 1994, he be­ca­me the first black pre­si­dent of South Afri­ca after the end of apart­heid and hel­ped to unite a di­vi­ded na­ti­on.



In the end, Man­de­la and King showed that strong lea­der­ship and cou­ra­ge can chan­ge so­cie­ty. Even today, Man­de­la and King are re­mem­be­red as two of the most im­portant lea­ders in the fight for equa­li­ty. Alt­hough they so­me­times chose dif­fe­rent me­thods, they shared the same vi­si­on: a fair and peace­ful so­cie­ty where all people have equal rights.