The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Before we studied the autobiography of Nelson Mandela in class, Dr. Edwin assigned us with five questions to be answered regarding autobiography. The questions were given in order to direct us to understand why people write autobiography and how useful it is in the classroom learning. Frankly speaking, I have not read any serious autobiography before as most autobiographies are about politicians’ lives which I am not interested to read. Although I know who Nelson Mandela is, it never triggered me to read his autobiography before. So, it was quite interesting to learn about his life and view regarding the apartheid system. In my opinion, by reading such an autobiography it can make us to appreciate the sacrifices made by people such as Nelson Mandela. Here, we can see how Apartheid’s regulations had segregated people according to their colour and race. In my opinion, I think autobiography can be used in the classroom learning if it suits with the students’ level of proficiency. However, teachers need to be selective in choosing the suitable autobiography to be used in the classroom as nowadays, there are many autobiographies that are not only written by educationists but also entertainers. So, we would want to use autobiography that can provide moral values to the students. Overall, what I like about Nelson Mandela’s autobiography is how the Apartheid’s regulations extended even to clothing wore by the prisoners.