Mandela- a hero

First, I would like to give a definition of the notion myths and heroes: A myth can be defined as a story about gods or heroes, it can be a popular belief of a tradition or a false notion. A hero can be a mythological figure, a person who is admired for his or her achievements, a superhero or maybe a role model or an icon. To illustrate this notion, I have chosen to talk about Nelson Mandela and attempt to answer the question: In what way can we consider Nelson Mandela as a real hero?

To answer this question, I will present four documents: his autobiography, a video entitled “Mandela in a nutshell”, an article of the New York Times dating from 2013 and Obama’s elegy to Mandela.

First, in Mandela’s autobiography, we learn that he was born in 1918 in South Africa in a small village where he “was born free” as he writes it himself. In this document Mandela insist a lot on the notion of freedom. We understand he experienced freedom when a young boy and contrastingly, a back of freedom as a young teen or adult. We guess it must have been hurtful for a black native to be deprived by the whites of is living freely in his own country. He explained he wanted to change the situation and we can also read he came realize the oppressors were as prisoners as the oppressed. That’s why he wanted to free both oppressors and oppressed, both whites and blacks.

Second, I will refer to the video “Mandela in a nutshell” in which we can see that when he became an adult, Mandela decided to found the ANC, the African National Congress. The idea was to unite the African people and build a South African nation. With the members of the ANC he organised peaceful movements and nonviolent actions. But the government prohibited the political party. So, in 1962, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and went to Robben Island in 1964. Indeed, Nelson Mandela never stopped his fight against the white domination and continues to fight even when he was in prison. This video explains this political fight and show how courageous and determined Mandela was.

Third, when he went out the prison, he continues obviously his fight. To illustrate this period of Mandela’s life I am base on the article of New York Times “Conqueror of apartheid”. In fact, Mandela made a lot of popular speech and was very eloquent. He met important people like the president to negotiate with them. Furthermore, he awarded the Nobel Price Prize with De Klerk because the argued toward a peaceful transfer of power, they acted for peace. The journalist underline to the fact that Mandela was forgiveness, he had no desire of revenge. That why when he became president, Mandela created the Truth and Reconciliation commission. With the commission, anyone could testify fully on the crimes committed during the Apartheid. He really wanted a cohesion between Black and Whites without domination of anyone.

Fourth, I