Nelson Mandela is a truly inspiring human being and now that I have
read his autobiography, I can say, most concretely, that I believe in his struggle
that united South Africans. Despite all the adversity he faced, he portrays
himself as a strong, introspective, patient character that thinks about all of his
actions thoroughly before committing to them. He lives up to the freedom
fighter image and this entry is an attempt to express some of what I learned
from getting a glimpse into this great man's mind.
The majority of his autobiography was
written while he was still imprisoned in an attempt to get his word outside.
Somewhere along the way of getting his writings to the outside world, however, it got lost and was
not published at that time. Lucky for us, after his release and after becoming President of South Africa as leader of the ANC, it was published in 1995. Mandela is a prime example of how persistent diplomacy
works and the power that words really do hold. He is a truly wise man who gave himself to
the struggle of his people.
___________
Mandela believes,"man's goodness is
a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished (457)."
He explains this ideology further,
"a man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is
locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free
if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free
when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are
robbed of their humanity (459-60)."
Essentially, Mandela is offering to us,
that man is inherently good and his mind is corrupted by ideology
that he inherits during his upbringing.
If you do not read any other part of
this book, my suggestion is that you read the last chapter. It condenses his wise words and much of his
philosophical insight into a few pages.
___________
I am left to conclude that, although
Mandela was imprisoned as prisoner 466/64 (466th prisoner in 1964)
for 27 years, he lived his entire life as a free man. Free in the aspect that
he followed his heart with the intentions of lifting his people out of
repression and apartheid. If you really want to know how
an imprisoned man can be free, read and listen intently to Mandela himself, and you
will be able to truly understand that our imprisonment lies within ourselves,
within our own minds and hearts, so the underlying question is are others imprisoning
us or are we imprisoning ourselves? And, how can we liberate ourselves from imprisonment?
My own answer is through being aware and
knowledgeable and an experienced person. We can learn from our experiences and
attain knowledge that will prove our positions in this world. It is knowledge
and understanding that brings us power, and by choosing to be unaware, to look
the other way, we are not helping others, nor are we helping ourselves. Through
education, we can liberate ourselves and discover exactly what we want to be
and what we want to see in this world. And, by education, by no means am I
limiting that to the formality of attending classes. When I speak of education,
I speak of the search and hunger for the truth. The truth that the mainstream
media does not provide, nor do the textbooks we are given during our primary
and secondary education.
The search for truth begins with you and your
desire to seek true understanding and a conceptual perspective and reaching an
original idea, not the one that is implanted on you by being Democrat or
Republican or what options are given to you. What is your truth? How do you
understand the world? What experiences have you had that have made you think
this way? Looking beyond your own opinions to understand why you hold the
values that you do will not only allow you to argue your case coherently when the
time comes, but will empower you to have a voice in this world, when it seems
that so many are overshadowed by the few, powerful among us who are making
decisions that are not truly beneficial to humankind. Through education and the
sharing of experiences and ideas, we can change things around here.
