Main points covered in the essay:

Preparing a leader
Mandelas walk of struggle
South Africa: the end of the crisis
Non-violent mass struggle; a strategy not a
solution

Applied lessons to the situation in the Middle

East

Mandela: the real fighter

How the book affected my life

In a world where frontiers are growing apart while people are getting more and
more together, everyday there is an emergence of new born heroes and new
experiences that can be considered as higher examples for the seekers of freedom and
liberation around the world.
Taking into consideration the oppression and the domination that prevailed in
South Africa for decades of time, one can say that the existing harmony among all
different South African people is a remarkable achievement that needs to be
highlighted.
Nelson Mandelas autobiography sheds the light on a part of this achievement
and is considered as a call for other nations around the world to pursue their own real
freedom. The struggle of the African National Congress Party, to which Mandela
belonged, is also a milestone in the history of fighting for the freedom of all people
and not just the freedom of a particular race or color.
In his statement: Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people
were the chains on all of them, the chains on all my people were the chains on me
Mandela takes the hand of the reader and shows him that everyone is equally subject to
oppression and that liberation is a collective need.
When Mandela became the president of South Africa, he delivered a speech to
his people telling them that he was merely a normal human being just like they were,
and that only the conditions that he encountered during his life had made him the
person he became.
His book Long Walk to Freedom managed to convince me that inside each of
us there is a hidden Mandela waiting for the right moment or the right circumstances
to emerge. And this was manifested in Mandelas vision about the potentials locked up
deep inside each human being that are waiting for a wake up call to be pushed to the
surface.
Hence, and by reflecting upon the South African experience, I consider this book
as a wake up call, not just for me, but for every human being pursuing and fighting for
his freedom.
Below is the analysis of my point of view of Mandelas life as described
throughout his book and how we can all learn a lesson from this great leader:

 Preparing a leader
Mandela was not born in rich family, nor was he blessed with any extra ordinary
privileges; on the contrary he had to work hard on everyday of his life to pursue his
goals and to become the person he became.
He was born in 1918 in a small village in the region of Transkei. His father,
Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, was designated chief of the town of Mvezo. However,
and due to the death of his father in his early years and his mothers desire to grant him
a better future, Mandela had to leave behind his original town and live in a complete
different environment. That experience was a main factor in building up his personality
and in structuring his system of values. Thus, we see him in his book describing the
influence of the democratic nature of the local gatherings in the house of Governor in
Mqhekezweni on him as a young boy where the essence of democracy means that all
people enjoy the freedom of speech and that they are all equal in their values as
citizens.
In his early years, Mandela was a wild young man; he elected to run away from
with his friend looking for a job in the coal mines in Johannesburg because he didnt
want to marry the girl they had chosen for him. And being able to afford his studies,
Mandela obtained his B.A from the University of South Africa, to operate later on the
law firm of Mandela & Tambo in Johannesburg providing free or low-cost legal
counsel to many blacks who would otherwise have been without representation.
Mandela grew up in a background where the tradition of considering the whites
as better people, just because they are white, had integrated into the minds of people to
the extent that they had forgotten to think of their freedom, simply because they
thought they were free.
However, as the years passed by, Mandela became more aware of the acts of the
apartheid practiced against his African people; starting with the Bantu Education Act
that was based on racist segregation, and ending up with social, juridical and political
discrimination.
Subsequently, and since his love for challenging and defying the impossible
marked his early years, he had set himself a goal that later became the core of life; to
defend and fight for the freedom of South African people.

Mandelas walk of Struggle

Mandela didnt actually choose to be a political activist, he rather found
himself willingly and spontaneously an activist in the ANC Party; a party whose
members are of all colors and races, due to the Partys belief in the complete political
equality as the solution to put an end to the racist segregation.

