Long Walk to Freedom

Long Walk to Freedom

by

Nelson Mandela

Themes and Colors
Racism and Division Theme Icon
Negotiation, Democracy, and Progress Theme Icon
Nonviolent Protest vs. Violent Protest Theme Icon
The Value of Optimism Theme Icon
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 Theme Icon

Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom describes Mandela’s life in South Africa primarily during the apartheid era, when racial segregation is an official government policy. As a Black man in the country, Mandela experiences racism in ways big and small, and he also witnesses it happening to others. Mandela first experiences this racism at school and in his law career, when White people try to assert dominance over him by making him do chores for them, even in situations where he technically outranks them. As he becomes more politically conscious, he gets involved with the African National Congress (ANC), an initially peaceful group that nevertheless is persecuted by the government and the police. Mandela is banned from traveling in his car, banned from political activity, imprisoned, forced underground, then imprisoned again, all because the government sees him as dangerous, largely due to his race and his influence on other nonwhite South Africans. During Mandela’s more than 27 years in prison, conditions in prison continue to reflect the strict racial hierarchy of South Africa, with Indian and Coloured (mixed race) prisoners getting marginally better food than African ones like Mandela until several years into his sentence. Additionally, though some White South Africans live comfortably in suburbs just miles from where Mandela suffers in prison, Mandela’s autobiography shows how racism even makes things worse for white South Africans, who don’t understand Mandela’s true aims and so instead live in fear and ignorance.

Mandela describes how White South African leaders like Verwoerd, Botha, and de Klerk attempt to use racism to their advantage, holding on to power by keeping their opposition divided. The cornerstone of this is the bantustan plan, which on the surface appears to give Africans a place to live. But in practice, it uproots their lives and gives an even larger share of the land to the country’s White residents. The bantustan system also attempts to foil unity efforts like the ANC, trying to get African people to identify with their local tribes rather than banding together to oppose the government. To a lesser extent, some African figures and groups in the book also promote racial divisions, like the Pan-African Congress (PAC), whom Mandela disagrees with because of their narrow focus on specifically African unity, rather than on his own goal of unity among all races. Although Mandela acknowledges that overcoming racism is difficult, he believes it is the only hope for a stable, peaceful South African government. His beliefs are vindicated when the multiracial ANC takes power at the end of the autobiography, although Mandela readily acknowledges that one election is not enough to fully remove the influence of racism from South African life. Still, Long Walk to Freedom depicts how racism leads to injustice and impedes social progress, even for those who supposedly benefit from the racism, because of how racism divides people into groups and fosters animosity and distrust.

Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…

Racism and Division ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Racism and Division appears in each chapter of Long Walk to Freedom. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
chapter length:
Chapter
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
Get the entire Long Walk to Freedom LitChart as a printable PDF.
Long Walk to Freedom PDF

Racism and Division Quotes in Long Walk to Freedom

Below you will find the important quotes in Long Walk to Freedom related to the theme of Racism and Division.
Chapter 1 Quotes

Apart from life, a strong constitution, and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name, Rolihlahla. In Xhosa, Rolihlahla literally means “pulling the branch of a tree,” but its colloquial meaning more accurately would be “troublemaker.” I do not believe that names are destiny or that my father somehow divined my future, but in later years, friends and relatives would ascribe to my birth name the many storms I have both caused and weathered. My more familiar English or Christian name was not given to me until my first day of school.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa (Mandela’s Father)
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

My time at Clarkebury broadened my horizons, yet I would not say that I was an entirely open-minded, unprejudiced young man when I left. I had met students from all over the Transkei, as well as a few from Johannesburg and Basutoland, as Lesotho was then known, some of whom were sophisticated and cosmopolitan in ways that made me feel provincial. Though I emulated them, I never thought it possible for a boy from the countryside to rival them in their worldliness. Yet I did not envy them. Even as I left Clarkebury, I was still, at heart, a Thembu, and I was proud to think and act like one.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Jongintaba, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa (Mandela’s Father)
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

The secretaries were not always so thoughtful. Some time later, when I was more experienced at the firm, I was dictating some information to a white secretary when a white client whom she knew came into the office. She was embarrassed, and to demonstrate that she was not taking dictation from an African, she took a sixpence from her purse and said stiffly, “Nelson, please go out and get me some hair shampoo from the chemist.” I left the room and got her shampoo.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

I cannot pinpoint a moment when I became politicized, when I knew that I would spend my life in the liberation struggle. To be an African in South Africa means that one is politicized from the moment of one’s birth, whether one acknowledges it or not.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Page Number: 95
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

Malan’s platform was known as apartheid. Apartheid was a new term but an old idea. It literally means “apartness” and it represented the codification in one oppressive system of all the laws and regulations that had kept Africans in an inferior position to whites for centuries.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Dr. Malan
Page Number: 111
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

The government saw the campaign as a threat to its security and its policy of apartheid. They regarded civil disobedience not as a form of protest but as a crime, and were perturbed by the growing partnership between Africans and Indians. Apartheid was designed to divide racial groups, and we showed that different groups could work together. The prospect of a united front between Africans and Indians, between moderates and radicals, greatly worried them.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Dr. Malan
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

