When I Met Nelson Mandela

How many ways can you ‘meet’ a person? There’s the typical meeting - during which the two of you are face to face, and respond and communicate directly, whether it be by friendly chit chat, or something a little less pleasant. Such meetings dominate our everyday lives, and become the only way we think of using the word. But if this meaning alone dominated the word, how would we describe meetings that aren’t as simple? That aren’t as direct, but are more personal than face to face meetings could ever be? A meeting where one reaches another, not by picking and choosing his words so as to avoid causing offense, but by showing himself through his actions. The kind of meeting where, in a single moment, a connection is made, without the person even being aware that he has made it. Indeed, this kind of meeting is done not while one is trying to impress. It is done not by careful deliberation; but can only be brought about by independent action. It is such a meeting that I’ve described, that has the ability to inspire change in every stubborn man involved in it.
Such was my meeting with Nelson Mandela. It was not one face to face, not one that could be achieved through a handshake, but a meeting as real to me as any other. As I watched the movie ‘Invictus’, based on Nelson Mandela’s achievements and success in uniting South Africa for a Rugby game, I came to see this legendary man in a new light. We have all heard of good leaders, and have put them on this pedestal in our minds, setting them apart from other human beings. But as I watched the movie that day, I came to consider the possibility that great people had flaws like every one of us.
Of course, the movie was a movie - I had no way of ensuring myself that the things I’d heard and seen could realistically be applied to life, or had even occurred. There was no way for me to know if the character I saw portrayed through Morgan Freeman was truly existent; if the personality of Nelson Mandela depicted through him was true; I had no way of knowing it was not just the work of an excellent scriptwriter. With such doubts in mind, I was left with only one choice - research. I conducted a curiosity-induced search on just how this man really was and how he came to be someone that I had put on the pedestal of godliness.
“I learned that courage is not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.” In Nelson Mandela’s famous autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, he tells us the story of his life - the tale of sufferings and hardships that made him become who he was - and indeed, his life was not absent of ups and downs. When he was only a little boy living in the tiny village of Mvezo, his father lost a dispute, and thus lost his title as future chief. Reduced to nothing, he and his family retired to an even smaller village, one where there were no roads, with only footpaths that linked the pastures where livestock grazed. Food was maize, sorghum, pumpkin, and beans produced by the family themselves. There, the little boy (at the time known as Rolihlahla, which roughly translates to ‘troublemaker’) made toys from natural materials available, whether they were twigs or rocks, and drank the water coming from natural springs.
Yet disaster, in love with Nelson Mandela from a young age, had not quite left him alone. When he was only 9-years-old, his father died of lung cancer. With the man of the house gone, and “Rolihlahla” too young and mischievous to take his place, things were looking bleak. However, the Chief of the old village was indebted to the boy’s father, and decided to make amends by taking care of his family instead. Adopted and living with the chief and his children in the palace of Mqhekezweni, the young boy was able to receive a formal education - and in this British-education system, he was assigned the ‘Christian’ name of Nelson.
It was during this time that Mandela received his very first sign from God - the sign that would start him down the path to becoming South Africa's very first black president. On the day of his circumcision (a South African tradition used to celebrate a boy’s transition into manhood), he heard the main speaker say with sorrow to the boys assembled, that they were “enslaved in their own country”; the white man had taken control of the land, and the air they breathed no longer belonged to them. It was only when Mandela traveled to Johannesburg, and witnessed the start of Apartheid, that he truly understood what the main speaker had meant.
Encouraged by his childhood to think of solutions, and to put good ideas into action, Mandela began working to fix the issue. He completed his degree in law and joined the African National Congress (ANC). During Apartheid, he worked with the ANC to organize a peaceful protest to approve the freedom charter. Such was to no avail - he narrowly avoided a treason trial held for the organizers of the protest, and the freedom charter was not granted. With no other choices, Mandela had to make a dangerous call; in such times, diplomacy was no longer needed. As the leader of the armed resistance against Apartheid, Nelson Mandela also became known as “the black pimponel”.
Unfortunately, Nelson Mandela could continue to evade capture for only so much longer. Arrested for leaving the country illegally (without permission), Mandela was further charged by the court for ‘treason’, and sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island, a place designed with the intention of breaking the souls of convicts and political “undesirables” - a place designed for breaking people like Nelson Mandela himself. With the potential to ruin a man’s health, both physically and psychologically, it became a 15-year-long torture for our precious Rolihlahla.
As a black political prisoner, Nelson Mandela not only had to cope with the small cell without a bed or plumbing, and the hard labor he was forced to do everyday in the lime quarry, but he had to do so while coping with additional discrimination from the guards. Forced to run on little or no food, he would endure the guards inhumane punishments, ranging from racist taunts to shameful atrocities, such as burying a man up to his neck and then urinating on him.
Nonetheless, Nelson Mandela’s spirit never broke. In an article written by Skip Prichard, Nelson Mandela was recorded to have shown “no bitterness, no desire for revenge, no desire for self-glory, and no desire to hide his faults or failings”. The very same man that went in came back out, not with his will broken, but strengthened. “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” Even after facing the harshest form of white despotism, he found it in him to forgive.

