Fighting for freedom

Nelson Mandela and Yawaharlal Nehru are known as freedom fighters. They were both politically active and fought against the regimes in their countries. It was an important issue for the two of them to fight and encourage people without having to use violence, but instead through words.

Yawaharlal Nehru was born in India and lived from 1889 to 1964. He was a central person in the fight for independence in India, and became the first Prime Minister in India in 1947. The same day he became the Prime Minister of India, Nehru held a famous speech to the constituent assembly in New Delhi. Nehru was a socialist, and wanted India to be a democratic republic.

Today, Nelson Mandela is an icon and known as a revolutionary. He was born in South Africa and lived from 1918 until 2013. In South Africa the political system was called apartheid, which segregated the blacks or any other coloured from whites. By other means- the regime was built upon a theory that white people were more worth than coloured people. The political system segregated the two colours at any public place, like the bus or at schools. Nelson Mandela found this a deprivation of freedom and decided to fight back. He became the first black president in 1994, and held a victorious speech to the people of South Africa.

The speeches they held were both about victory and freedom. They thanked all the people that had fought, died and suffered for the freedom, and emphasized that freedom only comes after hard word, and is not something that should be taken for granted. Mandela and Nehru uses some literary tools such as personification, metaphors and symbols. For instance “A rainbow nation in peace with itself” is an example of personification, where Mandela gives a the country of South Africa human abilities. Another similarity is that speeches is very compelling and encouraging.

When Mandela was selected as the president of South Africa in 1994 he had achieved freedom, but in Nehru´s speech he emphasized that the nation of India has to keep fighting for freedom:”As long as there are tears and suffering, our work will never be over”. In addition to that Mandela is a more spiritual man, and ends the speech with “God bless Africa!”. Nehru does not mentioned religion or any belief in his speech.

In brief it seems like they both are very inspired by Ghandi’s way of living, and his idea of non-violence.

I think that this task has been a bit challenging. I found this task challenging, mainly because they used a complicated language and because I never have analyzed speeches before. But the most challenging part was to contrast, because I didn’t understand what to contrast, and I have never done it before. Maybe next time it would be better to get some more information before we receive the homework:) But as long as you stick to the “recipe” on how to analyze, it’s not that hard. It was interesting to learn about these Mandela and Nehru, because they are such inspiring persons, and I am really impressed by their work!

-Hannah