My Research Paper

                I have come to a fascinating conclusion during my time of studies this semester. I love all of my classes and there is a common theme regarding all of them. Each of my classes focus on groups of individuals who deal with oppression throughout their lives. Each of my classes study the development of movements to transcend the circumstances of people where their liberty has been infringed upon. There is a wide array of people that I am studying. Whether they are Mormons fleeing persecution, or Europeans revolutionizing in an attempt to gain civil liberties, or south African’s attempting to break the strangle hold that apartheid had on nearly all facets of peoples lives.

                It is increadible for me to see how these individuals interact. What inspires them? What is it that motivates them to overcome the fear of death, persecution, and arrest? What allows them to risk everything? 

These questions have weighed heavily on my mind and I have come to a conclusion. I have decided that a revolution, a resistance, or a reformation comes about when people awaken to the realization that their civil liberties are being invaded. In other words people unite and react when they realize that their agency has been infringed upon. Indeed it is the desire to have free will that inspires people to react. That is the soul reason why people react. It is the sole reason why pioneers would be willing to settle in the middle of an arid and godforsaken desert. It is the sole reason the French members of the third estate were willing to storm the bastille. Agency is the sole reason why South African women were willing to be battered and beaten in order to obtain personal rights and reject pass laws.

              Almost paradoxically people will place themselves in a situation that is far worse then they previously were in order to obtain the ability to choose. Mormons are not willing to stay in a place where they are not allowed to practice their religion, even if their homes are comfortable. Rich Dutch merchants were not willing to stand under the tranny of a Spanish king in the late fifteen hundreds.  Nelson Mandela, and kathrada were not willing to remain lawyers in an apartheid government. Their family suffered because of that.

So it is my intention to write regarding the suffering and sacrifices of leaders in the South African Apartheid movement. It is my intention to study the lives of Mandela, Helen Johnson, Kathrada, Mahatma Ghandhi, and examine the sacrifices the made in order to obtain the liberties that should have been granted unto them since birth. I hope to examine the South African government that exists today and see if it has provided greater economic stability for all of its people, or if it only allowed them to have their agency. Whatever the answer it will show that the struggles were worth it.