The Persistence of a Conviction Nelson Mandela Daniel Leal Simon Atkinson History 2014 Content An Introduction to Mandela…………………….……………………............2 Apartheid and its Opponents…………………….……………………………3 The End of Apartheid……………………………………….…………………….5 Nelson Mandela as an Example……………………….……………………..6 Conclusion……………………………………………….…………………………….6 References....………………………………………………………………………….7 An introduction to Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela frequently talks about “The struggle is my life" but what struggle is he talking about? The struggle to end racism in South Africa, where of all races has certainly affected him, as it has to all Africans. How can he say he dedicated his life to the cause of anti-racism? Racism became an official policy with the passing of an apartheid law in 1948. The term 'Apartheid ' means "apart": not necessarily racial victimization and favoritism. However, Apartheid has come to denote the culmination of unspoken laws excluding black people. Apartheid implied that "whites" mainly the English, Dutch, Japanese, and Italian, were to be segregated and favored as citizens of South Africa while the black majority, labeled Bantus regardless of their tribe or homeland, were to live in Bantustans. Similar to America 's Native American Reservations, but much more extreme. Bantustans were territories with arid, infertile land and very small value. In cramped homesteads, natives struggled to provide food and decent living