O’Brien has managed to encapsulate not just a portrait of the inspiring Nelson Mandela but display his joyful spirit through his glowing grin which has influenced the lives of many, including the artist herself.
Nelson Mandela made it his life work to fight for human rights and dedicate his time to the welfare of his fellow man. As O’Brien has stated, his refusal to accept injustice, unfairness and inequality has always inspired her and, as a South African herself, she felt his greatness deserved recognition.
Nelson Mandela was born in1918 in a small South African village and lived there until 1941 when he moved to Johannesburg. There, he was first introduced to the brutal reality of a racially divided South Africa. Astounded by the unfairness he saw, he began attending meetings of the African National Congress and became involved in protests. Mandela became such an icon against racial discrimination and a threat to the apartheid system in South Africa that in 1962 the government sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, by the mid 1980s the momentum for change in South Africa was overpowering, with both black and white South Africans speaking out against the apartheid system, and international pressure being brought to bear. Nelson Mandela was a heroic symbol for that change, both in South Africa and internationally, and the South African government eventually bowed to …show more content…
Mandela had been fighting the racism of the apartheid system in South Africa his whole life and just 3 months after his release he was chosen to lead the African National Congress. In 1994, Mandela became the first black president of South Africa, when the African National Congress emerged victorious in the first post apartheid