NELSON MANDELA- LONG WALK TO FREEDOM
-By Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
TENTH May dawned bright and clear. For the past few days I had been pleasantly besieged by dignitaries and world leaders who were coming to pay their respects before the inauguration. The inauguration would be the largest gathering ever of international leaders on South African soil.
What kind of inauguration Nelson Mandela is talking about?
Why did he want the largest gathering of all the dignitaries and international leaders on the African soil?
The ceremonies took place in the lovely sandstone amphitheatre formed by the Union Buildings in Pretoria. For decades this had been the seat of white supremacy, and now it was the site of a rainbow gathering of different colours and nations for the installation of South Africa’s first democratic, non-racial government.
Where did the inaugural ceremony take place?
Why had he chosen that place for the ceremony?
Who were ruling the country upto now?
What does the expression, "a rainbow gathering of different colours and nations" mean?
On that lovely autumn day I was accompanied by my daughter Zenani. On the podium, Mr de Klerk was first sworn in as second deputy president. Then Thabo Mbeki was sworn in as first deputy president. When it was my turn, I pledged to obey and uphold the Constitution and to devote myself to the well-being of the Republic and its people.
What was the name of Mandela's daughter?
Which post Thabo Mbeki sorn in?
Which post Mr de Klerk conferred on?
What was Mandela's pledge?
To the assembled guests and the watching world, I said:
Today, all of us do, by our presence here... confer glory and hope to newborn liberty. Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. We, who were outlaws not so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our own soil. We thank all of our distinguished international guests for having come to take possession with the people of our country of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity.
What extraordinary human disaster Nelson Mandela talked about?
What condition the South Africans lived before the dawn of independence?
What do you mean by 'a common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity.'?
Man is born independent and so he does he die, is independence the natural inclination of mankind? Elucidate
We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.
Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement.
Let freedom reign. God bless Africa!
It is not just independence but many other serious issues were prevailing in South Africa, What were they?
What was Nelson Mandela's desire for the future of South Africa?
What is the importance of freedom for a country and its people in general, Discuss.
A few moments later we all lifted our eyes in awe as a spectacular array of South African jets, helicopters and troop carriers roared in perfect formation over the Union Buildings. It was not only a display of pinpoint precision and military force, but a demonstration of the military’s loyalty to democracy, to a new government that had been freely and fairly elected. Only moments before, the highest generals of the South African defence force and police, their chests bedecked with ribbons and medals from days gone by, saluted me and pledged their loyalty. I was not unmindful of the fact that not so many years before they would not have saluted but arrested me. Finally a chevron of Impala jets left a smoke trail of the black, red, green, blue and gold of the new South African flag.
The independence display of variegated strength of the nation is not just a sight of entertainment but much more..........in what way it is important to display the power and strength of a nation? Why are the independence day parade organised in all countries? How it helps strengthen democracy?
Why does the chevron of Impala jets leave a smoke trail of the black, red, green, blue and gold?
The day was symbolised for me by the playing of our two national anthems, and the vision of whites singing ‘Nkosi Sikelel –iAfrika’ and blacks singing ‘Die Stem’, the old anthem of the Republic. Although that day neither group knew the lyrics of the anthem they once despised, they would soon know the words by heart.
How was the day symbolized so far?
Which national anthem did the whites, and the blacks sing?
On the day of the inauguration, I was overwhelmed with a sense of history. In the first decade of the twentieth century, a few years after the bitter Anglo-Boer war and before my own birth, the white-skinned peoples of South Africa patched up their differences and erected a system of racial domination against the dark-skinned peoples of their own land. The structure they created formed the basis of one of the harshest, most inhumane, societies the world has ever known. Now, in the last decade of the twentieth century, and my own eighth decade as a man, that system had been overturned forever and replaced by one that recognized the rights and freedoms of all peoples, regardless of the colour of their skin.
What kind of injustice was there with the native South African citizens in the beginning of the twentieth century?
What had actually happened in South Africa which pushed the native people in trouble and hardship?
For how long South Africa was ruled by the outsiders?
That day had come about through the unimaginable sacrifices of thousands of my people, people whose suffering and courage can never be counted or repaid. I felt that day, as I have on so many other days, that I was simply the sum of all those African patriots who had gone before me. That long and noble line ended and now began again with me. I was pained that I was not able to thank them and that they were not able to see what their sacrifices had wrought.
Nothing comes for free, Not even the independece and freedom, it is always coloured with the sacrifices of patriots and noble nationalists, What feeling Nelson Mandela had for such great national heroes?
How can we pay out tribute to the noble martyrs and patriots who had sacrificed their life for the cause of independence and freedom. Your opinion...
