Umkhonto we Sizwe

Nelson Mandela was freed in 1990 after 27 years in prison and negotiated the end of apartheid in South Africa, bringing peace to a racially divided country and leading the fight for human rights around the world. Mandela helped bring an end to apartheid and gave inspiration to those affected by racial inequality. He studied law at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became involved in a movement against racial discrimination and forged key relationships with black and white activists. He…

Here I woke at the crack of dawn and silently drove past the tracks of the Main Line. Here I hurried to a Celebrantes choir rehearsal to sing “Yesterday” by the Beatles. Here I drifted my attention away from the conductor, listening to the hourly chime bells ring the “Star Spangled Banner” at eight o'clock sharp. Here I made my way with others through the amphitheater into separate classrooms in Crossman Hall. Here I sat idling, waiting for my colorless substances to briskly dissolve so I…

Fortunately Nelson mandala didn't give up and he suggested an active armed resistance which led to the creation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. 2 years later, Nelson mandala was arrested again and charged with treason. He said this right before he was sent to prison for 20 years “We believe that South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it, and not to one group, be it black or white. We did not want an interracial war, and tried to avoid it to the last minute” ( Tejvan Pettinger 2015). This…

During the 1950s and 1960s, the southern United States was split into two: The whites and the blacks. Restrooms, buses, and even schools were all segregated. This piece of history is fairly well known to American citizens, as Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech still echoes through museums. However, another major figure stepped up in South Africa decades later, and won rights for his people. It was Martin Luther King Jr. fought to end it here. Over in Africa, it was Nelson Mandela…

The inspiring and courageous leader Nelson Mandela, originally called Rolihlahla Mandela, was born on July 18, 1918, in the small village of Mvezo, by the Mbashe River in Transkei, South Africa. In his tribe, the Thembu tribe, his father Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa was chief. That is until he died of lung cancer when Mandela was only 9 years old. As a favor for his father, Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu people, adopted Mandela. He was forced to move to Mqhekezweni, the…

It is significant to mention that Mandela was central of these campaigns. After the ban of ANC on 8 April 1960, new tactics had to be adopted. Thus, Mandela formed the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Mk). In spite of Mandela’s faith in tranquil battles, apartheid has constrained them to choose an armed struggle (Laing, 2011). In Mandela’s word, the MK aimed to “hit back by all means within our power in defence of our people, our future and…

eloquent statements of the ANC’s philosophies. His testimony during the Treason Trial brought him international recognition. Eventually, all those accused were released due to lack of evidence in March of 1961. The same year, Mandela co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, otherwise known as the MK. The MK was the military wing of the ANC that used sabotage and guerilla warfare to help the struggle against apartheid laws. He was arrested again in 1962 and charged for leaving the country without a permit…

QUESTION 2 “We believe that the world, too, can destroy apartheid, firstly by striking at the economy of South Africa”-Oliver Tambo . Apartheid can be defined as the racial-social ideology developed in South Africa during the 20th century, its name means “separation” in Afrikaans, the mother tongue of the colonisers. Apartheid was practically based on racial segregation, as well as race domination or superiority. It was about political and economic discrimination, which excluded black; coloured;…

South Africa The Struggle for a New Order, by Marina Ottaway, Copyright, 1993, by The Brookings Institution. The book is dense with details on the governments agencies, the struggle, and the transition from apartheid during the first two years. The author, Marina Ottaway is the former Senior Research Associate and Head of the Middle East Program in the Woodrow Wilson Center, and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her bio on the Wilson Center website states that she is a long time…

Apartheid vs. Ingsoc “George Orwell’s 1984 is the expression of a mood, and it is a warning” (Fromm 313). Despite Orwell creating the haunting dystopia of Oceania as a warning to humanity of our self-destruction, the world seemed to go blind to its recreation in South Africa. Britain colonized South Africa and created a white minority rule, just as Orwell depicts the Big Brother and the Inner Party running Oceania in 1984. Both Orwell’s Oceanic world and the South African government formed…