Assignment

In
English

Reginald A. Macariola
IV- Diamond
Mr. Noel Dolot
William Ernest Henley
Life and career

Henley was born in Gloucester and was the eldest of a family of six children, five sons and a
daughter. His father, William, was a bookseller and stationer who died in 1868 and was survived
by his young children and creditors. His mother, Mary Morgan, was descended from the poet and
critic, Joseph Warton. From 1861-67 Henley was a pupil at the Crypt Grammar School (founded
1539). A Commission had attempted recently to revive the school by securing the brilliant and
academically distinguished T. E. Brown (1830-1897) as headmaster. Brown's appointment was
relatively brief (c.1857-63) but was a "revelation" for Henley because it introduced him to a poet
and "man of genius - the first I'd ever seen". This was the start of a lifelong friendship and
Henley wrote an admiring memorial to Brown in the New Review (December, 1897): "He was
singularly kind to me at a moment when I needed kindness even more than I needed
encouragement".[1]
From the age of 12 Henley suffered from tuberculosis of the bone which resulted in the
amputation of his left leg below the knee during either 1865 or 1868-69.[2] According to Robert
Louis Stevenson's letters, the idea for the character of Long John Silver was inspired by his real-
life friend Henley. Stevenson's stepson, Lloyd Osbourne, described Henley as "..a great, glowing,
massive-shouldered fellow with a big red beard and a crutch; jovial, astoundingly clever, and
with a laugh that rolled like music; he had an unimaginable fire and vitality; he swept one off
one's feet". In a letter to Henley after the publication of Treasure Island Stevenson wrote "I will
now make a confession. It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot
Long John Silver...the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound, was entirely
taken from you".
Frequent illness often kept him from school, although the misfortunes of his father's business
may also have contributed. During 1867, Henley passed the Oxford Local Schools Examination
and soon afterwards moved to London where he attempted to establish himself as a journalist.[3]
However, his work over the next eight years was interrupted by long periods in hospital because
his right foot was also diseased. Henley contested the diagnosis that a second amputation was the
only way to save his life by becoming a patient of the pioneering surgeon Joseph Lister (1827-
1912) at the The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. After three years in hospital (1873-75), Henley
was discharged. Lister's treatment had not effected a complete cure but enabled Henley to have a
relatively active life for nearly 30 years.
His literary acquaintances also resulted in his sickly young daughter, Margaret Emma Henley (b.
4 September 1888), being immortalised by J. M. Barrie in his children's classic Peter Pan.[4][5]
Unable to speak clearly, the young Margaret referred to her friend Barrie as her "fwendy-
wendy", resulting in the use of the name Wendy, which was coined for the book. Margaret never
read the book; she died on 11 February 1894 at the age of 5 and was buried at the country estate
of her father's friend, Harry Cockayne Cust, in Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire.[5][4]
After his recovery, Henley earned a living in publishing. During 1889 he became editor of the
Scots Observer, an Edinburgh journal similar to the old Saturday Review. It was transferred to
London during 1891 as the National Observer and remained under Henley's editorship until
1893. Though, as Henley confessed, the paper had almost as many writers as readers, and its
fame was confined mainly to the literary class, it was a lively and influential feature of the
literary life of its time. Henley had an editor's gift of discerning talent, and the "Men of the Scots
Observer", as Henley affectionately and characteristically termed his band of contributors, in
most instances justified his insight. The newspaper's context was often sympathetic to the
growing imperialism of its time, and among other services to literature it published Rudyard
Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads.
Henley died at the age of 53 and was buried in the same churchyard as his daughter in Cockayne
Hatley. His wife, Salina Robinson Henley, was later buried at the same site.

