Great Souls: Six Who Changed a Century


"It is a marvelous series that should be seen and re-seen in the homes of believers and non-believers."
Review by:
Dr. Ted Baehr, Movie Guide

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Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the closing months of World War I, in the tiny village of Mwezo, tucked into the hillsides of the Umtata district of South Africa. His father was of Themu tribal royal blood, an advisor to the Thembu chiefs of the Transkei. The name Nelson was bestowed upon the boy when he began primary school. Rare for his day, Mandela attended both college and university, eventually becoming an attorney in Johannesburg, where his law firm was the only one defending blacks in the white run courts of the capital.

The South Africa of Nelson Mandela's youth was deeply divided by racial inequality, reinforced by a series of laws called Apartheid, designed to maintain white supremacy and both economic and political power over the black majority of the population. Mandela was initially opposed to violent confrontation as a means to achieve racial equality. But in 1948, the predominantly Afrikaans Nationalistic Party came to power, extremely anti-British, all white, and radically racist. They passed a series of draconian laws that defined where blacks could live, who they could marry, what they could and could not do. Riots ensued, thousands of blacks were shot or imprisoned. The nation fell into a moral and spiritual abyss. It was only a matter of time before Mandela's deepening commitment to revolution against the white government landed him in prison, ultimately with a sentence of life imprisonment. He could have been given the death penalty.

Nelson Mandela quickly became the world's most famous prisoner. Many nations, including the United States, placed trade embargos on South Africa. Business with the outside world slowed to a trickle. Racial struggle intensified. Calls for Mandela's release and their conclusion that he was the only black leader with whom they could negotiate a peaceful transition to the enevitability of majority rule, led the white government to eventually pardon Mandela and other political prisoners. New elections were scheduled in which all South Africans participated. Not surprisingly, Nelson Mandela won that election, becoming South Africa's first black President. The avoidance of a bloodbath revolution in South Africa is universally credited to Mandela's skill as a leader and his personal character as a man of integrity. After one term, as planned, he returned to private life where he continued to lend his influence on human rights issues around the world.

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