Countries all over the African Continent have a story to tell. Most of them were colonised and had to go through battles to regain their freedom back from the colonisers. Some have blamed the underdevelopment in Africa on colonisation. The black people of South Africa faced a great deal of racial discrimination and made quite a struggle for democracy during the apartheid rule. The South African people had suffered a lot before they achieved their independence in 1934. The Apartheid period, which lasted between 1948 and 1994, was a rule that required blacks to be segregated from the whites. Have you heard from Johannesburg (episode 1) and the power of one are American movies based on the apartheid era in South Africa. This paper will describe the biographies, fight and struggles of Nelson Mandela and Sindiwe Magona for freedom and against racial discrimination in South Africa.
Bond believes that the country was initially colonised by the Dutch and later by Great Britain (169). The racial segregation was imposed by the white minority rule and forced people of different races to live in different areas. Laws were set in place, and those who went against them were severely punished. The whites were given authority to keep the black out of specific areas. They could only enter such places if they had a pass or specific papers that permitted them to work in the banned areas. According to Bond, t he government did not want mixed communities, and many people were moved as a result (169). The blacks could also not vote or own land in areas which were considered to be for the whites. 1
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Nelson Mandela and Sindiwe Magona were among the African leaders who rebelled against the racism and segregation. Both of these great leaders fought the same war but with different weapons. Sindiwe Magona used the pen and socialism to abolish the inhuman rule while Nelson Mandela used his mouth and political power. Both of these two people have been awarded different prizes because of their recognisable work. They worked hard to end Apartheid in South Africa, and it is through them that people were enlightened and encouraged to resist the insane law. 2
Nelson Mandela rose to the political arena in 1942. Most of his actions have inspired films like The Long Walk to Freedom (2013) and Dear Mandela (2011). In one of his quotes he said that if it cost him his life for South Africa to gain independence, he was ready to go down that road. Mandela was born in the Mvezo village in Transkei into the Madiba clan on 18th July 1918. His father Gadla was a chief counsellor of the King of the Thembu people at that time. Mandela dreamt of fighting for his people's freedom when he listened of the achievements of his ancestors during the earlier resistance wars. He received his primary school education in Qunu. He later went to Wesleyan secondary school in Healdtown after going to Clarkebury Boarding Institute where he attained his junior certificate. Later, he joined the University College of Fort Hare, where he partially studied a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was expelled before completion for being involved in a student protest .
Mandela later went back to Fort Hare to attend his graduation after successful completion of his BA in the University of South Africa. He then studied law and joined politics in 1942, where he contributed to the formation of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). In 1952, Mandela and other leaders of the South African Indian Congress and ANC campaigned against some unjust laws. They were sentenced to hard labour for nine months. Mandela’s struggles did not end here; he was again detained in 1960 during a state of emergency after police killed 69 people who were unarmed for protesting in Sharpeville .
Mandela organised national strikes against the racial constitution which were launched in 1961 with the formation of Umkhontowe Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation). Mandela received imprisonment for five years for causing the strikes and for illegally leaving the country. He was taken to Robben Island and in a death penalty trial declared in his speech that he was ready to die if his quest for a just and harmonious society led him in that direction. The release of Mandela came about in 1990 and later became the first Democratic president in 1994. He stepped down in 1999 and continued to preach democracy until his death on 5th December 2013 .
Sindiwe Magona, on the other hand, was born on the 23rd of August 1943 in Gungululu village2. Just like Mandela, she was born in Transkei. She was the first born in a family of eight children. Her education saw her attain a social work master’s degree in the USA at the Columbia University. Magona is an internationally recognised writer who fought against patriarchy and racism. She condemned harassment of black women and wrote about the challenges that women were facing in the South African society. Laws were limiting black women from attaining education as well as employment opportunities during the apartheid rule. That made it difficult for women to have meaningful lives2
In her book, To My Children’s Children, which was published in 2006, she speaks of how she had to survive during the Apartheid. Magona describes how she and her fellow black kids would taste what the whites enjoyed when relatives who were employed by the whites came home with discarded items. In her novel, mother to mother, she carries out a task as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which advocated for social justice. Through this book and others that she wrote, Magona fought hard to achieve her freedom and strived to encourage others to do so through her literature work .2
Bibliography
Nelson, Mandela. Long Walk to Freedom (The Autobiography of Mandela . little Brown and Company, 1994.
Masemola, Kgomotso. "The individuated collective utterance: lack, law and desire in the autobiographies of Ellen Kuzwayo and Sindiwe Magona." JLS/TLW 26, no. 1 (2010): 111-134.
The series, ‘ Have you heard from Johannesburg episode 1 (2012) ’
The movie, power of one (1992).
1 Nelson, Mandela. Long Walk to Freedom (The Autobiography of Mandela . little Brown and Company, 1994.
2 Masemola, Kgomotso. "The individuated collective utterance: lack, law and desire in the autobiographies of Ellen Kuzwayo and Sindiwe Magona." JLS/TLW 26, no. 1 (2010): 111-134
