Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom · Class 10 English · First Flight: 60 flashcards
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1. On what date did the inauguration take place?
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10 May 1994 — a day that dawned bright and clear.
2. Where were the ceremonies held?
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In the sandstone amphitheatre enclosed by the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
3. What had the Union Buildings been for decades before that day?
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The seat of white supremacy — the centre of racial superiority.
4. What phrase does Mandela use for the crowd assembled there?
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A rainbow gathering of different colours and nations.
5. Who accompanied Mandela on the podium?
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His daughter Zenani.
6. Which office did Mr de Klerk take?
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Second deputy president.
7. Who was sworn in as first deputy president?
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Thabo Mbeki.
8. What did Mandela pledge in his oath?
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He swore to be faithful to the Constitution and to give himself to the good of the Republic and of everyone living in it.
9. Why is 10 May called an autumn day?
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South Africa lies in the southern hemisphere, so its seasons are the reverse of ours.
10. What does Mandela say his guests' presence confers?
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Glory and hope on a newborn liberty.
11. What does he mean by 'an extraordinary human disaster'?
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The long system of apartheid — decades of racial oppression that lasted far too long.
12. What does Mandela thank the international guests for?
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For coming to share with his people a common victory for justice, for peace and for human dignity.
13. Which freedoms does he say are still to be won?
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Freedom from poverty, deprivation, suffering, and gender and other discrimination.
14. What does Mandela swear will never happen again?
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That one group should never again be allowed to oppress another in that country — never again, he says, must such suffering be repeated.
15. What flew over the Union Buildings, and in what order did it end?
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Jets, helicopters and troop carriers in perfect formation, ending with a chevron of Impala jets.
16. What colours were in the smoke trail?
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Black, red, green, blue and gold — the colours of the new South African flag.
17. Beyond force, what did the fly-past demonstrate?
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The military's loyalty to democracy and to a freely and fairly elected government.
18. What did the generals do, and why is it striking?
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They saluted Mandela and pledged their loyalty — men who not many years earlier would have arrested him instead.
19. Which anthem did the whites sing, and which the blacks?
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Whites sang 'Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika'; blacks sang 'Die Stem', the old anthem of the Republic.
20. What does Mandela admit about the singing, and what does he predict?
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That neither side could manage the words of the song it had once despised — but that before long they would have them off by heart.
21. When was the system of racial domination erected in South Africa?
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During the twentieth century's opening ten years, not long after the Anglo-Boer war and before Mandela's own birth.
22. What did the white-skinned peoples do first, before building that system?
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They patched up their own differences, then used that unity against the dark-skinned peoples of their land.
23. How does Mandela describe the society that system created?
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As one of the harshest and and as inhuman as any the world has seen.
24. In which decade of his own life did Mandela see apartheid overturned?
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In his eighth decade as a man — he was an old man by the time his country was free.
25. How did the change come about, according to Mandela?
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Through the unimaginable sacrifices of thousands of his people, whose suffering and courage can never be counted or repaid.
26. What pained Mandela on the day of the inauguration?
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That he could not thank the patriots who had sacrificed so much, and that they could not see what their sacrifice had achieved.
27. How does Mandela describe his own place in the struggle?
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As simply the sum of all the African patriots who had gone before him; the long and noble line ended and began again with him.
28. What lasting damage did apartheid do?
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It created a deep and lasting wound that would take years, perhaps generations, to recover from.
29. What was the unintended effect of decades of oppression?
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It produced men of extraordinary courage, wisdom and generosity, whose like may never be known again.
30. Name the six comrades Mandela lists.
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Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chief Luthuli, Yusuf Dadoo, Bram Fischer and Robert Sobukwe.
31. Why does Mandela write the names in the plural?
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Each man stands for many others who did the same work without ever becoming known.
32. What does Mandela suggest may be needed to create such heights of character?
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Such depths of oppression — he thinks extreme suffering may be what produces extraordinary people.
33. What does Mandela call his country's greatest wealth?
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Its people, worth more than any stone ever cut — greater than the minerals and gems beneath its soil.
34. How does Mandela define courage?
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Not as the lack of fear but as the mastering of it; the brave man is the one who conquers the fear he feels.
35. What had Mandela seen his comrades do?
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Risk and give their lives for an idea, and take beatings and torture and refuse to give way, with a resilience that defies the imagination.
36. What does 'resilience' mean?
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The ability to deal with hardship of any kind and recover from its effects.
37. What does Mandela say about being born to hate?
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No one is born hating another for the colour of his skin, his background or his religion; people must learn to hate.
38. What conclusion does he draw from the fact that hatred is learned?
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That people can also be taught to love, since affection sits more easily in a human being than its opposite does.
39. What did Mandela notice even in the grimmest prison days?
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A flicker of ordinary humanity in one of the warders, perhaps for only a second, which was enough to reassure him and keep him going.
40. Complete Mandela's image: goodness is a flame that…
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…can be hidden but never extinguished.
41. What are the twin obligations Mandela describes?
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An obligation to his family — parents, wife and children — and an obligation to his people, his community and his country.
42. In what kind of society can a man fulfil both obligations?
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In a civil and humane society, where each man may meet them according to his own inclinations and abilities.
43. What happened in South Africa to a man of colour who tried to live as a human being?
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He was punished and isolated.
44. What happened to a man who tried to fulfil his duty to his people?
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He was inevitably ripped from his family and his home and forced to live a life apart.
45. What phrase does Mandela use for that life apart?
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A twilight existence of secrecy and rebellion.
46. What does 'twilight existence' mean?
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A half-secret life, like one lived in the fading light between sunset and darkness.
47. Did Mandela choose to place his people above his family?
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Not in the beginning. In trying to serve his people he found himself prevented from fulfilling his duties as son, brother, father and husband.
48. Which four relationships does Mandela say he could not fulfil?
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Son, brother, father and husband.
49. Was Mandela born with a hunger to be free?
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No — he says he was born free, free in every way that he could know.
50. Name the boyhood freedoms Mandela lists.
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Running in the fields near his mother's hut, swimming in the clear stream, roasting mealies under the stars and riding the broad backs of slow-moving bulls.
51. On what condition was his boyhood freedom untroubled?
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As long as he obeyed his father and abided by the customs of his tribe, no laws of man or God troubled him.
52. When did Mandela begin to hunger for freedom?
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When he learned that his boyhood freedom had been an illusion and that his freedom had already been taken from him.
53. What 'transitory freedoms' did he want as a student?
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To stay out at night, read what he pleased and go where he chose.
54. What 'basic and honourable freedoms' did he want as a young man in Johannesburg?
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To achieve his potential, earn his keep, marry and have a family — the freedom to get on with a lawful life unhindered.
55. What made his hunger for freedom become political?
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Seeing that not only he but his brothers and sisters were not free, and that everyone who looked like him had their freedom curtailed.
56. What did Mandela do at that moment?
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He joined the African National Congress, and his hunger for wanting freedom for himself turned into wanting it for his people.
57. List the four transformations the desire for freedom worked in him.
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A frightened young man became bold; a law-abiding attorney became a criminal; a family-loving husband became a man without a home; a life-loving man lived like a monk.
58. What does Mandela claim about his own virtue?
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That he is no more virtuous or self-sacrificing than the next man — he simply could not enjoy limited freedoms while his people were unfree.
59. What does Mandela mean by saying freedom is indivisible?
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That the whatever bound any one of his people bound all of them, and whatever bound all of them were the chains on him.
60. Why does Mandela say the oppressor must also be liberated?
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Because a man who takes away another's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, shut in behind the bars of his own prejudice and small-mindedness; oppressed and oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
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