About This Lesson
Looking For A Leader
What kind of person do you think would be most helpful in making people’s lives better all over the world? Nelson Mandela had these ideas about that.
“Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others, real leaders must be ready to sacrifice for their people, inspired in everything they do by genuine love for humanity and who’ll serve all humans selflessly. Our cause is just. It is a fight for human dignity and for an honorable life. In dealing with people, be they friends or foe, you are always polite and pleasant. This is equally important in public debates. We can be frank and outspoken without being reckless or abusive, polite without cringing, we can attack racialism and its evils without ourselves fostering feelings of hostility between different racial groups.”
Nelson Mandela was sent to prison for 27 years for trying to overthrow the government of South Africa. During that time he continued to speak out against the apartheid laws which kept black people separated from whites and did not allow them to have equal rights. Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black president after his release and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
