What one finds in the Mandela story is the strong persistence for human rights and belief in the equality of all irrespective of their color, language or culture. Reading through Long Walk to Freedom, the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, one finds several passages and pages marveling with sheer persistence and power of determination that we as humans are capable of.
The majority of this autobiography was written, while Mandela was still in prison and was published in 1994 by Little, Brown Book Group.
In the final chapter of his autobiography, the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace winner, Mandela writes,
I never lost hope that this great transformation will occur…I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there was mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
May be this was the power of hope that kept Mandela’s faith in the struggle against apartheid. He spent about 27 years in prison but that did not break his spirit nor did it lessen his belief in humanity. He writes,
Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man’s goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.
The autobiography also depicts not only the freedom struggle of the black and colored people of South Africa, but the sacrifices that the freedom fighters had to make in order to bring that much awaited equality of life and opportunity to all. They sacrificed the normality of life in which a person can enjoy the smallest of pleasures that life brings such as living with one’s family. Those who chose the path of struggle, sacrificed their personal lives and were
forced to live a life apart, a twilight existence of secrecy and rebellion.
Mandela’s story is a reminder that to achieve something worthwhile you have to pay the price for it. Freedom to live life the way one chooses is a basic necessity which is the first step in the direction to the philosophy of live and let live. Mandela realized this, when he wrote,
…to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others…
Those who seek freedom, have to keep walking in the direction where they can cast off the shackles of “hatred, prejudice and narrow mindedness” and become truly free.
Picture Courtesy: Ahranya© (Cover of ‘Long Walk to Freedom’, Published by: hachette India)