I this book a journey about Mandela comes to an end! Will south Africa still survive or will it come to an end. The journey of Mandela will always be remembered! Mandela will never leave the homes of these south Africans. We will all hope that he rests in peace Chapter 1: Mandel is a hero! Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary as well as a politician and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first black South African to hold the office.Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to dismantle the country's apartheid system. In 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. In 2009, Mandela's birthday (July 18) was declared "Mandela Day" to promote global peace and celebrate the South African leader's legacy. Mandela died at his home in Johannesburg on December 5, 2013, at age 95.

Nelson Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in the tiny village of Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in Transkei, South Africa. "Rolihlahla" in the Xhosa language literally means "pulling the branch of a tree," but more commonly translates as "troublemaker."

Nelson Mandela's father, who was destined to be a chief, served as a counselor to tribal chiefs for several years, but lost both his title and fortune over a dispute with the local colonial magistrate. Mandela was only an infant at the time, and his father's loss of status forced his mother to move the family to Qunu, an even smaller village north of Mvezo. The village was nestled in a narrow grassy valley; there were no roads, only foot paths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. The family lived in huts and ate a local harvest of maize, sorghum, pumpkin and beans, which was all they could afford. Water came from springs and streams and cooking was done outdoors. Mandela played the games of young boys, acting out male rights-of-passage scenarios with toys he made from the natural materials available, including tree branches and clay.

When Mandela was 9 years old, his father died of lung disease, causing his life to change dramatically. He was adopted by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the acting regent of the Thembu people—a gesture done as a favor to Mandela's father, who, years earlier, had recommended Jongintaba be made chief. Mandela subsequently left the carefree life he knew in Qunu, fearing that he would never see his village again. He traveled by motorcar to Mqhekezweni, the provincial capital of Thembuland, to the chief's royal residence.

When Mandela was 16, it was time for him to partake in the traditional African circumcision ritual to mark his entrance into manhood. The ceremony of circumcision was not just a surgical procedure, but an elaborate ritual in preparation for manhood. In African tradition, an uncircumcised man cannot inherit his father's wealth, marry or officiate at tribal rituals. Mandela participated in the ceremony with 25 other boys. He welcomed the opportunity to partake in his people's customs and felt ready to make the transition from boyhood to manhood.

From the time Mandela came under the guardianship of Regent Jongintaba, he was groomed to assume high office, not as a chief, but a counselor to one. As Thembu royalty, Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school, the Clarkebury Boarding Institute and Wesleyan College, where, he would later state, he achieved academic success through "plain hard work." He also excelled at track and boxing. Mandela was initially mocked as a "country boy" by his Wesleyan classmates, but eventually became friends with several students, including Mathona, his first female friend.


In 1939, Mandela enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare, the only residential center of higher learning for blacks in South Africa at the time. Fort Hare was considered Africa's equivalent of the University of Oxford or Harvard University, drawing scholars from all parts of sub-Sahara Africa. In his first year at the university, Mandela took the required courses, but focused on Roman Dutch law to prepare for a career in civil service as an interpreter or clerk—regarded as the best profession that a black man could obtain at the time.

We all belive Madela was such a great hero, maybe one day you could be a hero changing how we see the world. I know in the bottom of my heart Mandela will always be with what are you waiting on go on and make a difference!


"Our thoughts are with the South African people, who today mourn the loss of the one person who, more than any other, came to embody their sense of a common nation. Our thoughts are with the millions of people across the world who embraced Madiba as their own, and who saw his cause as their cause. This is the moment of our deepest sorrow. Our nation has lost its greatest son."

Message From the u.s president Obama

"My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or policy or politics was a protest against apartheid. I would study his words and his writings, the day he was released from prison gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they're guided by their hopes and not by their fears. And like so many around the globe, I cannot imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set. And so, as long as I live, I will do my best to do what I can to learn from him."

Within minutes of the news of his death, the backlash started.In the comments section of his CNN.com obituary, on Twitter feeds, in blog posts.Nelson Mandela shouldn't be revered as a civil rights icon, the statements screamed: He should be exposed for what he is: A communist. A terrorist. A racist.
To be sure, Mandela can't be neatly grouped with Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. Unlike them, he wasn't always the pacifist he was known for in his later life.

A watershed moment tightly bonded Mandela to Slovo and other communist allies.
Police gunned down 69 unarmed protesters in the town of Sharpville in March 1960. Then the government banned the communist party and the African National Congress, which fought for the freedom of black South Africans.
With Slovo and other Marxists, he co-founded the militia movement Umkhonto we Sizwe. It's meaning: "Spear of the Nation."
On December 16, 1961, the group carried out its first attacks on government installations and handed out leaflets announcing its existence.

But was Mandela a dyed-in-the-wool communist?
Not really, believes South African historian Sampie Terreblanche.
"You must understand it all against the apartheid struggle."
Mandela found the ANC too tame and had begun to push for a violent struggle in the 1940s, when he headed its youth league, the former professor of economics at Stellenbosch University said. The communists were for the use of violence, and Terreblanche believes it led to the alliance.
After his release from prison, Mandela made some high-profile appearances with communist leaders. He visited Fidel Castro in Cuba.
And to commemorate the relaunch of South Africa's communist party in 1990, he gave a speech.
But he also made a point of distancing his own party. "The ANC is not a communist Party," he said.

Ps: Mandela will always be with us.