Truly historical? I am not exactly a history buff. It wasn't a subject I struggled with (like math), but it also wasn't exactly my favorite class, either. So who in the last 3 or 4 millenia am I really interested in? Sadly, several of them are probably fictional!
King Arthur of Britain
I was told the stories of Camelot as a child, and Arthur has always held my fascination. Although most of the tales are romanticized and set in the 12th century (whereas Arthur probably lived in the 5th or 6th century), I have read many of the different adaptations, including struggling through Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings of Britain".
Robin of Locksley
Robin Hood and his band of Merry men are usually portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire. Their adventures generally surround the "rob from the rich to give to the poor" ideal. There is no solid evidence that Robin Hood as we know him actually existed. However, the oldest references are from the English Justice rolls, where the names 'Robinhood', 'Robehod' or 'Robbehod' have appeared from time to time since 1228. That suggests (to me, at least) that "Robin Hood" was the medieval equivalent to "Joe Smoe" if you were arrested. :-P
Lady of Ch'iao Kuo
(Please don't ask me for the actual pronunciation...I will butcher it!) Born a tribal princess in the early 500s, the Lady of Ch'iao Kuo was a strong and cunning woman who integrated her native Hsien with the invading Chinese. Through her efforts in both education and negotiation, she brought peace to the warring factions and gained respect of the Ch'en Dynasty...no small feat for a woman in China in the 500s!
Joan of Arc
Most people know her story...the Maid of Oleans led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War and changed the course of European history in the 1400s. Anyone who holds to their beliefs through a gruesome and public death is pretty incredible to me. The fact that Joan was an illiterate peasant girl of 17 when she became a national hero is amazing.
To be honest, I spent quite a bit of time mulling over a fifth historical hero to name. Partly because I wanted to name someone who might really qualify as a hero...someone who changed the world for the better. My mother was one of my initial picks. She certainly changed my world. She was an amazing and admirable person, but she's not someone you can read about in a history book. Then I remembered.
Every once in a while, we have a very personal brush with history. My fifth historical figure is
Molapetene Collins Ramusi
I knew him as "Uncle Mafa", a big black man who visited us and made 'African Chicken' for us on occasion. He first came to my family through my grandfather. The story is that Mafa simply walked up to my Opa, threw his arms around him, and cried out, "My American father!" and Opa brought him home. I have vague memories of attending his traditional wedding at a house in Hyde Park, being the only white girl there, and the amazing outfits. It was clear the man I knew as "Uncle" was someone important, but I didn't understand his story until much later, when I read his autobiography, first typed by my mother. How he had grown up in the Batlokwa tribe, aspired to be Lebowa's Interior Minister, and was political exile from South Africa before I was born. He returned to South Africa after his wife died, and was killed himself shortly after Nelson Mandela was elected as president. I wish I knew more about the man himself, remembered more of the times he was a part of my life. As it is, I am awed to have known him at all.
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