We'll miss you, Madiba!

Dear students & readers of this blog,

Last week was a sad week for South Africa and for the entire world, as they lost one of their most significant figures. A man who changed the course of history in his country and who opened the way to the abolition of race-based discrimination in other parts of the world. Here's our humble homage to Madiba, as he was called back home.

Nelson Mandela, the former South African president and anti-apartheid icon, diead on Thursday December 5, following the latest in a series of lung infections. He was 95 years old. 

Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) party in the 1940s and would go on to lead protests against the ruling Apartheid regime, which restricted the basic rights of South Africa's nonwhite propulation and barred their participation in government. His resistance to such oppressive policies earned him nearly three decades in prision, during which he became an international symbol of the anti-Apartheid movement. Upon his release in 1990, Mandela helped negotiate an end to the Apartheid system, and four years later he won the election as the first black president of South Africa. He retired from politics in 1999, but remained a global advocate for peace and social justice.

(source: history channel)

Obituary: Nelson Mandela

Who could explain who Nelson Mandela was better than Mandela himself? The lights and shadows of a symbol. Take a few minutes to watch the video below: 

Here are 6 things maybe you didn't know about Nelson Mandela:

1- He was a boxing fan.
2- His original name was not Nelson, but Rolihlahla. (from Xhosa, one of the 11 official languages of the country)
3- He was on a US terror watch list until 2008
4- He forgot his glasses when he was released from prision (he had to borrow his wife Winnie's)
5- He dressed up as a chauffeur to evade police
6- He had his own law firm, but it took him years to get a law degree

For further information, click here.

Mandela's memory is inevitably linked to one word: APARTHEID.

Apartheid was a system of legal racial separation which dominated the Republic of South Africa from 1948 to 1993. However, the mechanisms of apartheid were set in place long before 1948, and South Africa continues to deal with the repercussions. Under apartheid, various races were separated into different regions, and discrimination against people of colour was not only acceptable, but legally entrenched, with whites having priority housing, jobs, education, and political power. Although South Africa was heavily criticized for the system, it wa not until 1991 that the legal system of apartheid began to be broken down, and in 1993 was thrown out altogether with the election of Nelson Mandela, the first black democratically elected President of South Africa. The term is also used more generally around the world to refer  to systematic racism which is tolerated, rather than confronted.

(source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-apartheid.htm)

Rest in Peace, Madiba