“I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all people live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

- Nelson Mandela

Walter Sisulu described the speech Nelson Mandela made from within the courtroom as “a speech that consolidated the spirit of the people outside because it was [the promise] of a defiant spirit.” Nelson Mandela did not just fight the tyrannical white authority; he did not seek revenge through black domination. He sought political balance between races, and pursued a relationship of brotherhood between whites and blacks. One cannot say it was his ‘destiny’; such a pretentious fragile thing had no part in his victory. It was him, and him alone, who clutched his dream, and though he may have wavered, he emerged from his prison with an indestructible resolve. He clung to his pride. He clung to his vision. It was only him, who was in control of every step. Only him who chose to overcome his fear, his hardship; only him who decided to fight.
I have met Nelson Mandela, and by no means was he some flawless god. Through his beautiful, intransigent soul, my indecisive heart has found its resolve. In him, I find inspiration to change, to fight and to struggle. I find the strength to stay focused and press on. The capabilities of man are endless. However, it is only those who learn to cultivate these abilities and use them efficiently, that will attain greatness. Such greatness that allows you to embrace the flaws your humanity has given you, and then surpass them to reach godliness.

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography - A Review

February 16th 2020

Jane Eyre is the story of a girl becoming a woman, progressing from dependence to independence, becoming stronger and braver as she fights gender inequality and social injustice. The story is packed with emotion and is an extremely relatable story regardless of time, society or culture. It empowers women (and men), encouraging all to become outspoken against that which is seemingly unjust or morally incorrect. This monumental story takes place in Victorian day England, thus does not only provides a new outlook on the people living in that time, but has also succeeded in inspiring me to think, speak, and act, while consulting both emotion and logic in equal measure.

Throughout the story, we witness the development of Jane Eyre as she proceeds from being an expressive young lady to being a calm, assertive one in a restrictive society where behavior is greatly determined by class. Much like Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Charlotte Bronte (author of Jane Eyre)  highlights the difference between excessive sensibility and excessive sense through her main character’s younger and older selves, and then finishes the story with a mature Jane Eyre who has found the balance between the two and attained independence. It is only with this balance that Jane Eyre could find her happy ever after - much like how the two main characters from Sense and Sensibility did as well. This is usually portrayed as the union between the main character and their loved one in marriage, as women of Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen’s time usually saw as a key step in a good life, and therefore, a good end.

When Jane Eyre was young, her excessive sensibility brought her a mixed fortune. She fought with her cousin John, which made Aunt Reed hate her even more. Locked in her dead uncle’s bedroom at Gatefordshire, she fell sick, and her physician convinced Aunt Reed that she must go to school. The Lowood school would prove to be both a blessing and a curse in Jane Eyre’s life as it led to her meeting Helen, her first friend, who would convince her to have restraint. Multiple times the excessive emotion Jane Eyre expressed served her in this half-baked way - it brought her hatred during her childhood, but it also gave her an outspoken nature that would come to be a vital part of her character and a reason Mr. Rochester of Thornfield would come to love her. It would come to give her her final word against Aunt Reed, that would psychologically favor her child self, but would delay the fortune Jane Eyre was due to receive from her uncle.

On the other hand, the excessively sensible Jane Eyre did not have a perfect life either. Whenever a normal person would have doubts about something Mr. Rochester was (so obviously) lying about, she would counter her doubts with sound logic - sometimes too well. As a result, she became naive and gullible. It is because of this that she suffered the pain of betrayal when the secret of Mr. Rochester’s mad wife was discovered - just as she was about to marry him. Her emotional and logical immaturity was further expressed in her easy forgiveness of Mr. Rochester, as well as in her approach at handling the emotions of the situation so rationally and composedly.

Later in the story, however, Jane Eyre finally achieves her balance between emotion and logic. She managed to prevent herself from being bullied into marrying her cousin, and hears Mr Rochesters ‘call’. In deciding to take initiative and follow the ‘call’, she becomes braver, assertive and learns to take control of herself and her destiny. She returns to Mr. Rochester as his equal, both financially and psychologically. It is only in this state that she is able to bear his inadequacies as well as her own in holy matrimony.

