Tma02

The term personal testimony means someone who speaks out to people in power in order to try and change the law to impact on their lives and those of others and can be used as a source of evidence with regards to social injustice. Social justice is an idea that mobilises people to act in order to bring about change. Struggles for social justice made by others had lead to the overthrow of government; have produced rights and entitlements and have responded to issues of poverty, inequality and exclusion.

Personal testimony can be a powerful way of presenting individual experiences, feelings and impressions of events, which are often overlooked or absent from other sources of evidence such as statistical sources.

There are a number of examples in which personal testimony has strengthened and weakened the social injustice. Firstly I am going to address the key figures in society whose personal testimonies have strengthened the social injustice for example Nelson Mandela, Lillie Mae Bradford, Washington Booker and Rosa Parks. It becomes clear that many have fought for the right to improve our quality of life.

Nelson Mandela is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the first black South African to hold the office, and the first elected in a fully representative, multiracial election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation.

The example I am going to draw upon is from 1941 when Mandela was 21 and was training to be a lawyer on his first day he was introduced to his new office and the secretary took him to one side and said “we have no colour bar here she exclaimed,” they had purchased new cups for him and gaur to drink out of they might share their tea but not the cups they drink from. Instead of choosing his new cup gaur took an old one that belonged to one of the workers this...