Long Walk to Freedom

Two Nelson Mandela Long Walk to Freedom

BEFORE YOU READ

'Apartheid' is a political system that separates people according to their race. Can you say which of the three countries named below had such a political system until very recently?

(i) United States of America (ii) South Africa (iii) Australia

Have you heard of Nelson Mandela? Mandela, and his African National Congress, spent a lifetime fighting against apartheid. Mandela had to spend thirty years in prison. Finally, democratic elections were held in South Africa in nineteen ninety-four, and Mandela became the first black President of a new nation.

In this extract from his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela speaks about a historic occasion, 'the inauguration'. Can you guess what the occasion might be? Check your guess with this news item of ten May nineteen ninety-four.

Mandela Becomes South Africa's First Black President

Nelson Mandela has become South Africa's first Black President after more than three centuries of White rule. Mr Mandela's African National Congress party won two hundred fifty-two of the four hundred seats in the first democratic elections of South Africa's history.

The inauguration ceremony took place in the Union Buildings amphitheatre in Pretoria today, attended by politicians and dignitaries from more than one hundred forty countries around the world. "Never, never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another, " said Nelson Mandela in his address.

... Jubilant scenes on the streets of Pretoria followed the ceremony with blacks, whites and coloureds celebrating together ... More than one hundred thousand South African men, women and children of all races sang and danced with joy.