Nelson Mandela.
Anti-apartheid.
Peace.
Three words that will always be associated with each other. Why so? Nelson Mandela had led the non-violent action against apartheid in South Africa. As a consequence, the South African white regime jailed him for 27 years; obviously, for opposing his country’s white minority government. However, he was vindicated after his incarceration. He ascended to South Africa’s presidency and became the first democratically elected president. Also, it’s significant to point out that he emerged as his country’s first ever black president. This detail is important to mention since he became an icon of overthrowing, through peaceful means, a form of government that is politically, economically, and legally against non-whites.
The flipside of this post is the illustration based on the poem Invictus. It was his favorite. In fact he recited this poem frequently to his jailmates. William Ernest Henley’s piece with the classic lines “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul” became Mandela’s guiding principle in life.
Illustration by Gavin Aung Than and published by Zenpencils.