Moreover, Mandela was a prominent member in the ANC ever since he first
joined it. He contributed in establishing the Youth League and organized a number of
strikes and participated in the Defiance Campaign. First he was a volunteer in the ANC
along with his work as a lawyer at that time. Nevertheless, the acceleration of his
struggle made him live as a fugitive who never surrendered, but who eventually got
arrested and underwent many trials and thus became a national hero.
In a press release he issued in 1961 he said: I have made my choice, I will not
leave South Africa, nor will I surrender I will continue fighting for freedom until the
end of my days.
The many trials Mandela and his colleagues were subject to were more like
toleration tests than tools to achieve the justice. These trials lasted for so many long
years during which the Government presented hundreds of evidences and too many
witnesses, but each time it would meet failure or the prisoners would be convicted in
simple charges for lack of evidence. One can say that Mandela and his colleagues had
often managed to reverse the context of the trial putting the government instead behind
the bars.
Unfortunately that wasnt the case in Rivonias ill-fated trial where Mandela was
sentenced to life time prison in charges of co-founding MKs armed movement and
planning for a guerilla war against the Regime.
MK (Spear of the Nation) is the military wing of the ANC. Mandela co-founded
this movement due to his urgent need of switching from the non-armed to the armed
mass struggle, for having perceived that it was the only competent way to fight for
freedom. MK started to organize sabotage campaign against military and government
targets with the least civil casualties.
During the establishment phase, Mandela toured around the African Continent
seeking the financial support necessary for the activities of MK among the inclinable
African Governments. Meanwhile he himself had received training in Addis Ababa,
but the moment he came back from his tour he was arrested before even getting to
teach his comrades what he had been trained on.
Mandela was charged twice and was convicted both times, in the second
(Rivonia Trail) he was sentenced to life time prison where he and other convicts were
transferred to Robben Island, and thus became the worlds most famous political
prisoner. Even in Robben Island, the apartheid acts were practiced as well, hence,
Mandela and his colleagues decided to continue the fighting against racism but inside
the prison this time. Unexpectedly, and after long years they managed to make the
prison look as if the prisoners were heading the prison and not the other way around.
Robben Island Prison was called the University because it became a school
where political activists learned the political history of different parties and
movements in South Africa, and where all their misconceptions were subject to a
radical change. It was an opportunity for Nelson Mandela to correct what the political
prisoners thought of the ANC as being controlled by the Communist Party.
While in prison, things started to develop drastically, police started to arrest
prominent ANC leaders and those who were not arrested managed to leave their
country and flee. Meanwhile, MK accelerated the sabotage activities and the toll of
armed struggle victims was gradually increasing. In the 70s the sense of rebellion

started to emerge among the angry revolutionary young generation, which coincided
with the emergence of the Liberation Movements across the Continent in general.
In his latest days in prison, Mandela believed that the ultimate solution for the
crisis in his country would be a political non-militant one. Hence, he took the initiative
and a series of tentative meetings took place, laying the groundwork for further contact
and future negotiations with the government. Meanwhile, F.W De Klerk became the
promising president of the country.

South Africa: the end of the crisis

Mandela learned when he took his training in Algeria that International public
opinion is sometimes worth more than a fleet of jet fighters. Subsequently, the South
African cause was a hot topic of the International public opinion after Sharpeville
Massacre took place where 99 people were killed and over 400 were wounded. Voices
from all over the world like the United States, the Security Council and other
Governments called the National Party for achieving justice and equality among all the
races in the country.
Nevertheless, the National Party didnt manage to deceive the International
community by the slight amendments it had made on the segregation laws.
Meanwhile, there was a controversy among the members of the ANC that lasted
for decades on whether they should conduct negotiations with the racist government or
not. Here, Mandela decided to take the initiative, with the International public Opinion
on his side. The primary outcome of these negotiations was the release of political
prisoners, putting an end to the sanction of some political organizations and the
amendment of some regulations and laws. Shortly after that, Mandela was released in
February 1990 after 27 years of imprisonment, and the state of emergency in the
country was called off along with other changes.
Even though Mandela was released, he didnt feel like he was literally free; he
was unable to choose the neighborhood to live in, he didnt have the choice of sending
his grandchildren to the school he wanted, he didnt have the right to vote, nor did he
have the right to nominate himself for any elections in his country.
Hence, his political struggle took a new turn; it was a time of blood shedding
and violence. Here, the mounting International pressure and the ANC refusing to
disclaim their core principles had paved the way to setting a date for South Africa's
first democratic elections in which full enfranchisement was granted on 24 April 1994.
As a result, Mandela won the elections and became the first black president of
South Africa.
As a president, Mandela issued a work agenda that was far from being a
fictitious one do not expect to be driving a Mercedes or swimming in your own
backyard pool. The laws of the country were changed to embody the message of the
Freedom Charter of the ANC and aiming to reach a state of reconciliation and reviving
the trust and harmony among all people.

