Nelson Mandela

“Education is the most powerful (शक्तिशाली) weapon (शस्त्र) you can use to change the world.” 
 

 Nelson Mandela was in prison (तुरुंगात) for 27 years. Why? Because he wanted freedom (मुक्ती) for all the people of South Africa: for black people and white people, men and women, rich and poor. But the people who ruled (राज्य करणे) South Africa did not want this. And so they put Mandela in prison.

     A short history of South Africa

     Many years ago, people from Holland (the "Dutch") came to South Africa. They wanted the good land they saw there. They wanted the ports (बंदर) for their ships (जहाज).  Every year more and more people from Holland (हॉलंड) came.  Every year they took more and more land away from the South African people. Finally, the Dutch took over (राज्य करणे) the country. The native (मुळ) South Africans became slaves (गुलाम). They had no rights (मानवी हक्क). They lost their land and homes. They could not vote. They were not even citizens (नागरिक) in their own country. In 1948 a horrible (भयानक) law called apartheid [a-PAR-tide] was made. Apartheid means to keep people apart or separate from each other. Black people could not live where white people lived.  Black and white people could not work together or go to school together.
      Nelson Mandela was born in 1918. Nelson's father died when he was a little boy. The elder [the oldest, wise man] of the village took Nelson as his son. Nelson watched how his step-father [his 2nd father] ruled the village. Nelson's step-father taught him 2 very important things: 1) how to listen (ऐका) to other people.  2) how to respect (आदर) people. Nelson studied hard in school and then went to university to study law (कायदा).
      After university, Mandela worked hard to help and free his people. Like Mahatma Gandhi, Mandela believed in peaceful protest (निषेध). He did not use violence (हिंसा)—but he did use weapons (शस्त्र) that hurt property (मालमत्ता) and things. But he did not hurt people. For example, the protesters (विरोधक) would cut (कापणे) the telephone lines so none of the government telephones would work.

 Finally, the government put Nelson Mandela in prison.  For 27 years.
      Life in prison was very, very hard. No words can say how awful it was. He worked long hours under the hot sun. At other times it was very cold and it made him ill (आजारी). But there is something more important than these things:  The government could not put Nelson Mandela's self-respect, or soul, in prison. Mandela did not let prison change him. He did not let prison "define" him or make him who he was.  He did not let prison make him weak (कमकुवत). He used the time in prison to make himself wise and strong. When he was alone in his prison cell he read books, he wrote down his ideas, and he studied law. He even got books and taught himself the Africaans language—the language of the white rulers (राज्यकर्ता), his enemies!

On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed (मोफत) from prison. He was 71 years old. He spent 9,885 days of his life in prison. Four years later, Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa.
      One time a journalist (पत्रकार) asked him, “Why are you not bitter (कडू) (full of hate) about being in prison?” Mandela answered, “As I walked out the prison door, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness (कटुता) and hatred (द्वेष) behind, I would still be in prison.”
      At the celebration (उत्सव) on the day Mandela became president, he invited all his prison guards to sit at the table with him and celebrate! He told them that he wanted everyone to go forward together and build a new country. One of Mandela’s prison guards became his bodyguard (अंगरक्षक) for the rest of Mandela’s life. In a public speech the (white) guard said, “Mandela has become like a father to me.”