Nelson Mandela, the man who took a stand in history

    Nelson Mandela was the topic I selected to do my history fair project on. I chose this project knowing that Nelson Mandela stood up against apartheid, which is a Government enforced policy that both separated people of color from white people, and enabled white people to treat people of color unequally. I was very interested in how Nelson Mandela stood against apartheid, even after being treated harshly in prison for nearly three decades. I soon took interest in him. I wanted to conduct research on him right away, eager to know more on how his movement has impacted society today.

   When I started my research, I didn’t know what I should start on. At first I decided to settle on secondary sources like websites, but then “I thought, what if I a find a primary resource I can use, like a diary, speech or even a book.” Then I chose one of the three books Nelson Mandela wrote himself, which was “Long walk to freedom.”

   During my research, I found Sahistory.org, an extremely useful secondary resource. The book itself gave me more concrete details, and while the website did give me some, it wasn’t as detailed as the autobiography. In contrast there was sometimes a term or two that I couldn’t wrap my head around. For example, apartheid was a term that I didn’t understand for a while, but as I read the website, and researched on this topic, I got the actual definition of it, which is segregation, or the separation of the races within South Africa.

   Initially, I had a lot of problems with this project. One of them being the amount secondary sources I used. At first I didn’t have a single primary source to help me with my research. Then another problem was that I didn’t know how to use a complex website builder to construct my website. I wanted my website to look extraordinary, but I didn’t know how to operate the wide variety of resource weebly.com, had to offer.  I asked my sister if there was any other place I could use instead of weebly.com, and so she showed me many other options that I could’ve looked used.

   Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela took a stand for his people. Even when faced with obstacles that seemed impossible to conquer, he protested peacefully and triumphant. Although all odds were against for equal right for all races in South Africa to Mandela made it happen. If it wasn’t for him, history as we know it would be different. If apartheid had continued, today in the twentieth century, America as a nation can still look at a nation that has Segregation.

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