South Africa is still nowadays recovering from the effects of the apartheid
policy, the political discrimination, and the lack of equal rights and opportunities.

Non-violent mass struggle a strategy not a

solution
Gandhi had initiated the non-violent mass struggle while he was in
Johannesburg working as a lawyer in 1906. Later, in the early years of the ANC, the
Party committed itself to this same concept in its struggle against apartheid acts.
However, Mandela and his comrades realized at a certain point that non-violence
was a useless strategy; therefore, they suggested establishing an armed wing for the
ANC. Subsequently, the MK was born and Mandela was assigned as a leader of this
wing. Mandela didnt perceive non- violence as a success talisman or a moral principle
but rather as a strategy and thus the effectiveness of this strategy is subject to the
prevailing conditions. Mandela admired Martin Luther King and Gandhis methods of
fighting; however, he knew they were not applicable in South Africas case. In India,
Gandhi had been dealing with a foreign power that ultimately was more realistic and
far-sighted. That was not the case with the Afrikaners in South Africa. Non-violent
passive resistance is effective as long as your opponent adheres to the same rules as
you do. But when peaceful protest is met with violence, its efficacy is at an end...
there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon. Moreover, the
conditions in which Martin Luther King struggled were totally different from my own:
the United States was a democracy with constitutional guarantees of equal rights that
protected non-violent protest (though there was still prejudice against blacks), South
Africa was a police state with a constitution that enshrined inequality and an army
that responded to non- violence with force.
In this cruel world, and as the killing is rising in Iraq, Sudan, Nepal and other
spots around the world, the need for developing the non-violent culture becomes
indispensable. However, the contexts in which and how the violence is used should be
defined taking into account the civilians and innocent victims. This is how Mandela
and his comrades had designed and oriented the MK movement for organized
violence.

Applied lessons to the situation in the

Middle East

As the tension grows in Iraq and Lebanon, and with absurdity of the Palestinian
Cause, the reader can find between the lines of Long Walk to Freedom an implicit
message addressing these global issues.
In 1994, South Africa put an end to the Apartheid acts, the ANC came to power
attempting to heal the wounds of the past and lead the country for a better future. The

fact that colored and black people during the apartheid system, unlike the white ones,
couldn't get the proper education, the health care or the equal opportunities has never
set the people back from fighting for a regime that unites all colors and races in one
country. Likewise, the Palestinians should realize that obtaining equal political rights
is long termed fight; each Palestinian citizen should be equal to the Israeli citizen in all
aspects of life. And despite Israel's and its allies around the world constant objection to
grant them these rights, Palestinians should be more aware of their new goal and
should initiate the struggle towards achieving it.
If we carefully examine the contemporary history of South Africa, ever since the
enforcement of the apartheid laws, we can detect how likely it is to todays IsraeliPalestinian struggle; oppressing the minorities, massacres of the majority, the armed
mass struggle, and the fighting of the oppressed to take the power..etc
And if we take a closer look at the details of the similarities between the two
situations, it becomes clear in our minds that the only solution for this struggle would
be having one united state and believing that this same struggle can at a certain point
obtain the support of the Public Opinion and finally achieve the justice.
Mandela, during the campaign of the first just presidential elections in South
Africa, "felt that the campaign should about the future not the past". Thus, his strong
powerful will is all what our Arabic-Israeli struggle necessitates; to set the better
future as our ultimate objective and work on achieving it regardless of our
disagreements.
South Africa is still in the process of healing the wounds of the bitter past with
the help of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Hence, if people
continued to be haunted by the past, Europe wouldn't have united, nor Hiroshima
would have been reconstructed, and South Africa wouldn't have achieved political
equality.
As for Lebanon, the sectarian fanaticism had been stirred up only to enable
certain parties to be in power. Thus, Lebanon is badly in need of a National Unity
Government where disagreements are put aside and where everybody works for a
higher collective interest.
Mandela throughout his long struggle loved his enemies but hated the system
that created the hatred between the people of his country. This would teach us that
political systems are merely traps put to stir up the hatred and detestation among the
people, and that our fight should be the one aiming to overthrow these systems. This is
the lesson that Lebanon should learn from Mandela.
Moreover, Mandela highlighted the "transparent chains" that detain our freedom
with out seeing them. When he was young he thought he enjoyed the freedom of going
back home late, of choosing who to get married with but as he grew older, he came
to realize that he and his people were far from being free.
Nowadays, America aims to "spread the democracy" in the Middle East; a
democracy of mere political freedom disregarding economic and other kinds of
freedom. Thus, people of the region should be able to decide the kind of democracy
they want to adapt, and should not agree on any pre-made imported recipes of freedom
imposed by the "more developed" countries.
The negotiations process with the Government that took place in South Africa
was absolutely self-reliant, then why would Lebanon need an International Court in its

