The role of Nelson Mandela Research Paper Example

The role of Nelson Mandela Research Paper Example The role of Nelson Mandela Paper The role of Nelson Mandela Paper 1. Source A is a newspaper advert highlighting Mandelas imprisonment. It was paid for by the African National Congress (ANC) who were strong supporters of Mandela and the African civil rights movement. This means that it may have been biased in favour of the civil rights movement. The ANC wanted to show how badly mistreated the blacks in Africa were in order to gain support from many countries around the world and defeat apartheid. It was printed in 1988 when there was already quite a lot of support for the movement following the Free Mandela song and concert in 1984. This means that the ANC were probably also trying to reinforce the peoples view of apartheid and Mandelas imprisonment. The source is quite limited and although a primary source does not give any information on the suffering of the ordinary people at the time. Also it does not show how things were improving in South Africa. Without this information it is only showing one side of the argument and thus can make people have a biased view. It is most likely to be biased and unreliable, as there is no evidence to support the facts that are presented. We do however know that most of the facts presented are true from our studying of the history of apartheid and South Africa. With this knowledge we can say that the source is reliable from the facts represented but the language used to represent these facts is very charged and biased. 2. Source B is from a defence speech made by Nelson Mandela at his own trial 1963. He wanted to make a dramatic impact to create huge support for his cause. Firstly he explains why he took part in sabotage. During the speech and the whole trial he never denied responsibility for the attacks and this makes the source slightly less biased. However as it came from Mandela who was a leading figure in the rights movement it was very biased and unreliable. He only shows one side of the argument to present Apartheid in a bad light. It also is quite a limited source as it only gives Mandelas opinion on the subject and has no facts to back this up. At the end he shows that he is not an Uncle Tom by declaring that he is prepared to die for the cause. This shows that he was using the speech as propaganda as he knew that this would place him as leader of the civil rights movement and bring massive support. The source is useful as a study of Mandela himself but to a historian studying Apartheid it is not very useful at all. Source C is a table of figures concerning the living conditions of all races in South Africa. It was produced by the UN who are supposed to have a totally unbiased view on all relations but do however have a slight preference for democracy. This makes the source very reliable. The source also has a wide range of data ranging from the population to the average salary of both blacks and whites. It does however not show how the actual living conditions were in South Africa for the blacks. This makes the source slightly less useful but when studying the topic of apartheid it is much useful than Source B. 3. Source A is a newspaper advert highlighting Mandelas imprisonment. It was paid for by the African National Congress (ANC) who were strong supporters of Mandela and the African civil rights movement. This means that it may have been biased in favour of the civil rights movement. The ANC viewed themselves as a legitimate political group who had a valid call for power. They tried to shrug off all ideas of Nelson Mandela and the ANC as terrorists as this defeated their cause. For this reason they describe Mandela as a political prisoner in jail because of the colour of his skin. The advert also strikes at the government of South Africa and claims that it is outlawing democracy. They believed that Mandela was a figurehead of democracy and freedom. They wanted to show him and the movement in as good a light as possible. Source D is a short extract from a speech made by the South African Minister of Information. This title is rather like Josef Goebbels in Germany under Hitlers reign. He masterminded all of the propaganda, as does the South African Minister of Information. This makes the source extremely biased towards the whites. The writer of this speech would have wanted to show Mandela and the rights movement in a bad light to destroy its support. The government also wanted to deny the civil rights movement and its pursuit as a valid political choice. They took advantage of the acts of terrorism by Mandela and other blacks. This showed that the blacks were not at an equal level and that they were also not going about their pursuit the right way. If the government could portray Mandela as a terrorist they could remove a lot of the sympathy he had gained from all around the world. This is done by stating that Mandela is not in prison because of his politics but that he is guilty of a serious crime. This was quite a successful argument against Mandelas release and contrasted greatly to the information received from the ANC. Both of the groups had different reasons for supplying these reports and they contradict each other so that it is difficult to know who is telling the truth. 4. Source E is from a British newspaper, and is a cartoon drawn by a British cartoonist criticising Apartheid. It was drawn in 1964, which was very early in the African civil rights movement.