107 pages • 3 hours read
Nelson MandelaLong Walk to Freedom
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
The Struggle
The campaign to end apartheid was one of the defining political struggles of the second half of the 20th century. Organizations such as the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and ANC, which represented the interests of nonwhite communities, had existed since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, it was only in the late 30s that these organizations became politically active in a meaningful way. These civil societies’ early campaigns advocated only for the rights of the organizations’ constituent community. In the 40s, these groups found that nonviolent disobedience was more effective when they combined their efforts.
The early 40s saw the rise of a new generation of more radical leaders who pushed the ANC and other organizations to confront the government more directly. The size of campaign mobilizations escalated throughout the 40d and 50d, deepening the alliance between the various civil rights organizations. Escalating brutality against the government led many of the movement’s leaders to conclude that armed resistance is necessary.
In 1961, the armed resistance against apartheid began and was intended to give the movement a new means of pressuring the government into negotiating a new constitution. Armed struggle continued for 30 years.
Starting in the 50s, gaining international attention and sympathy became one of the movement’s main strategies. The South African government’s cruelty and injustice against those seeking to assert their political equality became an international scandal. Foreign governments began enacting a series of economic embargoes and sanctions on the regime in the early 60s, a pattern that would continue for the next two decades.
The campaign to free South Africa from the domination of a white minority was part of a larger, international movement known as anticolonialism, which swept over southern Africa from the 60s to the 80s. The modern nations of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, and Zambia were all formed out of this larger struggle, and the ANC’s military forces participated in several joint campaigns in those countries.
Ultimately, the combination of internal political instability, paramilitary insurgency, and international sanctions forced the South African government to negotiate the end of apartheid.
The Cold War
The persistent hostility and suspicion between the US and Soviet Union, which lasted from 1945 until 1991, played a major role in the struggle to end apartheid. After the Second World War, two competing political blocs formed in Europe and North America. Under Russian leadership, the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact, while the US created the military alliance known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The Cold War was putatively about two competing ideologies—the Soviets’ communism and American capitalism—but in practice it was often little more than the wrangling and petty jealousies that arose between competing power blocs.
Competition between the two countries became particularly intense during the 50s, as both blocs sought to bring unaligned countries into their camps. These countries were mostly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and known collectively as the Third World. Given the stakes of the competition between NATO and the Soviet Union—both sides were ready to rain nuclear missiles down upon the other—the two blocs often resorted to supporting proxy forces in the Third World, since a direct conflict would have likely destroyed human civilization.
Although each bloc claimed to support only proxy armies and governments with which they were ideologically aligned, in practice, each side would usually support any group friendly to its interests. For NATO, this meant that any anticommunist government was inherently worth supporting. This was why the US and the UK were so slow to implement comprehensive economic sanctions on South Africa.
The respective leaders of the two countries, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, condemned the ANC and Nelson Mandela as communist terrorists. When the US finally implemented sanctions, Congress was forced to override President Reagan’s veto of the measure, and many do not believe the Reagan administration fully enforced the law once it was enacted.
In the context of the wider anticolonial struggle in Africa, the Soviet Union provided arms and expertise to insurgents since the colonies were held by capitalist, European countries. NATO often supported regimes with long records of human rights abuses simply because they were facing a communist insurgency. Anticapitalistic insurgencies in Africa were not common in this period, but where they did occur, the Soviet Union readily supported governments with terrible human rights records.
Humanism
Humanism is a philosophical tradition that places a focus on the human condition and the relations between human beings. In many cases, it is a secular philosophy, placing an emphasis on human wellbeing and healthy interpersonal relationships over religious mysteries. Theistic strands of humanism emphasize the common beliefs and values of people of different faiths rather than the differences.
Mandela’s personal journey was humanistic in nature because he experienced an expanding sense of community and commonality with all other humans regardless of race, religion, or national origin. Without ever using the term in Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela clearly shows his growth into humanistic thinking when he pinpoints specific episodes that caused him to rethink his prejudices.
For example, Mandela describes his younger self as stuck up, thinking he was superior due to his royal lineage. But when he attended school, he met members of his Xhosa ethnic group who were not Thembus and learned that the other kingdoms were as worthy as Thembu. Once he traveled further afield for school and meets Africans who were not Xhosa, he found himself seeing no point in ethnic rivalries. He could see that Sothos, Swazis, and Zulus had far more in common with him than with the British or Afrikaner South Africans. This change in perspective left him receptive to the tenets of Africanism.
In the intensely racialized society of South Africa, it would have been easy for Mandela to remain an Africanist and see white and Indian allies as untrustworthy. However, coordinating campaigns between the members of the Congress Alliance made apparent the common interests of the various communities . Mandela specifically notes that joint political action was the key to building solidarity both within and between the communities. After acquiring so many white, Indian, and Coloured friends, Mandela evolved beyond his attitude of militant Africanism.
Mandela’s humanism is key to understanding his willingness to engage with his jailers. In Long Walk to Freedom, he affirms his belief that even his tormentors had an inner humanity and that, if he could reach it, he could turn an enemy into an ally. When he was released from prison, Mandela believed one of his primary objectives was reassuring the white minority that, once apartheid ended, they would have a place and be valued as fellow South Africans. His long practice engaging with the enforcers of apartheid perfectly prepared him for the task of reconciling the white population with the end of apartheid, which he did by adjuring all South Africa peoples to recognize their common humanity and love for their country.
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