The bantustan system had been conceived by Dr. H. F. Verwoerd, the minister of native affairs, as a way of muting international criticism of South African racial policies but at the same time institutionalizing apartheid. The bantustans, or reserves as they were also known, would be separate ethnic enclaves or homelands for all African citizens. Africans, Verwoerd said, “should stand with both feet in the reserves” where they were to “develop along their own lines.” The idea was to preserve the status quo where three million whites owned 87 percent of the land, and relegate the eight million Africans to the remaining 13 percent.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), H. F. Verwoerd
Page Number: 190
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

Although we were kept together, our diet was fixed according to race. For breakfast, Africans, Indians, and Coloureds received the same quantities, except that Indians and Coloureds received a half-teaspoonful of sugar, which we did not. For supper, the diets were the same, except that Indians and Coloureds received four ounces of bread while we received none. This latter distinction was made on the curious premise that Africans did not naturally like bread, which was a more sophisticated or “Western” taste. The diet for white detainees was far superior to that for Africans. So color-conscious were the authorities that even the type of sugar and bread supplied to whites and nonwhites differed: white prisoners received white sugar and white bread, while Coloured and Indian prisoners were given brown sugar and brown bread.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Page Number: 244
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 39 Quotes

I did not regard the verdict as a vindication of the legal system or evidence that a black man could get a fair trial in a white man’s court. It was the right verdict and a just one, but it was largely as a result of a superior defense team and the fair-mindedness of the panel of these particular judges.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Page Number: 260
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 51 Quotes

I entered the court that Monday morning wearing a traditional Xhosa leopard-skin kaross instead of a suit and tie. The crowd of supporters rose as one and with raised, clenched fists shouted “Amandla!” and “Ngawethu!” The kaross electrified the spectators, many of whom were friends and family, some of whom had come all the way from the Transkei. Winnie also wore a traditional beaded headdress and an ankle-length Xhosa skirt.

I had chosen traditional dress to emphasize the symbolism that I was a black African walking into a white man’s court. I was literally carrying on my back the history, culture, and heritage of my people.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Nomzamo Winifred “Winnie” Madikizela
Page Number: 324
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 59 Quotes

That first week we began the work that would occupy us for the next few months. Each morning, a load of stones about the size of volleyballs was dumped by the entrance to the courtyard. Using wheelbarrows, we moved the stones to the center of the yard. We were given either four-pound hammers or fourteen-pound hammers for the larger stones. Our job was to crush the stones into gravel.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Related Symbols: Robben Island
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 63 Quotes

In jail, all prisoners are classified by the authorities as one of four categories: A, B, C, or D. A is the highest classification and confers the most privileges; D is the lowest and confers the least. All political prisoners, or what the authorities called “security prisoners,” were automatically classified as D on admission. The privileges affected by these classifications included visits and letters, studies, and the opportunity to buy groceries and incidentals—all of which are the lifeblood of any prisoner. It normally took years for a political prisoner to raise his status from D to C.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Related Symbols: Robben Island
Page Number: 398
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 69 Quotes

The High Organ was the source of some controversy because of its ethnic composition: all four permanent members were from Xhosa backgrounds. This was a matter of coincidence rather than design; the senior ANC leadership on the island, the only four to have served on the National Executive Committee, happened to be Xhosa. It would not have been proper to take a less senior comrade and put him on the High Organ simply because he was not a Xhosa. But the fact that the High Organ was Xhosa-dominated disturbed me because it seemed to reinforce the mistaken perception that we were a Xhosa organization.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Walter Sisulu
Related Symbols: Robben Island
Page Number: 442
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 84 Quotes

It took fifteen years, but in 1979, the authorities announced over the intercom system that the diet for African, Coloured, and Indian prisoners would henceforth be the same. But just as justice delayed is justice denied, a reform so long postponed and so grudgingly enacted was hardly worth celebrating.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Page Number: 502
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 93 Quotes

I responded that the state was responsible for the violence and that it is always the oppressor, not the oppressed, who dictates the form of the struggle. If the oppressor uses violence, the oppressed have no alternative but to respond violently.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Colonel Willemse, Kobie Coetsee, Dr. Barnard
Page Number: 537
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 99 Quotes

De Klerk again excused himself and left the room. After ten minutes he returned with a compromise: yes, I could be released at Victor Verster, but, no, the release could not be postponed. The government had already informed the foreign press that I was to be set free tomorrow and felt they could not renege on that statement. I felt I could not argue with that. In the end, we agreed on the compromise, and Mr. de Klerk poured a tumbler of whisky for each of us to drink in celebration. I raised the glass in a toast, but only pretended to drink; such spirits are too strong for me.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), Nomzamo Winifred “Winnie” Madikizela, F. W. de Klerk
Related Symbols: Car
Page Number: 558
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 104 Quotes

Despite his seemingly progressive actions, Mr. de Klerk was by no means the great emancipator. He was a gradualist, a careful pragmatist. He did not make any of his reforms with the intention of putting himself out of power. He made them for precisely the opposite reason: to ensure power for the Afrikaner in a new dispensation. He was not yet prepared to negotiate the end of white rule.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker), F. W. de Klerk, Chief Buthelezi
Page Number: 577
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 115 Quotes

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

Related Characters: Nelson Mandela (speaker)
Page Number: 625
Explanation and Analysis: