Friday, January 8, 2016

INFLUENTIAL PERSONALITIES OF SOUTH AFRICA


                                       


The Republic of South Africa is a country situated in the very south of the African continent. It is formed by a multi-ethnic society with plenty of cultures, religions and a great variety of languages, among which 11 as official (with English ranked as the 4th most used, especially in public and commercial life). This country is well known for its struggle against racism, mostly during the apartheid system. The apartheid system contained laws of racial segregation that sought the dominance of the white minority over the black majority. This generated a contraposition by the African National Congress and many anti-apartheid activists, among whom we can find:

NELSON MANDELA




 One of the most important South African figures, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in Mvezo. Member of a royal family, but only he received formal education. He attended Fort Hare University, the only black university in South Africa  at the time, but he was expelled after a year due to his political activism. He spent some time working as an apprentice and later, in 1952, he started the first black legal firm with his friend Oliver Tambo, called Mandela and Tambo. On August 5th in 1962, he was arrested, becoming the most famous political prisoner. He got out of prison in 1990, became president of South Africa in 1994 and started creating the non-racial country he'd always dreamed of.

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU
                                                    


 Emeritus Desmond Tutu was born on 7 October 1931 in Klerksdorp. A humanitarian figure of humble origins, he had to abandon his studies in 1953 because of the Bantu Education Act. He joined the Anglican Church and and helped in the fight against the apartheid system. He made history in 1975 for becoming the first Anglican Dean of Johannesburg and again in 1986 when he was appointed Archbishop of Cape Town. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, but continued fighting against racism and injustice.

NADINE GORDIMER



 Born on 20 November 1923, she was a South African writer and political activist. She came from a white middle-class family of Jewish origins. She witnessed first-hand the oppressive apartheid system, against which she fought vehemently. She used this experiences in her novels, which back then were banned in South Africa, but widely read around the rest of the world. She won many awards such as the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991, becoming the first South African to win this celebrated award. From 1994 onwards, she also became an activist in the HIV/AIDS movement.


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