“Education is the most powerful
weapon which you can use to change the world,” said Mandela. Mandela who started
his education journey in 1925 enrolled in a missionary primary school in Qunu
where his teacher gave him the name Nelson after Admiral Nelson. In 1940 he was
expelled from the University College of Fort Hare in Alice owing to a student
rights dispute. Mandela had the opportunity to meet political activist, Walter
Sisulu, who got him a job in a law firm. In 1942 Mandela completed his Bachelor
of Arts degree from the University of South Africa.
Whilst formally inducted into the
African National Congress, Mandela enrolls for a law degree at the University
of Wits in 1943. Upon forming the ANC Youth league and later becoming the
Transvaal ANC President and rousing the famous “Defiance Campaign”, Mandela was
imprisoned for 9 months in 1952. Upon his release, together with Oliver Tambo,
he established the first black South African law firm.
In 1955 Mandela launches the
Freedom Charter, which marks his journey to freedom taking a more militant
stand in his quest. Beginning 1962 Mandela began to spend time in prison , which
lasted 27 years and was considered the
longest at the Robben Island Prison. Though behind bars, the spirit of freedom
he sat in motion continued to engulf the
nation. Finally with the perseverance and sacrifices of South Africans, in 1990 the
apartheid regime lifted the ban on the ANC
and eventually that led to the freeing of Nelson Mandela in the same year. In
1994 Mandela was elected to the parliament as the first President of a
Democratic South Africa.
“Rolihlahla” (which means ‘troublemaker’
in Xhosa) Mandela, born to an illiterate father and raised to realize the
importance of education in the struggle for freedom for his people, said “I
went from having an idealistic view of the law as a sword of justice to a
perception of the law as a tool used by the ruling class to shape society in a
way favorable to itself. I never expected justice in court, however much I
fought for it, and though I sometimes received it,” his commitment never
seized.
Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Gandhi,
Jose Rizal, Ambedhkar, Martin Luther King, and Fidel Castro (the list is not exhaustive)
all had something in common where education played a significant role towards their
social conscious awakening and the pursuit of justice thereafter.
Education establishes the
invocation of human dignity. It is sad to see many in the world do not even
have access to basic education what more tertiary education. But then again it
was sheer perseverance that made Madiba the legend that he has become.
The inspiration of ‘Madiba’ Rolihlahla
Nelson Mandela is best captured by this poem below by Rabindranath Tagore,
which resonates a universal pursuit of upholding
human dignity.
Where The Mind Is Without
Fear
Where the mind is
without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
Om…… Shanti…..Shanti ….Shanti
