Nelson Mandela has launched the first in a series of nine comic books based on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and most of the world because of his fight to end apartheid. Five young African illustrators and cartoonists drew the pictures for the books. The aim is to re-awaken young South Africans to their rich history. One million free copies were sent to schoolchildren across the country. The series will eventually be translated into South Africa's 10 other official languages. The books will also go global. They should sell well in Japan's $7 billion a year comic book market.

Artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African educated at a top university, wants people to know the truth about his country’s history. He criticized his own education, which he says did not focus on black history. He is sad that the history he was taught started with the arrival of the first white people to South Africa in 1652. He said, “everything before then was written off as savagery or barbarism”. He also said, “any story that involved heroism was about white people.” Buchanan is angry that until 1994, white governments had hidden their knowledge of black history from South Africans.

WARM-UPS

1. NELSON MANDELA: You must find out as much as you can about Nelson Mandela from other students. After you have finished asking other students for information about Mr. Mandela, sit down with your partner(s) and share what you found out.

2. OUR HISTORY: In pairs / groups, talk about the history of your country. Are you proud of it? Did you like studying it at school? Talk about the following:

• My country’s greatest moment.
• My country’s lowest point.
• Something in our history that all people from my country can be proud of.
• Something in our history that people from my country cannot be proud of.
• The greatest person in my country’s history.
• Something I wish had never happened in my country’s history.
• Something in my country’s history that made the world a better place.
• Events that caused the death of people from other countries.

3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.

Nelson Mandela / comic books / super heroes / apartheid / South Africa / history / the history of black people / white people / barbarism / heroism / knowledge

Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently.

4. COMICS: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with comic books. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

5. HEROES: Talk with your partner(s) about your heroes. What makes them heroic? Use this list to help you:

1. Comic book hero.
2. Action movie hero.
3. Person-I-know hero.
4. Female hero from history.
5. Male hero from history.
6. Female-alive-today hero.
7. Male-alive-today hero.

6. SETTLERS: In pairs / groups, share what you know about other peoples that suffered at the hands of white settlers. A short list is here: Australian aborigines, Native Americans, New Zealand Maori, Canadian Inuit, Mexican Mayans, Peruvian Incas, Kenyan Zulus …

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Nelson Mandela has started his own comic book publishing company.	T / F
b.	The comics tell how Nelson Mandela ended apartheid in South Africa.	T / F
c.	Students bought a million copies of the first issue at half price.	T / F
d.	The books may sell well in Japan’s big-money comic book market.	T / F
e.	The lead artist of the comic books is a well-educated black man.	T / F
f.	The artist loved history at school, especially the parts before 1652.	T / F
g.	S. African history lessons in schools didn’t used to cover black heroes.	T / F
h.	White governments in S. Africa hid many facts about black history.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

a.	launched	worldwide
b.	fight	concealed
c.	aim	condemned
d.	across	target
e.	global	disregarded
f.	top	introduced
g.	criticized	around
h.	written off	included
i.	involved	elite
j.	hidden	struggle

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

a.	the first in a series	at a top university
b.	Mandela is a real-life	apartheid
c.	his fight to end	history from South Africans
d.	re-awaken young South Africans	global
e.	go	white people to South Africa
f.	educated	of nine comic books
g.	know the truth	was about white people
h.	the arrival of the first	to their rich history
i.	any story that involved heroism	about his country’s history
j.	hidden their knowledge of black	super hero

AFTER READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words in the column on the right into the gaps in the text.

Nelson Mandela launches comic book

Nelson Mandela has ________ the first in a series of nine comic books ________ on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and most of the world because of his ________ to end apartheid. Five young African illustrators and ________ drew the pictures for the books. The aim is to re-awaken young South Africans to their ________ history. One million free copies were sent to schoolchildren across the country. The series will ________ be translated into South Africa's 10 other ________ languages. The books will also go global. They should sell well in Japan's $7 billion a year comic book ________.		cartoonists market fight eventually launched official rich based
Artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African ________ at a top university, wants people to know the ________ about his country’s history. He criticized his own education, which he says did not ________ on black history. He is sad that the history he was taught started with the ________ of the first white people to South Africa in 1652. He said, “everything ________ then was written off as ________ or barbarism”. He also said, “any story that involved ________ was about white people.” Buchanan is angry that until 1994, white governments had hidden their ________ of black history from South Africans.		arrival focus heroism educated savagery truth before knowledge

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Nelson Mandela launches comic book

Nelson Mandela has launched the ______ ___ __ series of nine comic books based on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and _____ ___ ____ world because of his fight to end apartheid. Five young African illustrators and cartoonists ______ the pictures for the books. The aim is to re-awaken young South Africans to their _____ history. One million free copies ______ _____ ___ schoolchildren across the country. The series will eventually be translated into South Africa's 10 other official languages. The books will also ___ _______. They should sell well in Japan's $7 billion a year comic book market.

Artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African educated ___ __ ____ university, wants people to know the ______ about his country’s history. He criticized his own education, which he says did not _______ ___ black history. He is sad that the history he was taught started with the _________ ___ the first white people to South Africa in 1652. He said, “everything before then was written ____ ___ savagery or barbarism”. He also said, “any story that involved __________ was about white people.” Buchanan is angry that until 1994, white governments had ________ their knowledge of black history from South Africans.

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘comic’ and ‘book’.

• Share your findings with your partners.
• Make questions using the words you found.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

• Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
• Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the gap fill. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. STUDENT “NELSON MANDELA” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about Nelson Mandela.

• Ask other classmates your questions and note down their answers.
• Go back to your original partner / group and compare your findings.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:

launched fight drew free eventually $7 billion

educated own arrival written off heroism knowledge

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

1. Did the headline make you want to read the article?
2. What do you think of Nelson Mandela?
3. Can you think of other people who are similar to Nelson Mandela?
4. How do you think Nelson Mandela might feel about becoming a comic book hero?
5. What do you know about apartheid in South Africa?
6. Do you think all of the history you learned at school about your country is true?
7. Are you critical of any part of your education?
8. Did you learn about savagery and barbarism in your history lessons?
9. What can we learn from Nelson Mandela?
10. Would you like to read the new comic books about Mr. Mandela?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

1. Did you like reading this article?
2. What do you think about what you read?
3. Do you like comic books?
4. What do you think of the idea of giving free comic books about Nelson Mandela to South African schoolchildren?
5. Do you know of any countries where the education system teaches “incorrect” history?
6. Do you think black South African schoolchildren will enjoy learning the truth about white governments?
7. Is Nelson Mandela the biggest hero in the world?
8. What questions would you like to ask Nelson Mandela?
9. What do you think his replies would be?
10. Did you like this discussion?

AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.

1. What question would you like to ask about this topic?
2. What was the most interesting thing you heard?
3. Was there a question you didn’t like?
4. Was there something you totally disagreed with?
5. What did you like talking about?
6. Do you want to know how anyone else answered the questions?
7. Which was the most difficult question?

SPEAKING

MY HERO: You must give a presentation on Nelson Mandela or another great world hero (or one nearer home). Use the cues below to create the information for your presentation:

	INFORMATION
Family background
Political situation at time of birth
Childhood
Events that influenced the person
Struggles
Hardships
Turning points
Victories
Achievements
How the person changed the world

• Change partners and show each other what you wrote or thought about.
• Give each other feedback on how to improve your presentation information.
• Borrow good sentences or ideas from your partner(s) and add them to your own.
• Give your presentations and vote on the best ones.
• With new partners, talk about what you learned from the presentations.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Nelson Mandela. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things?

3. MY COUNTRY’S HISTORY: Make a poster explaining the parts of your country’s history that you would really like people from other countries to know. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson.

4. HERO: Write an idea for a comic book story of one of your heroes. Show what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. F

d. T

e. F

f. F

g. T

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

a.	launched	introduced
b.	fight	struggle
c.	aim	target
d.	across	around
e.	global	worldwide
f.	top	elite
g.	criticized	condemned
h.	written off	disregarded
i.	involved	included
j.	hidden	concealed

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	the first in a series	of nine comic books
b.	Mandela is a real-life	super hero
c.	his fight to end	apartheid
d.	re-awaken young South Africans	to their rich history
e.	go	global
f.	educated	at a top university
g.	know the truth	about his country’s history
h.	the arrival of the first	white people to South Africa
i.	any story that involved heroism	was about white people
j.	hidden their knowledge of black	history from South Africans

GAP FILL:

Nelson Mandela launches comic book

Nelson Mandela has launched the first in a series of nine comic books based on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and most of the world because of his fight to end apartheid. Five young African illustrators and cartoonists drew the pictures for the books. The aim is to re-awaken young South Africans to their rich history. One million free copies were sent to schoolchildren across the country. The series will eventually be translated into South Africa's 10 other official languages. The books will also go global. They should sell well in Japan's $7 billion a year comic book market.

Artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African educated at a top university, wants people to know the truth about his country’s history. He criticized his own education, which he says did not focus on black history. He is sad that the history he was taught started with the arrival of the first white people to South Africa in 1652. He said, “everything before then was written off as savagery or barbarism”. He also said, “any story that involved heroism was about white people.” Buchanan is angry that until 1994, white governments had hidden their knowledge of black history from South Africans.

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