The policy of apartheid created a deep and lasting wound in my country and my people. All of us will spend many years, if not generations, recovering from that profound hurt. But the decades of oppression and brutality had another, unintended, effect, and that was that it produced the Oliver Tambos, the Walter Sisulus, the Chief Luthulis, the Yusuf Dadoos, the Bram Fischers, the Robert Sobukwes of our time* — men of such extraordinary courage, wisdom and generosity that their like may never be known again. Perhaps it requires such depths of oppression to create such heights of character. My country is rich in the minerals and gems that lie beneath its soil, but I have always known that its greatest wealth is its people, finer and truer than the purest diamonds.
It is rightly said, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!" How the toughest times give birth to toughest mortals turning them to immortals by their actions and deeds, who were the national heroes of independence of S.Africa, how were they made so?
What according to Nelson Mandela is the greatest wealth of a country?Why? Explain
It is from these comrades in the struggle that I learned the meaning of courage. Time and again, I have seen men and women risk and give their lives for an idea. I have seen men stand up to attacks and torture without breaking, showing a strength and resilience that defies the imagination. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
What is the meaning of courage according to Nelson Mandela?
What does he learn form the people risking their lives in the freedom struggle?
What qualities of Men and Women of South Africa impressed Nelson Mandela?
Who is called a brave man according to Nelson Mandela?
No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.
Whether man is born with hatefulness? What does Nelson Mandela talk about hate?
What is to be taught the feeling of HATE or LOVE?
What is the natural quality of human beings?
Explain 'Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished'.
In life every man has twin obligations- obligations to his family, to his parents, to his wife and children; and he has an obligation to his people,his community. In a civil and humane society, each man is able to fulfil those obligations according to his own inclinations and abilities. But in a country like South Africa, it was almost impossible for a man of my birth and colour to fulfil both of those obligations. In South Africa, a man of colour who attempted to live as a human being was punished and isolated. In South Africa, a man who tried to fulfil his duty to his people was inevitably ripped from his family and his home and was forced to live a life apart, a twilight existence of secrecy and rebellion. I did not in the beginning choose to place my people above my family, but in attempting to serve my people, I found that I was prevented from fulfilling my obligations as a son, a brother, a father and a husband.
What two obligations every man has in his life?
How do people fulfill these obligations?
Why it was impossible to fulfull these obligations in South Africa?
What treatment a man had to have if he ever had tried to fulfill the obligation for the nation?
In the beginning, even Nelson Mandela was reluctant for offering his duties to his society and nation but then how had he developed that quality of sacrificing for nation?
I was not born with a hunger to be free. I was born free — free in every way that I could know. Free to run in the fields near my mother’s hut, free to swim in the clear stream that ran through my village, free to roast mealies under the stars and ride the broad backs of slow-moving bulls. As long as I obeyed my father and abided by the customs of my tribe, I was not troubled by the laws of man or God.
BEING FREE IS AN INNATE QUALITY...How Nelson Mandela makes this idea clear?
What care one should take while observing the congenital freedom according to Nelson Mandela?
It was only when I began to learn that my boyhood freedom was an illusion, when I discovered as a young man that my freedom had already been taken from me, that I began to hunger for it. At first, as a student, I wanted freedom only for myself, the transitory freedoms of being able to stay out at night, read what I pleased and go where I chose. Later, as a young man in Johannesburg, I yearned for the basic and honourable freedoms of achieving my potential, of earning my keep, of marrying and having a family — the freedom not to be obstructed in a lawful life.
When did Nelson Mandela realised that he is no more at freedom?
What was the defination of freedom for a student-Mandela?
What was the defination of freedom for a young-Mandela?
But then I slowly saw that not only was I not free, but my brothers and sisters were not free. I saw that it was not just my freedom that was curtailed, but the freedom of everyone who looked like I did. That is when I joined the African National Congress, and that is when the hunger for my own freedom became the greater hunger for the freedom of my people. It was this desire for the freedom of my people to live their lives with dignity and self-respect that animated my life, that transformed a frightened young man into a bold one, that drove a law-abiding attorney to become a criminal, that turned a family-loving husband into a man without a home, that forced a life-loving man to live like a monk. I am no more virtuous or self-sacrificing than the next man, but I found that I could not even enjoy the poor and limited freedoms I was allowed when I knew my people were not free. Freedom is indivisible; the chains on anyone of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me.
What made Nelson Mandela to join AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS?
How was a frightened young man Nelson turned to be a bold freedom fighter?
Half freedom in a queer idea nobody likes, either it cannot be or should be in full, it is indivisible, Explain?
I knew that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred; he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
What is the idea of oppressor and oppressed according to Nelson Mandela?
What is his opinion about one who takes away others freedom? What treatment he/she should receive?
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