Nelson ‘Madiba’ Mandela a lifelong member of the African National Congress (ANC) believed steadfastly in the liberation and eventual enfranchisement of every black and colored South African, who for decades had been deprived the right to a decent existence and the right to vote in their country of birth.
27 years is a very long time for any human being to spend locked away in a dungeon especially for the wrong reason. Conventional belief is sure to agree that anyone who has been wronged this gravely will come out bitter, seeking revenge. So when Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 by former South African; President F.W. de Klerk; the last leader of the apartheid regime system in South Africa, the world braced in anticipation of the ultimate violence that could have been unleashed in that nation.
On December 5th 2013 the world said goodbye to one of the greatest human beings to ever tread the surface of this earth in Nelson “Madiba” Mandela.
Nelson Mandela in his lifetime and death earned the respect of the entire human race regardless of skin color, ethnicity, creed, national origin or sexual orientation, because of his steadfastness and resolve against the apartheid regime of South Africa and in particular his embrace of the principles of nonviolence to resolve the problems of his troubled nation.
His death brought into focus, what could be accomplished through nonviolent means against repressive and backward thinking individuals, groups and governments, especially in a world that has seen more than its share of untold violence and wars in this century and the last.
He spent 27 years behind bars at an offshore Prison, in Robben Island, South Africa and never budged an inch in his resolve against the evils of racism and repression, despite pressure and enticement to have him recognize and renounce his opposition to apartheid which in essence would have had him succumb and surrender in his fight for the freedom of all South African’s, accepting the evils of a system that threatened the very existence of his people. In the end he came out triumphant and glorious in his struggle against the white supremacist regime of South Africa, to not only free his people but put the destinies of their lives and future into their hands.
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