A notable person is someone who has a positive influence on our lives and ideally the progress of humanity. My chosen notable person won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993 which he which he chose to share with South Africa's vice-president at the time, to F.W. de Klerk, and for having led the transition from apartheid to a multiracial democracy. He is well known for being the first black president of South Africa, serving from 1994 to 1999. However, what sets him apart above so many others are his style of promoting a message of forgiveness and equality. This is why I believe that Nelson Mandela is a notable person.  

   

In my opinion, he is most famous for toppling the apartheid regime. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word for 'separation' – literally, 'separateness' – It was a term used to describe the discriminatory political and economic system of racial segregation which the Caucasian minority imposed on non-Caucasians. It was implemented by the governing party, the National Party of South Africa, from 1948 until 1994. The formal demise of South Africa's apartheid administration took a long time to achieve. Ending the rule that allowed the country's Caucasian minority to subjugate its Black majority took decades of action, from both inside and outside the country, along with worldwide economic pressure.    

   

Apartheid was opposed by black South Africans from the beginning. The African National Congress, or ANC, initiated a Defiance Campaign in the early 1950s. The goal of this campaign was for Black South Africans to defy apartheid regulations by entering Caucasian areas, using Caucasian amenities, and refusing to carry "passes," which were domestic passports used by the government to restrict Black South Africans' travel inside the country. The government responded by banning the ANC in 1960 and arresting Nelson Mandela, a major ANC activist, in August 1962, who remained in prison for the next twenty-seven.     

   

Upon the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1999, the world was ever so ready to accept the 'modern' views that the rest of the world at large as a consensus had been doing since we first understood the concept of unity. After being reinstated, the ANC won 62.5% of the votes in an election on 27 April 1994, with Nelson Mandela leading the charge and for the first time in forty-six years made South Africa free of the apartheid regime.    

   

Mandela considered national reconciliation as the most important mission of his presidency, as he presided over the country's transition from apartheid minority rule to a multicultural democracy. He is famous for promoting a message of forgiveness and equality. Mandela attempted to reassure South Africa's Caucasian populace that they were protected and represented in South Africa, having watched other post-colonial African countries suffer as a result of the departure of Caucasian elites. Even though he had been prejudiced against by the Caucasian minority when he came into power, he led by example in making a successful bi-racial government in a show of forgiveness and equality. Despite the fact that the ANC would dominate his Government of National Unity, he attempted to build a broad coalition by appointing de Klerk as Deputy President. Other Caucasians were appointed to National Party official roles as Ministers of Agriculture, Environment, Minerals and Energy, as well as Buthelezi as Minister of Home Affairs.   

   

Nelson Mandela won a noble peace prize "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa." Mandela shared the Peace Prize with the man who had released him from his twenty-seven years in prison, President Frederik Willem de Klerk because they had agreed on a peaceful transition to the majority rule from the out-coming election. -Nobel Prize.org (n.d.)  

   

All of this answers in a rudimentary fashion how Mandela changed the world, but to me, Nelson Mandela achieved much more than just that.   

   

Mandela is my hero because his spirit couldn’t be crushed. Imprisoned for his political views in the early 1960s, Mandela refused to compromise his position, which was equality and justice for all people. He sacrificed his own freedom for the self-determination of all South Africans. He was courageous and uncompromising with his core beliefs and values. He is a global icon still, because he showed that hatred cannot be overcome by hatred and violence however can be overcome very effectively through empathy.  He once said, ‘No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite’ -   Nelson Mandela – Oxford Quotes (n.d.). 

   

Nelson Mandela became so much more than what the world told him he could be, and he didn’t give up on his principal belief instilled from childhood. ‘At his core, this was Nelson Mandela’s mission, and its story goes back all the way to his days as a child in that small African village. Ubuntu is the Xhosa idea that there is a oneness to all people. An impenetrable tie that binds us all to one another. A principle stating that conflict amongst people is temporary, only a brief diversion from the natural order of our true nature as human beings: togetherness. Mandela took this belief to heart, and with it shaped the world around him, believing that strength will overcome strife and refusing to be cynical.   

   

Another famous notable of modern times, Barack Obama, summed it up better than I during Mandela’s eulogy:   

   

“Ubuntu, a word that captures Mandela’s greatest gift: His recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others and caring for those around us. He not only embodied Ubuntu, but he taught millions to find that truth within themselves.”’ - 8-Ways Nelson Mandela Changed the World. (n.d.).   

   

Twenty-seven years of prison could not break or corrupt his spirit. He did wonderful things; abolish the apartheid system and peacefully reconcile the black majority and Caucasian minority of South Africa as the first democratic President of South Africa but this is what I remember him for. Nelson Mandela is a notable person not because he had a positive influence on our lives and the progress of humanity, he did all of that, no he is notable because he changed the perception of how the world could be and how we could live together in a better way, not just through words but through example. This is why Nelson Mandela is most definitely a notable person.  

  

  

Bibliography:  

- Nelson Mandela (n.d.). In Nobel Prize.org Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1993/mandela/facts/  

- Nelson Mandela – Oxford Quotes (n.d.). In Oxford Refernce.com Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00007046 

- 8-Ways Nelson Mandela Changed the World. (n.d.). In Red.org Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.red.org/reditorial/2018/7/18/8-ways-nelson-mandela-changed-the-world/  

  

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