Nelson Mandela-" No Easy Walk To Freedom"

Title: NELSON MANDELA
Author: Barry Denenberg
Publisher: Scholastic
Place and Year of publication:
Published in New York in 1995
Number of pages: 174
Where I found the book: In Christian Heritage School library

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918. This book title is “No Easy Walk to Freedom” this explains Nelson Mandela mission, he wanted freedom for his people and he knew that this is a hard way to walk. This takes place in South Africa from the years 1942-1994. His father was Chief Henry Mandela of the Tembu Tribe. When Nelson was 12 years old, his father died. Before he died he saw to it that his son was placed in good care of an uncle who was also a tribal chief. Nelson attended schools run by missionaries and he later on became a good Christian. When Nelson was 20 years old he enrolled in Fort Hare College which was one of the few universities in South Africa which allowed black students. Nelson
was interested in politics and he thought he might become a lawyer. By studying law he might be able to help his people obtain their lawful citizenship rights. The theme of the book is fight
for what you believe is right and don’t stop until you get what you wanted. Nelson Mandela fight for freedom was right and he didn’t stop until he won that freedom for himself and his people which then changed many lives.


In 1942, Nelson joined the African National Congress (ANC), which at the time was polite to the government, soon Nelson Mandela had persuaded the ANC to use boycotts and strikes against the government instead of being polite. He was arrested for civil disobedience, and was not allowed to attend gatherings. In his spare time, Nelson Mandela studied to become a lawyer so
that he could protect blacks. Working as a lawyer strengthened his feelings against apartheid. After the Shapesville massacre in which many blacks were killed, the white rule banned the ANC. Nelson went underground, he created the MK, which was the military portion of the ANC. Nelson arranged military training in Algeria for the MK members. He launched a sabotage campaign. On his return from Algeria he was arrested for going between countries without a passport, and was tried for sabotage and attempting to overthrow the government. He spent
the next 28 years in prison. Before going to prison he said, “Make every home, every shack or rickety structure into a learning center.”

When he got to Robben Island where he was to be imprisoned Nelson was told to jog to the prison gate. He refused and he and the other prisoners started a hunger strike to get better living conditions. The prisoners won. They also found ways to communicate with other prisoners. A few
methods were: Writing messages on toilet paper, hiding messages in the bottom of food buckets, and slipping notes in the dirty dishes .While Nelson was in prison he was offered freedom if he would stop his violent actions. He refused this offer. During Nelson Mandela’s jail time he had secret talks with South Africa’s president, P.W. Botha, and his successor, F.W. de Klerk. As a result, in 1990 he was freed. He was appointed Deputy President of the ANC. In July of
1991, Nelson Mandela was appointed President of the ANC. Nelson decided to join the government and other parties to negotiate South Africa’s future. Finally everyone came to agree on a majority rule constitution. This constitution states that racial discrimination is
against the law. In 1993, Nelson Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk for dismantling apartheid, and in 1994 he became the first democratically elected South African president.


Christian thoughts

Nelson Mandela was raised as a Christian when he was young, the book describes him as a strong
and humble Christian. Nelson Mandela was fighting for freedom for the black people during the racist government. Blacks started to believe that God made them to be slaves and that white men should rule, Nelson disagreed with that type of thinking. When Nelson and the ANC were on strike they noticed that the white South African government wasn’t listening to them which led Nelson into using violence. If I was in his spot I would have prayed and asked God to help
me fight for what is right. The book never mentions anything about Mandela repenting and asking God to forgive him. Spending 28 years in jail may have caused him to realize that using violence was wrong. Overall, he put others before him which is a good Christian trait.


My thoughts

I chose this book because I have always heard of Nelson Mandela but I never knew anything about who he was and what he did, so this helped me increase my knowledge about him. I think this book was really informing on teaching me how some governments treated the black people. Biography’s are not my favorite type of reading, but this author used nice and simple vocabulary making it easy for me to read the book. Reasons I like this book is because it has a really
good story to teach which is having perseverance. I recommend this book for the type of people interested in learning about racism and fighting for what you believe in.