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Chapter 1
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
After his father’s deposal, Mandela and his family go to live in the village of Qunu. The village is mostly full of women and children, since the men work on distant farms. Mandela becomes a herd boy at age 5 and spends most of his free time playing with other boys on the veld (grassland). Mandela always tries to keep up his reputation with the other boys, although he also tries to never dishonor any of the other boys, even his rivals.
Mandela’s rural upbringing is an important part of his character and something that he continues to think about long after he’s been living cities for a while. Mandela’s goal of never embarrassing the other boys he plays with highlights his budding ability to negotiate, even with people with whom he disagrees.
Themes
As is typical for a Xhosa child, Mandela learns primarily through observation. He doesn’t ask questions and is shocked at all the questions children asked the first time he visited a White house. In general, there aren’t many White people near Qunu, except the magistrate and the occasional traveler or policeman coming through town.
This passage highlights a difference between life for Black and White South Africans. On the one hand, it shows how Mandela has less autonomy than his White peers, being forced to just observe instead of asking questions. On the other hand, however, this passage suggests that there are benefits to the observational approach, as it helps to make Mandela perceptive and humble.
Themes
The Xhosa are rivals with the amaMfengu, and a few of them live near Qunu. The amaMfengu have closer ties with Europeans and are often seen as more Western. The rivalries between tribes seems harmless to Mandela as a boy, but later, White rulers will try to exploit these rivalries. Mandela’s father doesn’t follow these prejudices and is close with two amaMfengu, the Christian Mbekela brothers. George Mbekela recommends that Mandela go to school, and so he does. There he gets his name Nelson from his teacher. Mandela still doesn’t know the origin of the name Nelson, but he thinks may have been inspired by the sea captain Lord Nelson.
One of the main political challenges Mandela faces throughout his life is determining to what extent he should try to hold on to Xhosa values like the ones his father represents versus to what extent he should try to adapt to the European-influenced customs of White South Africans. Mandela’s father chooses not to ostracize the more Western-influenced rival tribe, setting an example his son will work to follow later.
Themes
