Previous
Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Long Walk to Freedom, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Division
Negotiation, Democracy, and Progress
Nonviolent Protest vs. Violent Protest
The Value of Optimism
Summary
Analysis
The National Party follows through on its threats, putting in place laws that force all South Africans to register their race. According to apartheid, people have to live in different areas by race. The party also greatly restricts the voting rights of “Coloureds” (mixed race South Africans) who previously had voting rights. Meanwhile, Mandela gets his driver’s license—an unusual thing, because not many Black people own cars in the country. He begins to taxi other activists around, taking messages to Dr. Moroka. Mandela and others in the ANC lead civil disobedience against Dr. Malan’s policies, inspired in part by Gandhi.
Mandela’s driver’s license represents the unusual amount of autonomy that he has for a Black South African. This is partly due to his family heritage, his good education, and his respectable job as a lawyer. Apartheid is also still in its early stages—so Mandela has more rights now than he will at later points. By sharing that the ANC’s protests were inspired by Mahatma Ghandi, who was famously nonviolent, Mandela begins to develop his ideas about what effective protest looks like in different situations.
Themes
June 26, 1952, is the start of the Defiance Campaign, when Mandela and other activists purposely begin to break the unjust apartheid laws, with many ending up in prison. The government responds harshly to the campaign, putting out propaganda to smear the leaders. Police infiltrate local branches of the ANC. One day while Mandela is working as a law clerk, someone comes with a warrant for his arrest as part of a coordinated campaign to arrest several other activist leaders.
Mandela learns that his relative freedom in the previous part of this chapter was only due to the fact that he was not challenging the unjust system of apartheid. As soon as he and his allies start challenging these laws, even nonviolently, the government responds harshly, using official tools of power like the police in an attempt to crush dissent.
Themes
Dr. Moroka, who was also arrested, causes a stir in the ANC by taking on his own attorney, rather than being tried together with all the other ANC members. Like Malan’s government, Dr. Moroka hates Communists and wants to distance himself from them. On the witness stand, Dr. Moroka denounces the idea that Black and White people should be equal in attempt to get a lighter sentence. Mandela and the others are sentenced to nine months in jail with hard labor, although the sentence is suspended for two years. Although the Defiance Campaign succeeded in raising awareness against the apartheid laws, Mandela regrets allowing the campaign to fizzle out, rather than ending it at its height. That was something Dr. Xuma suggested as a way of making headlines.
Dr. Moroka’s actions surprise Mandela and others in the ANC because the idea of unity is so important to them. This contrasts, for example, with Mandela’s actions earlier when he was a prefect at school and decided to show a whole group of fellow students mercy rather than allowing just one of them to go free. Dr. Moroka further disgraces himself by betraying the principals of the ANC to try to get a lighter sentence—something readers should keep in mind going forward, as Mandela is repeatedly tried and imprisoned.
Themes
