Saturday, July 31, 2010
Mandela's Growing
Living with Jongintaba, Mandela’s knowledge and experience widened. He was immensely exposed to Western culture, religion, schooling, and leadership from meetings of the regent and his court. It was in these meetings where Mandela witnessed various speaking styles and the regent’s emotionless response to many charges that were made against him. From such meetings was Mandela able to develop a growing flame of anger against Westerners attentively listening to the stories of Chief Joyi. Opportunities like this were rarely bestowed upon a kid who formerly lived in Qunu. His time with Jongintaba was a period of countless learning and observations.
Mandela's Youth Notes
Mandela was destined to disrupt the norm as his birth name stood for troublemaker. This term would later characterize his stubbornness and willingness to stand for what is right.
It is often said that a person’s actions reflect experiences in one’s childhood. In Mandela’s case his father was a leadership inspiration, even compelling Mandela to “rub ash…into my hair in imitation of him” (Mandela 5). Mandela’s father’s death opened the door for Mandela to become a son of Jongintaba, a result of the chief returning a favor for getting him in such a high position.
As a child, Mandela also obtained a strong sense of community and bonding with fellow African people. Considering aunts as mothers and cousins as siblings allowed Mandela to care about others strongly; a person that would be able to unite a group of people or yet, a country.
Throughout Mandela’s youth and early years as a man, he often regarded the “white man not as an oppressor but as a benefactor”. Mandela did not have much interaction with white people as a child; well, he did not have a negative experience with white people. I would feel readers would expect such a experience to have happened to him which would carry on to his rebellious ways when he is older.
Mandela did not have a typical childhood in which most of his peers ended up uneducated. He was lucky enough to be chosen to go a British school. He was able to combine his strong sense of African culture and philosophies and culture of the British.
Monday, July 19, 2010
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