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Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "A Long Walk to Freedom"

Resorting to Violence: Did the ANC have a choice?

Explain the reasons behind the creation of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK).  Do you think adopting violence as a method strengthened or weakened the anti-apartheid movement? Adopting violence as the movement’s revised strategy after almost fifty years of preaching nonviolent resistance was undoubtedly a complicated decision with immense ramifications.  On one hand, the choice to use violence demonstrated to ANC supporters that nonviolence could not destroy Apartheid which is demoralizing.  It showed that they were not strong and united enough to conquer violence without partaking in it.  On the other hand, the ANC simply did not have a choice.  They would not achieve their vision of a free state for all people without using more aggressive means to achieve it.  Due to the force of the National Party, violence did strengthen the … Read entire article »

Filed under: Summer Reading Responses

What makes a freedom fighter?

(In response to the prompt ” How did Nelson Mandela’s Childhood and education impact his political philosophy?”) Nelson Mandela was not always the man we know him to be today. Not every human is destined to become their country’s first African attorney, be imprisoned for 27 years, and later become the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize. Yet, however extraordinary the events of Nelson Mandela’s life were to become, they began in much the same way as many other poverty-stricken Africans of his generation. He, his mother, and siblings lived in small mud-walled huts without any of the modern amenities available at that time. Mandela spent his early years enjoying the simple games of stick fighting and meals of samp (corn porridge) and beans, while leaning to look after sheep and … Read entire article »

Filed under: Summer Reading Responses