people's search of justice while they have professional Lebanese judges? And why
would we need the mediation of the United States in the Arabic-Israeli struggle when
we know that America is exploiting this need to achieve its interests in the region?
Countries of the Middle East should learn from the experience of South Africa how to
be self reliant in solving the internal conflicts without allowing the intervention of the
International Community.

Mandela: the real fighter

It is inevitable that every real fighter shall suffer and that suffering shall become
indispensable and inseparable from his walk of struggle. Likewise, Mandela, during
his "long walk to freedom" suffered from imprisonment, trials, segregation laws, the
separation from his family and his deprivation from living a free dignified life.
In his book, Mandela describes thoroughly the inner conflict that he had to live
with for so many long years. In each day of his life he wondered and questioned if he
had made the right decision of choosing to fulfill his duty towards his people over
fulfilling his obligations towards his family. He couldn't be at his daughter's wedding
nor was he present when his mother or his two children died. His children grew up
away from him, and when he finally came back to them, he was then the father for the
entire nation.
Mandela's fight for freedom made him once a fugitive, other time a vagabond
with no home or family, he lived like a monk even though he was a lover of life and
nature. Nevertheless, he fought for his own people's freedom, and while being in
prison, he wrote a speech that his daughter Zindzi delivered saying "I cherish my own
freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom".
Mandela spent 27 years in a prison where one is destined to be dispossessed of
his identity. However, he managed to confront everyone armed with hope and self
dignity and refusing to submit to oppression or fear, and even in the moments where
his trust in humanity was shaken he didnt surrender to despair.
Mandela's statement I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the
triumph over it demonstrates a greatness that he shared with all great people of the
20th century like Che Guevara who fought for the social justice of South American
People, Gandhi who struggled for the liberation of India in the 1920s, Martin Luther
King and many other anonymous heroes who fought for the freedom of their people
and their liberation from oppression and domination.

 Conclusion
Reading Long Walk to Freedom will revive the hope inside each and everyone
who reads it, it is one of the few books that stimulates our revolutionary sense of
struggling and fighting and declining to surrender. The book succeeds in making the
reader travel through the time to picture himself by Mandelas side during his
consistent walk of struggle, challenging and defying his own imperfections not
allowing them to stand in the way of his determined struggle. It teaches the reader that
there is nothing impossible and that the consistent hard work and hope are the key
elements of success at any time.
After reading I learned that human beings, despite their differences in terms of
race or mentality or culture, are capable of putting their hands together and working to
achieve one higher goal, they are capable of transforming this goal into reality. The
book taught me that life is full of love, and that the hatred that some societies develop
towards certain groups can be transformed into love and harmony for love comes
more naturally than its opposite. I also learned that the walk of struggle is a
dangerous path with no guaranties whatsoever; human beings choose this path with
full awareness that they might sacrifice their dearest and most valuable things, but they
equip themselves with the faith and the belief that the future will be a better one. The
book gave me the hope that all the exerted efforts during our daily struggles are never
in vain.
Mandelas book is highly significant, in every page and every line there is a
lesson to be learned. And as Mandela says: After climbing a great hill, one only finds
that there are many more hills to climb signifying that the struggle for freedom is an
infinite one. The book of the former president Nelson Mandela motivated me
enormously to remain a fighter during my entire life, It was as well a source of hope
and knowledge about a remarkable experience in the human history; the experience of
South Africa in its struggle for freedom.