Long Walk to Freedom: A Document of Humanism

International Journal of Reviews and Research in Social Sciences. 6(4): October-December, 2018 ISSN 2347-5145 (Print) 2454-2687 (Online) DOI: 10.5958/2454-2687.2018.00048.5 Vol. 06 |Issue-04| October-December 2018 Available online at www.anvpublication.org International Journal of Reviews and Research in Social Sciences RESEARCH ARTICLE Long Walk to Freedom: A Document of Humanism Dr Nandkumar Suresh Shinde Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Skills and Open University, Kiwale, Pune. *Corresponding Author E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT: Nelson Mandela the first black South African President elected democratically, is the moral and ethical face of the humanism in the world. His autobiography Long Walk to Freedom (1994) is written after becoming the first President of South Africa. His life involved intense struggle and sacrifice for his nation and humanity. His autobiography is very unique and inspiring to many who are fighting against any injustice anywhere in the world. The form, narration and the style is also characteristic. His life struggle is revealed and the contributions of ANC and his coworkers have received great importance in the book. His legacy is unfolded through this epic autobiography. As a reader one get lost in the past and present times of South Africa. Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom is divided into 11 distinctive sections which symbolizes distinct important phases in his life. His labeling to those life experiences signifies the importance and approach towards those events. The word Long in the title shows the struggle, hardship and sacrifices made by these freedom fighters against the apartheid regime. The adjective in the title “long” signifies many connotations attached with the word as it hits clearly towards the efforts and suffering he endured in his slow ‘walk’ towards freedom. It stretches the journey of life into long span of time. Humanism is the philosophy that put human welfare at the center and subsides all other religious, political, institutional and other issues. Nelson Mandela by taking the fight of common black citizen of South Africa for the justice against Apartheid regime make him a true humanist. His autobiography which depicts his philosophy and sacrifice thus becomes a document of humanism. KEYWORDS: Nelson Mandela, autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, South Africa, Apartheid. INTRODUCTION: Nelson Mandela’s autobiography fulfills all the distinctive features of the genre. It tries to point out some of the integral features of the genre. The form needs to possess and display in its content as well as expressions. The title ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ has been reinforced with the subtitle The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. The title clarifies its literary stance. The autobiography is in prose form of writing and it is factual than fiction. He dedicated the book to his long list of lovable blood clans, he dutifully adds, “to all my comrades, friends and fellow South Africans whom I serve and whose courage, determination and patriotism remain my source of inspiration.”(P-1, Mandela, 1994) Nelson Mandela assimilates two families, the first his personal family and the other is the entire nation South Africa as family and gratifies his love towards all–love which was the soul principle of his life and duty. Nelson Mandela wrote this autobiography at the age of 80’s after becoming the President of South Africa. It is the ‘stand point’ he chose to finalize his autobiography. Received on 27.08.2018 Modified on 07.09.2018 This was very crucial and vital issue because he wanted Accepted on 18.10.2018 © A&V Publication all right reserved to personify his journey from ‘rags to riches’, from Int. J. Rev. and Res. Social Sci. 2018; 6(4): 492-494 . ‘literally nothing to becoming everything’. He wanted to DOI: 10.5958/2454-2687.2018.00048.5 492 International Journal of Reviews and Research in Social Sciences. 6(4): October-December, 2018 members and all supporters walked along with him. Nelson Mandela connoted many meaning associated with the word-Long. The longer geographical size of South Africa might be one important implication as it is 25thlargest country in the world. The geographical size makes the country as longer than many other nations of Africa. All the provinces of the country are intermingled The very act of writing down a life storyin the form of an into the story with some reference and the setting autobiography constitutes an attempt on the part of the involves entire nation, the vast, desert land of South writer to justify one’s life and implicit it in every act of Africa where walking is really difficult and tiresome. autobiography. It is the judgment by himself that his life story. It is an example in his autobiography. He had The autobiography depicts the minute details of the land achieved the highest point of his life. Nelson Mandela in “Qunu village” that was situated in a narrow, grassy his acknowledgement claims that “I began writing it valley crisscrossed by clear streams and over looked by (autobiography) clandestinely in 1974 during my green hills.” (P-9). He was rooted in his village and its imprisonment on Robben Island.”