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Nelson Mandela Play for Guided Reading or Readers Theater

Nelson Mandela Play for Guided Reading or Readers Theater a Tribute to Nelson Mandela – as written at the time of his funeral.

Nelson Mandela was a very special man for so many reasons but  it was his humility that, for me, stands out as his most special quality.

Often when people achieve great things they are given, by others, a new status in life – in many cases, as with Mandela, bordering on sainthood. He was always the first to say ‘I am no saint’. He recognised he was a flawed human being like the rest of us and it was his open manner minus any pretensions of grandeur that won over so many hearts, particularly in his latter years.

I was not one of the lucky ones to meet him – wish I had! But I’m sure he would have been the first to say to me ‘I was just lucky’. To have achieved what he did was amazing but he never set himself aside from the crowd.

He was truly a people’s champion.

Nelson Mandela Play for Guided Reading or Readers Theater. Cast of 6, this play comes with comprehensive quiz at the end (over 20 questions and answers). No scene changes – this is an indepth discussion amongst the key ‘players’ in Mandela’s life, raising many issues for further discussion among students.

This is one of a collection of 5 plays – Unit 20 Famous People of the 20th Century:

1. Martin Luther King 2. Nelson Mandela 3. Mahatma Gandhi 4. John Lennon 5. Prominent Women (Helen Keller, Anne Frank, Marie Curie, Mother Theresa, Margaret Thatcher and Princess Diana)

All these ‘plays’ are in-depth discussions with accompanying comprehensive quizzes. Available for 11.99 (i.e. two for free) from UK or US Guided Reading sections of the website.

Speakers:

Nelson Mandela

Winnie (second wife)

Desmond Tutu

P.W. Botha (Nationalist Party – hardliner)

F.W. de Klerk (Nationalist Party – moderate)

Nobel Peace Committee

Mandela:

1994! What a year in South African history!

Winnie:

The year you became South Africa’s first black President!

Botha:

The year the African National Congress won the election.

De Klerk:

The year millions lined up to vote with Nelson Mandela for the first time.

Winnie:

The year my husband said “We are moving from an era of resistance, division, oppression, turmoil and conflict and starting a new era of hope, reconciliation and nation-building. I sincerely hope that the mere casting of a vote … will give hope to all South Africans.”

Tutu:

And it did that all right! After all those years of injustice and suffering. At last the battle was won!

Botha:

But that victory of yours didn’t come easily, did it? The Nationalist Party did everything they could to reign supreme.

De Klerk:

And for many years we did. It was way back in 1913 when the party was formed, to defend Afrikaner interests. The Nationalist Party became a lot stronger under Hertzog in 1924, and it was in 1929 that the infamous ‘apartheid’ policy began to be used.

Botha:

1948 was the year that we introduced total apartheid.

Committee:

An abomination of human rights!

Botha:

Yes, it was pretty radical! South Africans were then officially classified as whites, coloureds, Indians and Bantu or blacks.

Mandela:

Each race had to live in a different area and be educated separately.

Winnie:

Use separate transport, hospitals, cinemas and libraries – and were forbidden to marry each other!

Botha:

But your problems started a long time before the Nationalist Party came to power.

De Klerk:

Indeed. You could say it all started back in 1652 when the Dutch set up their first settlement at the Cape of Good Hope on the south west tip of Africa.

Committee:

Then in 1795 the British seized this settlement and there followed a series of conflicts with the Boers, as they were called.

Tutu:

When these ended at the beginning of the 20^th century, South Africa as a country was granted independence.

Mandela:

That’s all very interesting, but you haven’t mentioned the native Africans, those who were there in the first place, once!

Tutu:

That’s because, right from the time Europeans first set foot in Africa, the African tribes were pushed to one side.

Winnie:

A bit like the Native Americans by those Tudor settlers.

Committee:

Yes, sadly a familiar pattern. And just as those ‘well-meaning’ missionaries over there set about ‘civilising the savages’, so too did they go about their work here.

Tutu:

Indeed. When missionaries came to South Africa, we had the land, they had the bible. Then they told us ‘Let’s close our eyes and pray’. When we opened our eyes we saw that ‘we have the Bible, they have the land.’

Botha:

So even you churchmen get it wrong sometimes!

Mandela:

Yes, but no one could doubt the huge contribution this churchman has made to our cause! Sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu’s voice will always be the voice of the voiceless.

De Klerk:

Quite right that he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984!

Tutu:

Just nine years before you received it with Nelson Mandela!

De Klerk:

A wonderful moment when the world could witness the coming together of two peoples whom had seemed such worlds apart!