Chapter 2: Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – Question Answers
Before You Read (Page 1)
Can you say which of the three countries named below had such a political system until very recently?
Answer: (ii) South Africa
* Can you guess what the occasion might be?
Ans. The occasion is the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first black President.
Activity (Page 2)
Here is the correct matching for the expressions:
A rainbow gathering of different colours and nations – A beautiful coming together of various peoples, like the colours in a rainbow.
The seat of white supremacy – The centre of racial superiority.
Be overwhelmed with a sense of history – Feel deeply emotional, remembering and understanding all the past events that have led up to the moment.
Resilience that defies the imagination – A great ability (almost unimaginable) to remain unchanged by suffering, without losing hope, goodness, or courage.
A glimmer of humanity – A sign of human feeling such as goodness, kindness, pity, or justice.
A twilight existence – A half-secret life, like a life lived in the fading light between sunset and darkness.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 3)
1. Where did the ceremonies take place? Can you name any public buildings in India that are made of sandstone?
Ans. The ceremonies took place in the “lovely sandstone amphitheatre formed by the Union Buildings in Pretoria”.
(Public buildings in India made of sandstone include the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House, and the Red Fort in Delhi.)
2. Can you say how 10 May is an ‘autumn day’ in South Africa?
Ans. South Africa is in the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are the opposite of those in the Northern Hemisphere. May falls during the autumn season there.
3. At the beginning of his speech, Mandela mentions “an extraordinary human disaster”. What does he mean by this? What is the “glorious… human achievement” he speaks of at the end?
Ans. “An extraordinary human disaster” refers to the system of apartheid in South Africa, a long-lasting period of racial oppression.
“A glorious human achievement” refers to the establishment of “newborn liberty”—South Africa’s first democratic, non-racial government—which is a “common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity”.
4. What does Mandela thank the international leaders for?
Ans. He thanks them for coming to “take possession with the people of our country” of what he calls a “common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity”.
5. What ideals does he set out for the future of South Africa?
Ans. He pledges to “liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination”.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 6)
1. What do the military generals do? How has their attitude changed, and why?
Ans. The highest military generals “saluted me and pledged their loyalty”.
Their attitude has changed because “not so many years before they would not have saluted but arrested me”.
This change is due to the end of apartheid and the establishment of a “new government that had been freely and fairly elected”.
2. Why were two national anthems sung?
Ans. Two national anthems were sung to symbolize the new unity of the nation. The whites sang ‘Nkosi Sikelel -iAfrika’ (the anthem of the black people), and the blacks sang ‘Die Stem’ (the old anthem of the white republic).
3. How does Mandela describe the systems of government in his country…
Ans. (i) in the first decade… of the twentieth century? He describes it as a “system of racial domination” that was one of the “harshest, most inhumane, societies the world has ever known”.
(ii) in the final decade… of the twentieth century? He describes the new system as one “that recognised the rights and freedoms of all peoples, regardless of the colour of their skin”.
4. What does courage mean to Mandela?
Ans. To Mandela, courage is “not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it”. He states, “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear”.
5. Which does he think is natural, to love or to hate?
Ans. He thinks it is natural to love, stating that “love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite”.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 9)
1. What “twin obligations” does Mandela mention?
Ans. Mandela mentions:
* “obligations to his family, to his parents, to his wife and children”
* “an obligation to his people, his community, his country”
2. What did being free mean to Mandela as a boy, and as a student? How does he contrast these “transitory freedoms” with “the basic and honourable freedoms”?
Ans. As a boy: Being free meant “to run in the fields… free to swim… free to roast mealies… and ride the broad backs of slow-moving bulls”.
* As a student: Being free meant “the transitory freedoms of being able to stay out at night, read what I pleased and go where I chose”.
* Contrast: He contrasts these “transitory freedoms” (which were personal and temporary) with “the basic and honourable freedoms” of adult life, such as “achieving my potential, of earning my keep, of marrying and having a family”.
3. Does Mandela think the oppressor is free? Why/Why not?
Ans. No, he does not. He states that “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred; he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and