Nelson Mandela leader of the African national congress spent 27
years in prison by the South African government in 1963 with the allegation he
was tried for sabotage & planning a violent revolution in the country. He
was sentenced to life imprisonment & sent to Robben Island 9 kilometers
away from Cape Town where Mandela spent more of his 27 years in prison which
changed his entire prospects of the world & life in prison was extremely
harsh because Mandela had to go through physical & more importantly physiological
tortured to break & demoralize him. There were consistent racial abuses
& humiliation so Mandela had to suffer all that on a daily basis. In order
to reach the Island visitors were required to take the ferry from Cap town.
Though Robben Island was very beautiful because of the flowers, mountains,
serenity, sea breeze & sea shores what was going on with the people in
prisons was very inhuman & disturbing. As children of prisoners were not
allowed to visit. On the other end, the families of prisoners had to survive as
those people were living without their heads of families all those years.
After the release Nelson
Mandela became a national property yet he was feeling guilty about the pain
& suffering which his wife & two daughters had to go through & he
tried his level best to fill the gap & was ready to give whatever it would
take to repair that loss of his wife & children but Within a year after
Nelson Mandela got released from prison his personal life was in misery because
his wife Winni Mandela was alleged & arrested subsequently along with her
bodyguards in a kidnaping, beating four
black youths out of them one of youth Stompie Seipei was beaten to death who was young political activist & involved in organizing
resistance among schools students in the wake of that in 2 years’ time Nelson
Mandela announced that he will divorce Winnie Mandela & they separated in 1992
In May 1991 She was initially sentenced of 6 years in prison but the sentenced
was reduced later to a fine & she made her come back in 1993 & contest
election for presidency of African national congress women’s division & in
subsequent year she was won election & appointed as deputy minister of arts
& Science of South Africa in the government that was presided by her
Husband Nelson Mandela
However, Winni Mandela had a different political ideology than her husband as she believed in violent politics & despite being in government she provoked & radicalize young black followers. Nelson Mandela expelled her from his cabinet in 1995. So the marriage of 39 years was officially concluded in 1996 at that occasion Nelsons Mandela remarked in the court “if the entire universe wanted me to reconcile with her I wouldn't. I am determined to get rid of the marriage” As they were having differences which were irreconcilable on so many issues. Though it was devastating for him to deal with that situation where his wife had been trustful all through his imprisonment. Now he had to choose between his wife with her he had stench or being leader of his country whose people were expecting so much from him. So he made a choice where he didn’t want to engage in things that could be destructive for his party & cause that he had given his entire life.
Nelson Mandela already promised both black & white people more
than he could deliver so it was his test as a leader. Therefore he devotedly
engaged in his political struggle & never made a sincere effort to
reconcile the truce with his ex-wife. On the other hand, white voters of South
Africa was the one who run the economic wheel of the country so economic growth
wasn’t possible without their confidence in the next potential president of the
country. So he need to engage with all the stakeholders in such a way to move
along amicably & finally Mr.Mandela was able to make a political settlement
of the country in which beneficiaries would be white & small black elite
initially & rest of the black population of the country could not gain much
of the benefits from this new political deal. But there was no other suitable
& pragmatic option besides that however despite all of that path to acquire
power still was not that simple & those periods of time turned out to be
the most violent in the history of modern South Africa. The Bisho Massacre was one such incident in which many African National Congress
protestors who were protesting against the military government were fired by
machine guns & instead of controlling the law & order authorities &
government ignited the violence & created black fragmented groups through
the military assistance to create dispute & organize a fight between black
vs black one of the leader black leading group was Mangosuthu Buthelezi of (IFP) who was in Qatar. Nelson Mandela reached out to the
leader in Qatar to appease him & resolve that issue peacefully but it only
got worsened with time so Mandela couldn’t do much to stop the violence besides
requesting his supporters to remain peaceful & avoid violence. However,
death tolls in the affected towns were increasing so during his election
campaign Mandela categorically accused president De Klerk who was behind that
division among black people sabotaging the upcoming election on the 27th of April 1994 in the
history of South Africa in which all races were allowed to take part &
Government wants to diminish the reputation & cut down the supports of
Mandela’s political party that the reasons no precautionary measures were taken
to stop this violence by the government. Mr. Mandela was built up quite
strongly as a human being & political leader in prison he also became an
excellent negotiator which he proved during the negotiations with the South
African president De Klerk however relationship between them was not always
good according to Nelson Mandela De Klerk is not the president of South Africa
but he is a president of the White people
However, at the end of those violent clashes & people's, scarifies helped pave the way for the reunification of Ciskei & other homelands into South Africa & Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa & He advised his voters instead of taking revenge we must focus our energies to work together in the process of social & economic reconstruction that was the only way for the betterment of people he asked his people it will be extremely difficult to discuss the past of this country but we must remember it & forgive to move ahead. In his first speech after taking the office, He said “at last the day arrived where we all can vote for the government of our choice & it is a tribute to all above to the efforts & sacrificed of millions of south African & the vision of my party in which people would live in peace & with equal opportunities & that is the idea that sustained me during my 27 years in prison for this is the idea I was prepared to sacrifice my life & now is the time”.
Nelson Mandela’s voter’s expectations were shockingly modest. They need electricity, tape running water, toilet with waterborne storage, solid waste management, jobs & health care therefore he & his party wasn’t in a position to scale down these genuine demands of their voters. People of South Africa were overjoyed because they had undergone & deplored violence now there would be great chances of bringing it off & begin a life of harmony & prosperity. Things that were illegal back then now legal & moral for example black people could live in areas that were previously designated for White people only & the sky was not fallen in anymore. Children could go to the same schools there were initially some aberrations though on the basis of color but the majority of the people of South Africa were very pleased to see it was indeed possible to live as one nation & it was possible to utilize the resources of the country by all instead of a small segment of elite. People then realized how they could be so stupid for so long.
.jpg "mandela and president De Klerk")
