What Mandela meant to me as a pupil

I am a foreign national in South Africa to study, having left my country because of the war that was raging at the time.

If it had not been for Nelson Mandela, my parents would have had nowhere to go to keep me safe.

Nelson Mandela’s message of peace and equality created a safe haven for many like me; a platform from which we will launch back into our countries and cause change.

But I am a South African. All I have ever known, all I can remember, is the democratic South Africa that Mr Mandela fought to create.

Nelson Mandela’s death is like the extinguishing of a large torch. He was a symbol of African unity and black pride.

The torch will never truly go out because this is the torch from which I was lit and I will shine his message to the rest of Africa.

Nelson Mandela’s immense sacrifice has inspired me to take my education and go do the same in my fatherland.

Nelson Mandela proved that when a man is selfless enough, all those around him are forced to love one another.

I thank Nelson Mandela for the work that he has done, but I do this understanding that he would have wanted us to go out and improve the world.

For most South Africans he has a personal place in their hearts.

While I was growing up he was presented to me as a shining star, an example of what a man should be.

He is a father, a father to his children and grandchildren and a father to our nation.

Nelson Mandela and his associates worked tirelessly to achieve a peaceful transition into a fair democracy and he represents the nation and the ideals it was created on.

To me Nelson Mandela represents a period of change and peace.

He achieved a lot and his sad death is the end to the period of change during which he was a pivotal stone holding together our nation.

Our democracy’s father has died as it grows into an adult.

The death of Nelson Mandela is a sad event; however it is the opening of a new chapter for South Africa, a welcome pang of bittersweet feelings.