Nelson Mandela - A great leader - Worksheet and activities for kids

Nelson Mandela is an example of a man that lead his country in a good way and cared for his people - lets learn more about this good leader.

image source

Growing up

• Watch the video on Mandela's childhood and answer the questions (If you have to watch it more than once to find all the answers do it)

source

1. What was Nelson Mandela's full name?
2. When and where was he born?
3. When did his family's life change?
4. The family had to move.  Where did they move to?
5. Which activities did Mandela do as a child to keep himself busy?
6. When did his father die?
7. After his father died he was send to boarding school.  Where was the school and what was the name of the school?
8. At which University did Mandela study?
9. A student boycott took place at the University.  When did it happen and what were the alternatives given to Mandela?
10. To which city did Mandela and his friend escape to?

Mandela and the ANC

After Mandela went to Johannesburg he met Walter and Albertina Sisula.  These people had the desire (they wished) that black people will have the same rights as white people and would also be able to vote and have a say.

There was a lot of laws that were not fair towards black people and Mandela wanted to make a change for everybody so that all people in South Africa would be equal. (be treated the same)

This idea motivated him to go to Wits University and study to become a lawyer.

In 1944 he joined the ANC (African National Congress) - a political party in South Africa.  The ANC started a campaign (a march) which they called the Defiance Campaign - if you defy something it means you are not happy with it and you do not do what they tell you to do.

Through this campaign they showed that they were not happy with some of the laws.  The government of South Africa at that time were not happy with this campaign and they arrested a lot of people and put them in prison.

Mandela decided that he is going to commit to put an end to apartheid.  This was a time when the government believed that not all people are equal and the different groups should be seperated from one another.

The ANC wanted human rights for all the people in South Africa.

The government was not happy with what Mandela and the other people of the ANC did and in 1964 Mandel was send to prison.

• Watch the video for more information on Mandela's life.  Watch it a few times and then make your own summary of what happened

source

Freed from prison

After 27 years in prison for his beliefs that all people of South Africa deserve peace and justice, he was released in 1990 when the then president FW de Klerk let him out.

image source

The country held the first democratic election (everybody had the right to vote) and Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.

He and FW de Klerk also received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994.

South Africans admired this man a lot because he had a lot of compassion and understanding for people of all races and his main aim for the country was that all people should live in peace.

He was president from 1994 to 1999 and then retired.  Even though he was not the president any more, he kept on doing good work and showing people what a good leader can do.  

On 5 December 2013 Nelson Mandela died and was mourned by the whole world but especially South Africans for whom he will forever be an icon (a person you can look up to).  

He was a clever man and always had beautiful quotes (things he said).  We can learn a lot from the example he set and the legacy he left behind.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

It always seems impossible until it's done.

I  learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over  it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who  conquers that fear.

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

If  you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying

 

source

Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone