Research Paper on:
'Ordinary Man' Nelson Mendela

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and organizational skills. To say that the right person was in the right place at the right time is not to negate any of Medelas skills, but neither can  time and situation be ignored. According to Brink (2000), Mandela himself argues, that "I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man, who had become a leader because  of extraordinary circumstances." Conditions which led to apartheid Since colonization, by the British, South Africa has had a history of racial discrimination. The 1910 Act of Union passed by  British parliament created the united and independent country of South Africa, and yet continued, as it had in the past, with all manners of "social separation." Cheap labor was  exploited; and a small minority controlled the vast majority of the country, always with the argument, according to Goldberg, "we are civilized; they are not." Nelson Mendela According to  his law partner, Olver Tambo (1965), Mendela, one of the royal family of the Transkei, was groomed from childhood forrespectability, status and sheltered living. Born near Umtata in 1918, he  was the eldest son of a Tembo chief. His father died when he was twelve and his upbringing and education were taken over by the Paramount Chief. At the age  of 16, he was sent outside of the village for an education. By 1944, with law degree in hand, he had dropped many of his connections to Transskei ,  since his family wanted to arrange a marriage for him there. As Mendela joined forces with Tambo in a law office in Johannesberg, times for blacks were horrendous. "To  be unemployed was a crime because no African could for long evade arrest if his passbook does not carry the stamp of authorized and approved employment." To be landless was