On December 13 2013 20:07 j1nzo wrote:On December 06 2013 09:53 Zealos wrote:
This probably isn't a good time to ask, but I'm seeing lots of comments about it. Was this guy in any way a terrorist? I love him, and believe he is one the greatest people to live, but was he in some way involved in terrorist activity?
Sorry if this is too disrespectful, I'll remove it if that is the case.
why would you think your comment is disrespectful? you say you love him and he is one of the greatest people to live… don't get much better than that
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to say that he was a terrorist- or not is a bit tricky. back in the day the situation for blacks in sa was teeerrible- way worse than for example in the us.
the white regime would enforce its ideals/laws/principles with violence…
so what kinda happened is that the police would just beat up- or straight up kill the back people who tried to bring about changes (even peaceful demonstrants).
and ofcourse, since the whites would even kill the ones triying to change, the reaction of the blacks got more and more raidcal as well.
perhaps the worst single event was the massacre at sharperwill where 69
unarmed protestors were killed by the police.
as a result the "Umkhonto we Sizwe" (spear of the nation) was founded, of which mr. Mandela was the leader of that organization.
the idea was basically that against that kind of behavior only violence would be an adequate answer.
so what happend was, that as a leader of the umkhonto we sizwe, mr. Mandela did prepare plans for attacks on the authorities (his handwriting was identified).
however, one might say you can only turn the other cheek so many times…
so you decide- his people were mistreated and even massacered. he wanted to do something about it, going as far as (maybe?) neccessary. does that make him a terrorist?