Nelson Mandela History

The HistoryWhat Mandela has given to the people of South Africa and to the nations of the world is acknowledged and appreciated by most peo-ple on the planet. What is not always so well-known is the historical background, the cultural norms and the great African landscapes the helped to form the unique mindset of the man and set him on that magnificent ‘walk to freedom’ both for his own people, and for the millions who live in the bondage of discrimination and the shack-les of ignorance and corrupt power throughout the world.

The so-called ‘struggle’ for freedom in South Africa began two cen-turies before Mandela was born and encompassed the 100 year war of dispossession ;a period of huge upheaval and during which the Xhosa nation was dispossessed of some 70% of the tribal lands, co-lonial battles, the arrival of the British settlers, the great migration of the Afrikaner people into the vast interior of Africa, the rise and fall of the Zulu empire, the destruction of the great herds, the Boer war, the discovery of great diamond and gold fields and the ultimate horror of the apartheid state to the beauty of freedom and democracy.

Travel across the landscape of Mandela. From the un-spoilt beauty of the wild coast, to cultural villages, to the birth place of the great man, visit his alma mater, the great mission schools, that played a vital role in his education, to the great plains of the Karoo and en-route hear the life changing commentary of the evolution of the modern state of South Africa and the freedom of a nation; the ideal for which nelson Mandela was prepared to die for.

Your tour guide is well known historian and raconteur Rob Prentis. Rob is a retired school headmaster with majors in history and English litera-ture. He will take you to places and along some amazing ‘roads less travelled’ into the very heart of the land that helped shape the young Mandela.

As you marvel at the African sunset from the unforgettable samara game reserve the very essence of Africa will fill you with an awe that will be life changing so that you too can enjoin with the poet and say----

‘--i have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts—a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused --- whose dwelling is the light of setting suns—and the round ocean – and in the mind of man’ ( William Wordsworth )