However, Jane Eyre’s psychological and somewhat physical journey was not the only interesting factor of the book. It was also in Jane Eyre’s romance with Mr. Rochester, a broken man, who had been betrayed by his own kin, had committed sins and was in need of redemption. This redemption came in the form of the sweet and innocent Jane Eyre, and though her love for him blended badly with her immature psych, it was a crucial step in attaining her maturity. The beauty of their romance, therefore, lies not only in the fact that neither of them are beautiful themselves (thus making their love truer and less cliched), but also in the fact that it actually completed Jane, and their marriage was a way of showing the end of Jane’s journey to psychological maturity (because she was now able to take the position of this broken man’s beloved wife).

These kinds of stories are the ones I enjoy the most, as through this fictional character’s journey I myself can grow I too, obtain the psyche of Jane, and I too, learn from her mistakes. I learn of love - I learn of the need to be assertive, to stand on my own two feet - I see the need to aspire to always be more. This is exactly what Charlotte Bronte, I believe, wishes to convey. In Jane Eyre’s written thought, Charlotte Bronte argues with society, saying that “women feel just as men feel... and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.” She asserts through her character’s journey and personality that women should not be inferior to their husbands but should be able to stand with them as their equals. It is only in this way that they can truly be considered two parts of a whole, that they can be each other’s support and live happily ever after.

Throughout Jane Eyre, there are multiple layers of meaning that can be discovered and interpreted in different ways depending on the reader. The views and ideas portrayed in this review are just one example of the many. Nonetheless, they all tie into the main central point of the story - the coming of age of a person and of (hopefully, in the near future) a society. That no man or woman is born all-knowing and none live without making mistakes. That all must find a balance between emotion and logic to attain maturity and change the destiny laid out for them into one that is desirable. As we strive to find our own independence, men and women are proven to be equal with neither inferior to the other. It is only in this state that interdependence - marriage - can successfully occur, as both can depend on one another for support.

Pride and Predjudice - A Nobody's Review

February 22nd 2020

Pride and Predjudice

"It is universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” - Jane Austen begins her masterpiece, made of pride, prejudice, and romance, with an ironic statement. This story, although set in the countryside, shows us the colorful drama that can occur in such dull conditions. The whole way through as I saw the consequences of pride and prejudice play in our young protagonists life and others, I couldn't stop smiling. It was a beautiful story. Jane Austen the author of this beautiful story, set the story at the same time she lived - during Victorian times in England, specifically between the late 1700s and the early 1800s during the Napoleonic wars, as Austen makes frequent references to soldiers and regiments. Having heard a little of Jane Eyre, a book she based on her own life, I had a bit of an understanding of her life - however it was after some research I discovered how similar she was to her main female protagonists. There are many similarities between her main character of Pride and Predjudice (Elizabeth Bennet) and herself. For example, how they both backed out of a marriage of convenience with the intent of finding something else - a marriage that meant more. Such an idea, at first, made no sense to me, but now I understand. Since, as Austen implies in her book, marriage is the endgame for most of the young ladies of her time, you would want to make the best of it. However, convenience cannot be the only thing in mind - because your pride, is something you carry throughout your life, you need to protect it. Choosing a life you would not enjoy - wouldn’t that be doing the exact opposite?The main idea of Pride and Predjudice is about young women trying to get agreeable men as partners for life, so that when the Bennet house is entailed to Mr. Collins, their cousin, they may not become destitute. As a result, the Bennets judge and get judged - sussing out those who are worth trying to court and those who are not, while the very same men who they have interest in decide whethet they are worth the decision. Pride and Prejudice - indeed a very good name for the book - as the young rich men (Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy) decide and judge based on the prejudice they hold for poor people (in both fortune and civilities) like the Bennets, while the very same Bennets must face this prejudice while maintaining pride. And as the battles of pride and prejudice proceed, misunderstandings are made - mostly between Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy - the protagonists themselves. The book tries to teach that the decisions we make while trying to keep our pride and prejudice entact, can lead to misunderstandings, and sometimes its best to act based on your heart. Such qualities are shown through all actions of Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet - a smart, playful but headstrong girl, with a lot of sass to boot. I cannot say there is another character in the book (aside from maybe Georgiana Darcy) that could rival the love I hold for Elizabeth and her bold brave ways. During much of the dialogue there is not one time that Elizabeth did not have a quick witty comeback that made me raise my eyebrows and cry, “Oh the sass!”. Even in situations where she ought to be deterred by the towering predjudices over her “low-place of birth” she rises above, holding her head high. Even when she came into the rich Netherfield house of Mr. Darcy with her petticoat covered in mud, she still spoke bravely, maintaining eye contact, and oh, how I wished I had her traits! One of the four “sasses” - the times of great savagery from Elizabeth - was when Mr. Darcy, after harshly speaking of her to Mr. Bingley, had attempted to dance with her at the one of the balls during the story: “Mr. Darcy, with grave propriety, requested to be allowed the honour of her hand, but in vain. Elizabeth was determined; nor did Sir William at all shake her purpose by his attempt at persuasion.” The savageness of her rejection did a number on Mr. Darcy’s pride while equally maintaining hers, but the beauty of the romance is in that which Mr. Darcy says after while he speaks to Miss Bingley: “...I assure you. My mind was more agreeably engaged. I have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.” Again, when Lady Catherine De Bough, the queen of all witchery (in my mind anyway), tried to force Elizabeth to say no if Mr. Darcy ever offered his hand. Elizabeth responded as curtly as ever, than I thought.Although the plot was indeed beautifully told and expressed, in a way that always made you smile, especially when Mr. Darcy thoughts towards Jane are expressed, I have to admit the ending was quite stretched. Although it is wonderful to believe that a rich man will come down from his high place, driven by feelings of love, and take the hand of his beloved in marriage, in reality, many more hurdles must be crossed. Especially in times such as those when the story is set, where so much is placed on marriage - it is hard to believe such would be able to happen without the need to elope - in which one would lose all their riches, and the marriage would remain bond in love and love only. However I’m not one to be a pessimist - I would love if the story did occur to someone somewhere, as not only did it bring the ultimate explicit happiness to our dear main characters, but it also taught them and all those the importance of not judging people based on the beliefs about people of their standing.
This book made me want to act less on my pride and on my prejudice. It made me want to judge others less. I learned that if you judge others wrong it can lead to a whole bunch of obstacles that you will end up wishing were never there. Then you’ll have to remove all those obstacles to achieve what you could’ve easily gained from the beginning. However, that being said, without building up all those obstacles maybe we never will realise how precious what we have is. How fun would something be, how glorious the triumph be, if the means were easy?
This book was a romantic masterpiece that warmed my heart. I love stories that end up  on happy notes. Even if the story is “stretched” I still feel the end is possible if one fights for it. Which is exactly what Mr. Darcy did and that is beautiful.

