Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: The iconic freedom fighter
Abstract
On Thursday, 5 December 2013, South Africa and the world received the shocking news that the iconic freedom fighter and founding father of the democratic republic of South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, was no longer with us. He had passed away peacefully after over 95 years on earth, 27 of which he was incarcerated on Robben Island near Cape Town. We were told that Madiba, as he was fondly called, inherited the name “Nelson” from Miss Mdingane, his primary school teacher in Qunu, who gave every student an English name. His Xhosa name, Rolihlahla, literally means “pulling the branch of a tree”, but its colloquial meaning is “troublemaker”. Madiba fought the apartheid system before and during his incarceration, as well as after his release from prison. This was exemplified during his inaugural address on 10 May 1994, which contained one of his famous quotations, which was: “Never, never, and never again, shall it be that this beautiful land will experience the oppression of one by another”.
Section
Editorials
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