Nelson Mandela Character Analysis

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Nelson Mandela’s Character and Identity
Nelson Mandela has left his mark on the world in a way that few others have done. His character and idenity was shaped by his childhood environment. He was born on eighteenth of July 1918, at Mvezo, in the district of Umtata, the capital of Transkei, in South Africa, during World War I and a devastating pestilence. Mandela’s parent helped to shape and fashion his politics through his childhood in significant way.
He tells us that, “Although I was a member of the royal household, I was not among the privileged few who were trained for rule. Instead, as a descendant of the Ixhiba house (the left hand house in contrast to the Right hand house and the ret House from which the rules was selected. I was groomed, like my father before me, to counsel the rulers tribe”. Mandela also claimed that his father, Henry Gadla Mandela, was “prime minister of Thembuland”. He admitted that while this title was not part of the Xhosa tradition, his father did not play a role that was not too different from what the Europeans viewed as prime minister. Henry Mandela was asserting his traditional prerogative as a chief and was …show more content…

He fought to get representation. The first-year class, and when elected to the Student Representative Council, he battled against the poor diet and other unsatisfactory conditions at the university. Given an ultimatum by the head of the university to break a boycott, or be dismissed, Mandela accepted penalty, thereby ending a promising and valued university career. Mandela later disappointed the chief by refusing to marry a woman whom he hardly knew. He decided to seek refuge in “Goli,” a legendary town for unaccountable thousands African labor migrants who break with tradition (Skinner,

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