Nelson Mandela And Steven Biko Essay Research

Nelson Mandela And Steven Biko Essay, Research Paper

Nelson Mandela and Steven Biko are the two most important and influential people in South Africa’s long and harsh battle for racial justice. Mandela, born almost 30 years before Biko, spent a lifetime fighting for the freedom of blacks in South Africa, for 25 years, as a political prisoner. Through his struggles, he came to embody the struggle South African blacks were going through against government enforced discrimination. Through his courage of 25 years of imprisonment, he drew the world’s attention to the unfair and unjust policies that the South African government was enforcing. Steven Biko, while in his twenties became a hero to black South Africans. He called upon his fellow brothers to dissociate themselves from whites, and to form a political movement that would embody their beliefs, based on racial pride and dignity.

He believed that fellow black South Africans needed to realize and raise their racial consciousness, before significant changes would take place, in their homeland, The Republic of South Africa. Together, Nelson Mandela and Steven Biko formed an incredible tandem, a pair that overcame apartheid and changed Africa forever.

Nelson Dalibhunga Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 at Mvezo, a tiny village on the banks of the Mbashe River in the district of Umtata, the capital village of the Transkei(Meer 114). He was the son of Henry Gadla Mphakanyiswa, a Tembu tribal chief, and his third wife Nosekeni Fanny Mandela(114). During his childhood, like most other children his age, he and his siblings had certain duties consisting of herding cattle and sheep, and ploughing.

One night in 1927, Henry Mandela became very Ill. He had some sort of lung problem and was coughing profusely. At this point Nelson could tell that his father was not long for this world(Mandela 13). Henry Mandela died that night, and Nelson was taken by his mother to a destination unknown to him. Young Henry would start his journey to his new home shortly after the death. Mandela recalls arriving at this new place, saying, “this was the Great Place, Mqhekezweni, the provisional capital of Thembuland, the royal residence of Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo, acting regent of the Thembu people(Mandela 14).”

Mandela then went to various secondary schools, the last being University of Fort Hare, where he was expelled for a protest. He then went to Johannesburg, where he joined the African National Conference(ANC) and in 1944 founded the ANC Youth League with Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo(Meer 114).

In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party came into power and began institutionalizing racism as apartheid(Meer 114). From his position as leader of the Youth League, Mandela helped to coordinate labor strikes and campaigns against the unjust laws that the government was enforcing. Mandela was quickly becoming the backbone of the movement against apartheid. Unfortunately, the strikes and rallies often turned violent, with protestors being hurt or dying. As a result the ANC was faced banning.

Forced to go underground, Mandela reached the conclusion that the power of the Nationalists would never be broken through mass civil action alone, and initiated “Umkhonto we Sizwe”(the Spear of the Nation) to organize sabotage against key state installations(Meer 115). The first blasts were in December 1961, and Mandela quickly left the coutry. When he returned in July 1962, he was quickly arrested and sentenced to 5 years, which turned into life imprisonment, when he was convicted of sabotage, and trying to overthrow the state using revolution(115). This sentencing began the long journey that was to last 27 years.

Mandela was sent to Robben Island, a maximum-security prison. There he endured years of physical labor with no contact to the outside world. No one even knew what condition he was in, but they still believed in their leader, they believed that one day he would come back and lead them again. In 1982, he was forced to switch prisons because he was having such a strong following at Robben Island, and they feared he was spurring feelings of revolution. Pressure built up on the government and in 1984, they offered Mandela freedom, provided that he settle in Transkei, the “black” homeland. He refused without thought, sticking with his convictions. Again in 1985, he was offered freedom if he would denounce violence as a political weapon, but again Mandela refused. The only way he was going to give in was if blacks received full rights, he didn’t stay in jail for 27 years to make a plea-bargain! Finally after 27 years in jail, the last Afrikaner president, F.W. de Klerk, unbanned the ANC,PAC, and the South African Communist Party, and released Mandela on Feb. 10, 1990(Meer 115).

Steven Bantu Biko was born December 18, 1946, in King William’s Town, along the eastern coast of South Africa, in eastern Cape Providence, South Africa. After graduating from Marianhill in Natal, he attended the University of Natal, where he studied medicine from 1966 to 1972 (Jones 182). He enjoyed medicine but was preoccupied with politics, specifically getting the attention of all his fellow black brothers and sisters to raise the level of their pride and consciousness of their black heritage and rich tradition.

After a short stint with the National Union of South African Students(NUSAS), Biko became di