Values in the lesson Nelson Mandela Class 10(minimum 4)
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Activist, leader, Nobel laureate, president – and a good human being to boot, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is remembered as one of the greatest men who ever lived. Very few people have had the kind of impact on world affairs as he did. An incredibly selfless man, Mandela played a major role in rewriting the history of South Africa and making South Africa what it is today.
Values and Teachings by Nelson Mandela
He was an anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country’s first black head of state, as well as the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling racism and fostering racial reconciliation.
Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work for “the peaceful termination of the Apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa”. Apartheid was a system of racial segregation and white rule in the country of South Africa that lasted from 1948 to 1994. Mandela, a long-time anti-Apartheid activist shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk, the final South African president under Apartheid with whom Mandela had negotiated to abolish the Apartheid government and bring about equal rights in the country.
In addition to the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, Mandela has received more than 250 awards, including honorary degrees from more than 50 universities worldwide. In 2001, he became the first living person to be made an honorary Canadian citizen, and he was the last person to receive the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union. Nelson Mandela was also a recipient of the Bharat Ratna. He won the Bharat Ratna in 1990, for his role in the anti-apartheid movement. Apart from Pakistan national Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, he is the only non-Indian to have received the award.
During his lifetime, Mandela inspired us with his numerous acts of benevolence. Even in the face of brutality, his compassion for his people remain unaltered. His actions of forgiveness, loving one another and the nation you’re born in, and accepting each other despite our flaws inspired us all to become better people.
I knew, like so many of us, that Nelson Mandela's days were coming to a close. And still, when I heard on yesterday that he had passed away in his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, sadness of a particular kind and magnitude washed over me.
I reflected on what he meant to me, to South Africans, to those fighting for peace and justice around the world, on the role he played in transforming his country and the minds and hearts of millions, and on the legacy he leaves. I am in awe, I recognize, for what one human being did in the course of a lifetime, for his unwavering compassion in the face of brutality, and for his courage and commitment.