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Chapter 32
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
In December 1959, the annual ANC conference takes place in the middle of the protests against passes. The Nationalists are fearful due to successful liberation movements in other parts of Africa. ANC has planned an antipass protest for March 30, but PAC schedules one for March 21 and invites ANC to join. Mandela believes this is a tactical move, not one based on unity, and ANC doesn’t join. Sobukwe, the PAC president, turns himself into the police on March 21, but he unexpectedly gets a sentence of three years rather than three weeks.
This passage continues to explore how Mandela respects PAC, but also finds them frustrating. PAC schedules their own protest earlier, and Mandela implies that perhaps PAC is thinking too narrowly and not taking stock of the broader liberation movement. The arrest of Sobukwe, who receives an unexpectedly harsh sentence, shows the consequences of PAC acting without being fully prepared.
Themes
At one PAC protest in Sharpeville, police open fire, killing 69 African people, including women and children. Many were shot in the back of the head as they fled. The UN Security Council finally takes notice and blames the South African government. Mandela, Luthuli, and others in the ANC organize a massive protest on March 28. It’s so large that the government declares a state of emergency and institutes martial law.
In this passage, Mandela shows that in spite of his differences with the PAC, he still believes that they are on the right side of history compared to the South African government. Although Mandela sometimes supports violence as a method of working toward liberation, here he shows how it often does the opposite, acting as a tool of oppression.
Themes
