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.
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