A Growing Anger

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.

Witnessing Reverend Mokitomi stand up to Dr. Wellington and not be punished for his courage showed Nelson that it was possible to stand up to the white man. Such incidents like this would get Mandela more comfortable for standing up to the white man or authority in general and changing his transformation from a passive person who obeyed everything authority instructed him to do to an active resister of injustices within society. In a culture where a black man refusing to obey a white man is rare and “illegal”, Mokitomi’s actions may have looked incredible to Mandela.  It illustrated a lesson that authority will yield if one stays firm on the ground. Believing this principle made Mandela sacrifice certain paths in order to uphold a “moral principle” (Mandela 52).

Mandela worked so hard to have a successful academic career. He had opportunities to study from prestigious schools. Mandela was brought up by a mentality that receiving a B.A. was the only way to get respect and guarantee leadership skills. But as he was at Fort Hare, he realized that there was more to academics in being a leader on the fact that “Walter Sisulu had never gone past Standard VI” (Mandela 69). Mandela soon realized it would take more than education to stand up and receive respect of the white man. “ “Education is all well and good,” Gaur said, “but if we are to depend on education, we will wait a thousand years for our freedom.” ” People like Gaur helped mold Mandela’s revolutionary ambitions, bringing him into the political arena. An education did not teach how to handle racial oppression, something Mandela dealt with everyday.