Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Overall Plot Summary

This chapter is an extract from Nelson Mandela's autobiography. It describes the historic inauguration ceremony on May 10, 1994, at the Union Buildings amphitheatre in Pretoria, marking the birth of South Africa's first democratic, non-racial government. Mandela pays tribute to the thousands of African patriots who suffered and died to end the oppressive system of Apartheid. He notes that 'courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it'. He discusses the twin obligations of a man: to his family and to his people/country. Under Apartheid, black people were punished for attempting to fulfill these duties. Mandela explains his changing perception of freedom: from childhood freedom to run in fields, to student freedom to stay out, and finally to the hunger for the freedom and dignity of his entire community. He concludes that both the oppressor and the oppressed must be liberated, as hate cages both.

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