Nelson Mandela Significance

Mandela’s rebellious nature and, “trouble making,” side of him were truly put to the test after 1948 when Daniel Francois Malan, the candidate of The National Party, a party whose political platform primarily ran on the idea of, “apartism,” and segregation, won the presidential election, marking the start of Apartheid in South Africa. While in power The Nationalists will legislate racist laws, “seeking to tighten up urban segregation and attempting to restrict African migration into cities, bringing African schools under state control, banning inter-racial sex and marriage, prohibiting mixed race residential and business districts, ending altogether the already very limited African voting rights, and, from the late 1950s, extending the embrace of 'influx

He created a militant group called the MK and led them to enforce hundreds of attacks against the National Party and the South African government. He supported communism because of their similar efforts to end Apartheid, or rebel against government bodies. He supported acts of violence and the use of guerilla warfare, proving his radicalness and the fact that he was unbothered by his actions and the actions of the MK. Finally, his arrest and conviction is what legally documents him as a

Then others who opposed apartheid would support anyone who tried to end it, and Mandela being the most prominent figure in the rebellion was often seen as a hero to these people. So fitting both definitions based on his actions and by popularity being evenly viewed as either a terrorist or freedom fighter, the only other way to determine Nelson Mandela’s title is by acknowledging his success and his actions after he becomes the chief executor, or president, of South