Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Class 10 Notes

SUMMARY IN ENGLISH

This lesson is an extract from the autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Nelson Mandela was the first black to become the President of South Africa after three hundred years’ rule of the White. Mr. Mandela’s party won 252 seats out of 400 in the first democratic elections in South Africa’s history. In his address at the inauguration ceremony Nelson Mandela said, ‘‘Never, never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another.’’ Mandela and his African National Congress spent a lifetime fighting against the white rule. Mandela was congratulated by dignitaries and world leaders before the inauguration. It was the largest gathering ever of international leaders on South African soil. Mr. de Klerk was first sworn in as the second Deputy President preceded by Thabo Mbeki as first Deputy President and ultimately the First Black President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

Then an array of South African jets, helicopters and troop carriers displayed military force of South Africa. On this day the white and the black both sung their respective national anthems. South Africa could see this day because of the numberless sacrifices of the people. According to Mandela, the greatest wealth of his country is its people like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sislus, Chief Luthulis and some others. He learned from these people that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it.

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. So people must learn how to love others. Each man has two obligations; first towards his family and second one for his country. But in a country like South Africa, it was almost impossible for a man to fulfil both these obligations. Mandela was not born with the hunger to be free as he felt that he was born free. But in his boyhood he found this freedom an illusion. The desire of freedom was not confined to Mandela only

but to all the Africans now. It is indivisible; the chains on anyone of his people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of his people were the chains on him. The man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred; he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow mindedness. One can be called free if he respects another’s freedom with same degree as he desires for himself.

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