Lesson 2
Nelson Mandela, from Apartheid Fighter to President
A. Warm-up activity:
Work in pairs.
□ Who do you see in picture? what do you know about him?
B. Read the text.
15 December 2013
Johannesburg (Reuters)-Nelson Mandela guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to a multi-racial democracy, as an icon of peace and reconciliation who came to embody the struggle for justice around the world.
Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against while minority rule, Mandela never losthis resolve to fight for his people’s emancipation. He was determined to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war. His prestige and charisma helped him win the support of the world.
“I hate race discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestations. I have fought it all during my life; I will fight it now, and will do so until the end of my days, “Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994,... “The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.”
“We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation.”
In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white African leader who had freed him from prison three years earlier and negotiated the end of apartheid.
Mandela went on to play a prominent role on the world stage as an advocate of human dignity in the face of challenges ranging from political repression to AIDS.
He formally left public life in June 2004 before his 86th birthday, telling his adoring countrymen: “Don’t call me. I’ll call you.” But he remained one of the world’s most revered public figures, combining celebrity sparkle with an unwavering message of freedom, respect, and human rights.
“He is at the epicenter of our time, ours in South Africa, and yours, wherever you are,” Nadine Gordimer, the South African writer and Nobel Laureate for Literature, once remarked.
The years Mandela spent behind bars made him the world’s most celebrated political prisoner and a leader of mythic stature for millions of black South Africans and other oppressed people far beyond his country’s borders.
Charged with capital offences in the 1963 Rivonia Trial, his statement from the dock was his political testimony.
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.
“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities,” he told the court.
“It is an ideal I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am
prepared to die.”
Friends adored Mandela and fondly called him “Madiba,” the clan name by which he was
known. People lauded his humanity, kindness and dignity.
C. Each of the following questions has a word with four alternative meanings. Choose the word which is closest in meaning in the context that has been used in the text.
i. What does apartheid refer to in the title?
a. apart b. distance
c. discrimination d. dialogue
c. discrimination d. dialogue
ii. The word icon in the text means-.
a. portrait b. image
c. symbol d. idol
a. portrait b. image
c. symbol d. idol
iii. What do shackles refer to?
a. restraints b. sick
c. stigma d. spur
iv. Race discrimination refers to
a. differences on the basis of caste, creed and colour
b. competition among the members of a race
c. demoralization of people
d. domination of others
v. The word manifestation means
a. presentation b. right
c. change d. sign
vi. The word healing means
a. curing b. heating
c. soothing d. ailing
vii. The word chasm refers to
a. cleft b. top
c. hatred d. border
viii. The word emancipation is
a. participation b. encouragement
c. expectation d. liberation
D. Answer the following questions:
a. The text is a report prepared by a news agency. An English language newspaper here is interested to publish it in a shortened form. Write a summary of the report for the newspaper.
b. What do the following dates refer to?
1963 1993 1994 2004
c. Why did Nadine Gordimer remark that “He (Mandela) is at the epicenter of our time, ours
in South Africa, and yours, wherever you are.”?
d. What emancipation did Mandela hint at by saying “We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation.”?
e. Mandela is quoted in the report as saying, “It is an ideal I hope to live for and to achieve.
But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” What ideal is he talking
about? Do you support his ideal?
E. Read the text below and fill in the gaps with the right use of verbs:
Mandela .........(be) among the first to advocate armed resistance to apartheid, going
underground in 1961 to form the ANC’s armed wing. He ....... (leave) South Africa and.........
(travel) the continent and Europe, studying guerrilla warfare and building support for the
ANC.
Branded a terrorist by his enemies, Mandela........... (sentence) to life imprisonment in
1964, isolated from millions of his countrymen as they .......(suffer) oppression, violence and
forced resettlement under the apartheid regime of racial segregation, He .........(imprison) on
Robben Island, a penal colony of Cape Town, where he ..........(spend) the next 18 years
before being moved to mainland prisons.
F. Read the jumbled text and rearrange it into a cohesive paragraph.
In his later years in prison, he met President P.W. Botha and his successor de Klerk. He was behind bars when an uprising broke out in the huge township of Soweto in 1976 and when others erupted in violence in the 1980s. "As I finally walked through those gates ... I felt even at the age of 71 that my life was beginning anew. My 10,000 days of imprisonment were at last over," Mandela wrote of that day. When he was released on 11 February 1990, walking away from the Victor Verster prison hand-in-hand with his wife Winnie, the event was watched live by millions of television viewers across the world. But when the regime realized it was time to negotiate, it was Mandela to whom it turned.
G. Read the text below and fill in the gaps with the clues given in the box. There is one
extra word.|
Tuberculosis is renew to for be damage September of remained do the |
Mandela was treated in the 1980s for .............and later required an operation to repair the
.............to his eyes as well as treatment.............prostate cancer in 2001. His spirit,
however,...........strong.
“If cancer wins I will still .............the better winner, “he told reporters in ........of that year.
“When I go ...........the next world, the first thing I will ..........is look for an ANC office to
......... my membership.”
Most South Africans are proud ............their post-apartheid multi-racial ‘Rainbow Nation’.
H. Now fill in the gaps in the text below using suitable words.
Mandela’s last major appearance on the ..............stage was in 2010 when he ............a cap in
the South African ..............and rode on a golf cart, ...........to an exuberant crowd of 90,000
...........the soccer World Cup final, one .............the biggest events in the country’s
.............apartheid history.
“I leave it to .............. public to decide how they should ............me,” he said on South
African .............before his retirement.
“But I should ...........to be remembered as an ordinary ..............South African who together
with others has ..............his humble contribution.”
[The text on Mandela is written by Andrew Quinn and Jon Herskovits; Edited by Pascal
Fletcher and Angus MacSwan, Source: http://tv.yahoo.com/news/nelson-mandela-apartheidfighter-president-unifier-105117261.html,accessed on 14/02/2014]
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