All about a Change!

22nd February 2020

WELCOME BACK

Damn it's been a long time since I last did this! Look, I even swear now!
In the last 5 to 6 years, I've grown a lot.
So this blog will now shot that.

Cupcakes!
Introducing book reviews! Essays! All the lovelies!
Damn Straight!

As I torture myself in AP Language, you get to read my works!
Doesn't that sound lovely!
Here we go!
The next post is on Jane Eyre!
Hope you enjoy!
I'll try to post one every day!
YAY!

Musical Melodies-and....booky books?

Suppies guys!!!!

Have you ever listened to music that isn't popular? Or books that aren't popular?
I started doing this a month ago. If you ask me, it's pretty cool how many good singers and authors there are that aren't famous. I'm an author myself. It's pretty sad when people completely ignore your achievements. Really sucks. :(

Any who, enough of that depressing stuff!!!;) My good-natured, awesome readers, I wanted to give you the titles of some AMAZINGLY MELODIOUS ALBUMS AND FREAKING AWESOME BOOKS!!!

The City of the Falling Sky by Joseph Evans

The Trinity Awakening by Joseph Evans (can find on www,amazon.com)

The Phoenix Guardian by Steven Thorn (can find on www.noisetrade.com)

The Undying Fire by Steven Thorn

Spellbound by Katrina Stone (can find on www.noisetrade.com)

The Happy Ones by Katrina Stone (can find on www.noisetrade.com)

Only for the Brave by Katrina Stone (can find on www.noisetrade.com)

Never Wanna Grow Up by Katrina Stone (can find on www.noisetrade.com)

Unrealeased by Chris August

Alive Again by Matt Maher

The Love In-Between by Matt Maher

Overflow by Matt Maher

The Rancher's Daughter by Lucie Houessou (Amazon)

Millentica by Lucie Houessou

The Last Passage Keepers by J.G. Houessou

And many more I will deliver as soon as I remember! this is one of those ever-continuing blog posts.. so stay tuned! also if any of yall have books or albumns that you'd like me to know or think ill like tell me! i need new unpopular music!!! bye! hugs and kisses! ;)

Mystery Girl, vanishing into thin air...

P.S. you might've noticed... I HAVE PICTURES!!!! I hope you guys will find my blog more catchy now. THANKS FOR BEARING WITH ME! now seriously, thank you bunches! just fist bump the air, and imagine me doing the same to you! XOXOXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

bye!