Nelson Mandela has launched the first installment in a nine-part series of comic books based on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and most of the world. His struggle to end apartheid and white domination in South Africa has been depicted by five young African illustrators and cartoonists. The books are called the Madiba Legacy Series and have the aim of re-awakening young South Africans to the rich history of black South Africa. About one million copies of the inaugural book were distributed free to schools and newspapers. The series will eventually be translated from English into South Africa's 10 other official languages. International publishers are already waiting to win publishing rights. Japan's $7 billion a year comic book market is a potentially lucrative revenue stream.

Lead artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African educated at an elite university, wants people to know the truth about his country’s history. He is highly critical of the education he received of South Africa’s past, which he says did not focus on any black populations. He denounced the history he was taught at college, which started with the arrival of the first white settler in 1652. He said: “Everything before then was written off as savagery or barbarism. Any story that involved heroism was about white people.” Buchanan is also angry that white governments, which had ruled South Africa for three centuries, had kept hidden all knowledge of black history. Archaeologists unearthed treasures from a thousand-year-old civilization back in 1933.

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. Talk about Mr. Mandela’s contributions to his country and the world.

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? Has it helped shape who you are today? 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.
• Something in my country’s history that made the world a better place.
• Events in my country’s history that led to suffering and the death of other people.

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 settlers / barbarism / heroism / archaeology

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 who suffered at the hands of white settlers. A short list of indigenous peoples 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 inaugural issue at half price.	T / F
d.	The books may sell well in Japan’s lucrative 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.	White governments in S. Africa kept hidden facts about black history.	T / F
h.	Archaeologists unearthed ancient S. African treasures in the 1930s.	T / F

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

a.	installment	arousing
b.	depicted	profitable
c.	re-awakening	disregarded
d.	inaugural	top-notch
e.	lucrative	episode
f.	elite	condemned
g.	critical	initial
h.	denounced	uncovered
i.	written off	illustrated
j.	unearthed	reproachful

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

a.	the first installment	white settler in 1652
b.	struggle to end apartheid and	revenue stream
c.	have the aim of re-awakening	he received of South Africa’s past
d.	waiting to win	young S. Africans to the rich history…
e.	a potentially lucrative	all knowledge of black history
f.	highly critical of the education	a thousand-year-old civilization
g.	the arrival of the first	in a nine-part series
h.	written off	publishing rights
i.	kept hidden	as savagery or barbarism
j.	unearthed treasures from	white domination in South Africa

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 installment in a nine-part series of comic books ________ on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and most of the world. His ________ to end apartheid and white domination in South Africa has been depicted by five young African ________ and cartoonists. The books are called the Madiba Legacy Series and have the aim of re-awakening young South Africans to the rich history of black South Africa. About one million copies of the ________ book were distributed ________ to schools and newspapers. The series will eventually be ________ from English into South Africa's 10 other official languages. International publishers are already waiting to win publishing rights. Japan's $7 billion a year comic book market is a potentially lucrative revenue ________.		struggle free launched stream inaugural based translated illustrators
Lead artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African ________ at an elite university, wants people to know the ________ about his country’s history. He is highly critical of the education he received of South Africa’s past, which he says did not ________ on any black populations. He ________ the history he was taught at college, which started with the arrival of the first white settler in 1652. He said: “Everything before then was written off as ________ or barbarism. Any story that involved ________ was about white people.” Buchanan is also angry that white governments, which had ________ South Africa for three centuries, had kept hidden all knowledge of black history. Archaeologists unearthed ________ from a thousand-year-old civilization back in 1933.		ruled focus heroism educated savagery denounced treasures truth

LISTENING

Listen and fill in the spaces.

Nelson Mandela launches comic book

Nelson Mandela has launched the first ____________ in a nine-part series of comic books based on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and most of the world. His struggle to end ____________ and white domination in South Africa has been ____________ by five young African illustrators and cartoonists. The books are called the Madiba Legacy Series and have the aim of ____________ young South Africans to the rich history of black South Africa. About one million copies of the ____________ book were distributed free to schools and newspapers. The series will eventually be translated from English into South Africa's 10 other official languages. International publishers are already waiting to win publishing rights. Japan's $7 billion a year comic book market is a potentially ____________ revenue stream.

Lead artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African educated at an ________ university, wants people to know the truth about his country’s history. He is ________ _________ ____ the education he received of South Africa’s past, which he says did not focus on any black populations. He ____________ the history he was taught at college, which started with the arrival of the first white settler in 1652. He said: “Everything before then was written off as __________ or __________. Any story that involved heroism was about white people.” Buchanan is also angry that white governments, which had ruled South Africa for three centuries, had ______ _________ all knowledge of black history. Archaeologists ___________ treasures from a thousand-year-old civilization back in 1933.

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 struggle depicted inaugural eventually stream

educated highly denounced savagery angry 1933

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 any other people alive today who can be compared 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 the history you learned at school about your country is totally accurate?
7. Are you critical of any aspect of the education you received?
8. Did you learn about savagery and barbarism in your history lessons?
9. What does the world have to 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 distributing free comic books about Nelson Mandela to South African schools?
5. How many countries do you think there are that depict an incorrect version of history?
6. Do you think black South African schoolchildren will enjoy learning the truth about white governments?
7. Why will Nelson Mandela always be the biggest hero in S. Africa?
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 outlining 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.	installment	episode
b.	depicted	illustrated
c.	re-awakening	arousing
d.	inaugural	initial
e.	lucrative	profitable
f.	elite	top-notch
g.	critical	reproachful
h.	denounced	condemned
i.	written off	disregarded
j.	unearthed	uncovered

PHRASE MATCH:

a.	the first installment	in a nine-part series
b.	struggle to end apartheid and	white domination in South Africa
c.	have the aim of re-awakening	young S. Africans to the rich history…
d.	waiting to win	publishing rights
e.	a potentially lucrative	revenue stream
f.	highly critical of the education	he received of South Africa’s past
g.	the arrival of the first	white settler in 1652
h.	written off	as savagery or barbarism
i.	kept hidden	all knowledge of black history
j.	unearthed treasures from	a thousand-year-old civilization

GAP FILL:

Nelson Mandela launches comic book

Nelson Mandela has launched the first installment in a nine-part series of comic books based on his life. Mandela is a real-life super hero in South Africa and most of the world. His struggle to end apartheid and white domination in South Africa has been depicted by five young African illustrators and cartoonists. The books are called the Madiba Legacy Series and have the aim of re-awakening young South Africans to the rich history of black South Africa. About one million copies of the inaugural book were distributed free to schools and newspapers. The series will eventually be translated from English into South Africa's 10 other official languages. International publishers are already waiting to win publishing rights. Japan's $7 billion a year comic book market is a potentially lucrative revenue stream.

Lead artist Nic Buchanan, a white South African educated at an elite university, wants people to know the truth about his country’s history. He is highly critical of the education he received of South Africa’s past, which he says did not focus on any black populations. He denounced the history he was taught at college, which started with the arrival of the first white settler in 1652. He said: “Everything before then was written off as savagery or barbarism. Any story that involved heroism was about white people.” Buchanan is also angry that white governments, which had ruled South Africa for three centuries, had kept hidden all knowledge of black history. Archaeologists unearthed treasures from a thousand-year-old civilization back in 1933.

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