Works

Arguably his best-remembered work is the poem "Invictus", written in 1875. It is said that this
was written as a demonstration of his resilience following the amputation of his foot due to
tubercular infection. This passionate and defiant poem should be compared with his beautiful and
contemplative acceptance of death and dying in the poem "Margaritae Sorori".
In 1890, Henley published Views and Reviews, a volume of notable criticisms, which he
described as "less a book than a mosaic of scraps and shreds recovered from the shot rubbish of
some fourteen years of journalism". The criticisms, covering a wide range of authors (all English
or French save Heinrich Heine and Leo Tolstoy) were remarkable for their insight. During 1892,
he published a second volume of poetry, named after the first poem, "The Song of the Sword"
but re-titled "London Voluntaries" after another section in the second edition (1893). Robert
Louis Stevenson wrote that he had not received the same thrill of poetry so intimate and so deep
since George Meredith's "Joy of Earth" and "Love in the Valley". "I did not guess you were so
great a magician. These are new tunes; this is an undertone of the true Apollo. These are not
verse; they are poetry". During 1892, Henley also published three plays written with Stevenson
— Beau Austin, Deacon Brodie and Admiral Guinea. During 1895, Henley's poem, "Macaire",
was published in a volume with the other plays. Deacon Brodie was produced in Edinburgh in
1884 and later in London. Herbert Beerbohm Tree produced Beau Austin at the Haymarket on 3
November 1890.
Henley's poem, "Pro Rege Nostro", became popular during the First World War as a piece of
patriotic verse. It contains the following refrain:
What have I done for you, England, my England?

What is there I would not do, England my own?

The poem and its sentiments have since been parodied by many people often unhappy with the
jingoism they feel it expresses or the propagandistic use it is put to. "England, My England", a
short story by D. H. Lawrence and also England, Their England the novel by A. G. Macdonell
both use the phrase.
The poem title "Invictus" was taken for the title of the 2009 film starring Morgan Freeman and
Matt Damon based on South Africa's winning the 1995 rugby world cup. The poem "Invictus" is
said to have given Nelson Mandela motivation while he was in prison.

Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918) is a
former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic
election, who held office from 1994 to 1999. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-
apartheid activist, and the leader of the African National Congress's armed wing Umkhonto we
Sizwe. The South African courts convicted him on charges of sabotage, as well as other crimes
committed while he led the movement against apartheid. In accordance with his conviction,
Mandela served 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following
his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela supported reconciliation and negotiation,
and helped lead the transition towards multi-racial democracy in South Africa.
Since the end of apartheid, many have frequently praised Mandela, including former opponents.
In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela's
clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela.
Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades, most notably the 1993 Nobel
Peace Prize. In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly announced that
Mandela's birthday, 18 July, is to be known as 'Mandela Day' marking his contribution to world
freedom.

