Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom - Book Analysis Essay

Introduction

Nelson Mandela's book "Long Walk to Freedom" discovers the cultural domination and struggle in South Africa and the position taken by Mandela as an African lead in that battle. Mandela witnessed and took part in the fights for freedom at various varying locations. Mandela campaigned, especially against the apartheid law, which was set to give the black South Africans unequal rights and liberties compared to their white counterparts. Mandela took many approaches as an African leader towards solving problems, one of them being rendering himself vulnerable as a trick to the opposition. The Schelling investigations demonstrate inaccuracy in consideration of Nelson Mandela's achievements. The Schelling investigations stood by the hypothesis that authentic influence was an unfortunate problem-solving approach. In this paper, I will explain how Mandela's childhood and encounters at Robben island-shaped his opinions about authority, fairness, and equity.

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In his book, along the walk to freedom, Nelson Mandela demonstrates strong leadership skills with motivators such as Mahatma Gandhi, who was an Indian president that took the non-violent problem-solving approach towards fighting opposition and acquired positive results. However, Nelson Mandela shifted his non-violent approach with time as the administration also introduced harsh methods for dealing with resistance. In 1961, Mandela established a militant section in partnership with the South African Marxist Party and was eventually restrained with a sentencing report of treason. Mandela was freed from the death penalty; though, he was destined to lifetime confinement. Mandela served 27 years of incarceration. After serving his sentence, Nelson Mandela was back in politics and became the president of South Africa in 1994.

Nelson Mandela was aggressive and had strong opinions with which he stood by and supported. In prison, he proved to be outstanding with standards of diligence and character above average. The leadership skills possessed by Mandela are as a result of the harsh life in prison. Mandela worked in a limestone quarry and ate unhealthy meals. He developed lung infection called tuberculosis because he slept in dump places in jail. However, Nelson Mandela was able to exchange knowledge with other political inmates during his stay in prison. Mandela was able to expand his understanding and develop aggressiveness from the harsh living. He learned more about other government doings in the nation and all together developed into a firm leader. In jail, Mandela was also able to write the book confidentially long walk to freedom, which he took out in bits for publishing in a foreign country.

At the commencement of the book, lengthy walk to liberty, Nelson Mandela introduces the audience to his family as an attempt to rid the false information claiming that he is of the Xhosa hereditary and kinship. In his book "A walk through freedom," Mandela further explains that as a child, he spent most of his time as a herdsman and practising traditional Xhosa combats. These Xhosa combats acted as the training ground for Mandela's excellent military skills and toughened him to becoming a leader. Nelson Mandela also developed responsibility skills as a kid as he spent most of his time looking after livestock. Nelson was also lucky to attend a school as school was not familiar to children in that era in time within his region of stay. The fact that Nelson Mandela attended school made him more realistic and wise in his decisions as a leader. Therefore, Nelson Mandela's childhood took a significant part in the leader he became.

In his book long walk to freedom, Mandela says that later in his life, his leadership skills by joining the African National Congress. Nelson majored into the youth council that was more effective and aggressive at implementing and fighting for the rights of black people in South Africa. Black people in South Africa had been restricted from freedom, such as that of free movement and the freedom to associate freely with their white counterparts. The apartheid laws had been made to increase the distance between South African racial communities and gave power intentionally to the whites over the blacks. Racism became a common issue in South Africa, with superiority being assigned to one race over the other. This did not only create chaos in the country but destroyed the economy of South Africa.

The people of colour in South Africa were to face restricted movements and only move while their intentions have been looked into and granted permission. Nelson Mandela did not advocate for this and hence fought tirelessly towards the abolition of apartheid. Resources were unequally distributed with races, such as the Indians having less while the rich and white had plenty at their disposal. Nelson Mandela also talks about education in his book, a long journey to freedom. Mandela states the type of injustices existing in South Africa at that time, one of them being the unequal distribution of economic resources. The studies were modified to provide different quality of education to various groups. Most of the high schools such as that natured Nelson Mandela were closed. The black South Africans and other races considered low ranks were all put to the same schools offering poor quality education.

Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress, together with other political but freedom-oriented parties, went against the apartheid in 1951. Nelson Mandela accomplished to counter apartheid with the use of peaceful methods to demonstrate, unlike the research by Schelling had indicated. However, the non-violent plan did not work at first towards its mission of ridding apartheid. It served as a platform for the unity of many parties in South Africa with mutual intentions. Mandela later in 1994 became the president of South Africa after completing his jail sentence.

Conclusion

In completion, Nelson Mandela steadily developed into a solid besides sturdy African administrator as a consequence of his season in reformatories of Robben Island. Throughout his visit to jail, he was capable of associating with different governmental inmates and trade knowledge on various administrative courses of expertise. Mandela was also capable of steering confidential council conferences with the purpose of the removal of the apartheid law while in forceful confinement in prison and succeeded in writing his biography "Long walk to freedom." Nelson Mandela developed excellent combat skills from his activities as a child, such as that of playing traditional Xhosa combat. Nelson Mandela's various life experiences all together combined to make him an aggressive South African leader who could offer and enhance equal rights to all his citizens.

Works Cited

Mandela, Nelson, and Jon Cartwright. Long walk to freedom. Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind, 1961.