Early life
Mandela belongs to a cadet branch of the Thembu dynasty, which reigns in the Transkeian
Territories of South Africa's Cape Province.[3] He was born in Mvezo, a small village located in
the district of Umtata, the Transkei capital.[3] His patrilineal great-grandfather Ngubengcuka
(who died in 1832), ruled as the Inkosi Enkhulu, or king, of the Thembu people.[4] One of the
king's sons, named Mandela, became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname.
However, because he was only the Inkosi's child by a wife of the Ixhiba clan (the so-called "Left-
Hand House"[5]), the descendants of his branch of the royal family were not eligible to succeed to
the Thembu throne.
Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, served as chief of the town of Mvezo.[6]
However, upon alienating the colonial authorities, they deprived Mphakanyiswa of his position,
and moved his family to Qunu. Despite this, Mphakanyiswa remained a member of the Inkosi's
Privy Council, and served an instrumental role in Jongintaba Dalindyebo's ascension to the
Thembu throne. Dalindyebo would later return the favour by informally adopting Mandela upon
Mphakanyiswa's death.[7] Mandela's father had four wives,[7] with whom he fathered a total of
thirteen children (four boys and nine girls).[7] Mandela was born to his third wife ('third' by a
complex royal ranking system), Nosekeni Fanny. Fanny was a daughter of Nkedama of the
Mpemvu Xhosa clan, the dynastic Right Hand House, in whose umzi or homestead Mandela
spent much of his childhood.[8] His given name Rolihlahla means "to pull a branch of a tree", or
more colloquially, "troublemaker".[9][10]
Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his family to attend a school, where his teacher
Miss Mdingane gave him the English name "Nelson".[11]
When Mandela was nine, his father died of tuberculosis,[7] and the regent, Jongintaba, became his
guardian.[7] Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school located next to the palace of the regent.
Following Thembu custom, he was initiated at age sixteen, and attended Clarkebury Boarding
Institute.[13] Mandela completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the usual three.[13]
Designated to inherit his father's position as a privy councillor, in 1937 Mandela moved to
Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort which most Thembu royalty attended.[14] At
nineteen, he took an interest in boxing and running at the school.[8]
After enrolling, Mandela began to study for a Bachelor of Arts at the Fort Hare University,
where he met Oliver Tambo. Tambo and Mandela became lifelong friends and colleagues.
Mandela also became close friends with his kinsman, Kaiser ("K.D.") Matanzima who, as royal
scion of the Thembu Right Hand House, was in line for the throne of Transkei[5], a role that
would later lead him to embrace Bantustan policies. His support of these policies would place
him and Mandela on opposing political sides.[8] At the end of Nelson's first year, he became
involved in a Students' Representative Council boycott against university policies, and was told
to leave Fort Hare and not return unless he accepted election to the SRC.[15] Later in his life,
while in prison, Mandela studied for a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London External
Programme.
Shortly after leaving Fort Hare, Jongintaba announced to Mandela and Justice (the regent's son
and heir to the throne) that he had arranged marriages for both of them. The young men,
displeased by the arrangement, elected to relocate to Johannesburg.[16] Upon his arrival, Mandela
initially found employment as a guard at a mine.[17] However, the employer quickly terminated
Mandela after learning that he was the Regent's runaway ward. Mandela later started work as an
articled clerk at a Johannesburg law firm, Witkin, Sidelsky and Edelman, through connections
with his friend and mentor, realtor Walter Sisulu.[17] While working at Witkin, Sidelsky and
Edelman, Mandela completed his B.A. degree at the University of South Africa via
correspondence, after which he began law studies at the University of Witwatersrand, where he
first befriended fellow students and future anti-apartheid political activists Joe Slovo, Harry
Schwarz and Ruth First. Slovo would eventually become Mandela's Minister of Housing, while
Schwarz would become his Ambassador to Washington. During this time Mandela lived in
Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg.[18]

Political activity

After the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party, which supported the
apartheid policy of racial segregation,[19] Mandela began actively participating in politics. He led
prominently in the ANC's 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People, whose
adoption of the Freedom Charter provided the fundamental basis of the anti-apartheid cause.[20][21]
During this time, Mandela and fellow lawyer Oliver Tambo operated the law firm of Mandela
and Tambo, providing free or low-cost legal counsel to many blacks who lacked attorney
representation.[22]
Mahatma Gandhi influenced Mandela's approach, and subsequently the methods of succeeding
generations of South African anti-apartheid activists.[23][24] Mandela even took part in the 29–30
January 2007 conference in New Delhi marking the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's introduction
of satyagraha (non-violent resistance) in South Africa.[25]
Initially committed to nonviolent resistance, Mandela and 150 others were arrested on 5
December 1956 and charged with treason. The marathon Treason Trial of 1956–1961 followed,
with all defendants receiving acquittals.[26] From 1952–1959, a new class of black activists
known as the Africanists disrupted ANC activities in the townships, demanding more drastic
steps against the National Party regime.[27] The ANC leadership under Albert Luthuli, Oliver
Tambo and Walter Sisulu felt not only that the Africanists were moving too fast but also that
they challenged their leadership.[27] The ANC leadership consequently bolstered their position
through alliances with small White, Coloured, and Indian political parties in an attempt to give
the appearance of wider appeal than the Africanists.[27] The Africanists ridiculed the 1955
Freedom Charter Kliptown Conference for the concession of the 100,000-strong ANC to just a
single vote in a Congressional alliance. Four secretaries-general of the five participating parties
secretly belonged to the reconstituted South African Communist Party (SACP), strongly
adhering to the Moscow line.[28][29] In 2003 Blade Nzimande, the SACP General Secretary,
revealed that Walter Sisulu, the ANC Secretary-General, secretly joined the SACP in 1955[30]
which meant all five secretary generals were SACP and thus explains why Sisulu relegated the
ANC from a dominant role to one of five equals.
In 1959, the ANC lost its most militant support when most of the Africanists, with financial
support from Ghana and significant political support from the Transvaal-based Basotho, broke
away to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) under the direction of Robert Sobukwe and
Potlako Leballo.