(P-2) alike Mahatma customs. The village was the starting point of his life Gandhi, who started his autobiographyduring his journey. He very minutely described the childhood imprisonment. Jail seems to be an ideal place for memories related with place, people and time. Thevivid political autobiographers. Solitude seems a necessary description of his mother land, the different places he factor for all political personalities as they all fall short had been, and the journey he undertook to visit many of time and being busy and surrounded with people all countries across, all becomes the part of his descriptions. the time. Martin Luther King Jrattempted to write his autobiography titled as ‘Stride towards Freedom’ but The African continent magnified his length of the could not complete it in his short span of life simply for journey. “want of time’. Nelson Mandela admits “since my release, my schedule has been crowded with numerous Secondly ‘Long’ also means the historical past and its duties and responsibilities which have left me little free distance from the present. Colonialism, began in South Africa in 1652 followed by the Slavery and Forced time for writing.” (P-1) Labor Model in 1652, Jan van Reinbeck set up a refreshment location in what is now Cape Town, and The form of ‘Long Walk to Freedom: Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom is divided into requested slaves. (Freda, 1975:41) The black history of 11 distinctive sections which symbolizes distinctly oppression and colonialism had been a “long” and important phases in his life. His labeling to those life unforgettable memory for every black South Afrikaner. experiences manipulates the importance and his The past was gloomy with it’s humiliations, approach towards those events. The style of his narration discrimination and slavery. Obviously, there was no is formal yet sensitive as it takes the reader into resistance from any quarter because this group was confidence and sways him the real picture of the self. considered as traders as the earlier European visitors’ The consistency in narrative style is maintained (Daleep Singh, 2010:4). This was, the beginning of the throughout its length. He gives importance to the Dutch colonization of South Africa which lasted 144 direction of achieving the effect on the reader by joining years (1652-1802) followed by British rule of 187 years (1806-1993). The Cape of Good Hope passed into the smaller incidents into a unified whole. hands of Britain in 1795. The British victory of 1795 against the combined Franco-Dutch forces in Europe The Significance of the title–Long: Time and Space: The adjective in the title “long” signifies many helped in capturing the Cape. ‘It was however handed connotations attached with the word as it hits clearly back to Holland in 1803, temporarily though and the towards the efforts and suffering the nation endured in Britain took it over again in 1806 permanently. The its slow ‘walk’ towards freedom. It stretches the journey population of the Cape then reached to 75,302 consisting of life into long span of time. It implicates his attitude of 20,000 hottentots (Khoi), 25757 white colonists and and philosophy towards life. Martin Luther King’s 29,545 slaves mainly from Madagascar’ (Leo Marguard, planned autobiography which never came into 1968:117) realitywhich was titled as Stride towards Freedom. The example of writing autobiography by Dr. KingJr was “At the end of 1950, there were just four independent different than Nelson Mandela’s ‘walk’ towards nations in Africa-Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, and South freedom. Nelson Mandela metaphorized the term long Africa, which was ruled by a white minority. By the end walk because he did not walk it alone. The entire South of 1960, there were 27, with 17 gaining their Africa walked with him and all his colleagues, family independence that year alone, as Britain, France, and take review of his life from highest point of his life. He could see the life backward from the highest point of his life. As an autobiographer, Nelson Mandela chose the time when his dream was accomplished. He had dismantled apartheid government and established people’s government in S.A. 493 International Journal of Reviews and Research in Social Sciences. 6(4): October-December, 2018 Belgium all but dismantled their colonial empires in combat but he with his organization stood against the Africa.” (The New York Times Upfront, Vol. 142, April notorious apartheid. It wasn’t a simple and easy. He took on the battle. The story of the struggle is the central 19, 2010). theme of the autobiography. It doesn’t remain personal This shows how South Africa struggled a lot than its story but goes on to become a document of struggle and neighboring countries for itsfreedom. It’s the longest humanism. struggle which symbolizes painful historical memory. “It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger REFERENCES: for freedom of my own people became a hunger for the 1. Mandela Nelson, Long walk to freedom, Longman Publication, 1994. freedom of all people.” (P-751). Freedom didn’t come 2. The New York Times Upfront, Vol. 142, April 19, 2010. that easily to Nelson Mandela and South Africa, it 3. Freda, 1975. South Africa: A Historical Introduction. Penguin wasn’t revolution which happened in a short span of Book. London. time but it was prolonged journey. He says, “I have 4. Daleep Singh, 2010. From Dutch South Africa to Republic of South Africa 1652-1994. Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Delhi walked that long road to freedom” (P-752) The time 5. Leo Marguard, 1968. The Story of South Africa. London. accounted in achieving the freedom was like a dark night 6. SunitaPareek, ANC in Post Apartheid South Africa: A study of its of South African history. role in non racial nation building since 1994, Published thesis, University of Delhi 2013 On 24th May 1994 the parliament was officially opened by Nelson Mandela, the new President of country and the ANC framed a democratic written constitution the guaranty of the basic rights for the South African people. The transitional constitutional document was drafted in 1993 and the revised document adopted by the Constitutional Assembly in May 1996. Overall, the period of colonialism had shown the brutal and nonhuman face in the history of South Africa. The practice of apartheid was the second cruel phase in the world history i.e. the first was Nazism of Hitler. The cruelty of Germany and apartheid doctrine in South Africa had killed the thousands of innocent people only to show their pseudo superiority on the earth. The apartheid practice of South Africa had turned Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi; a non-violent leader that had produced another non-violent leader in the history of South Africa, the Mandela. Nelson, the world leader continues Gandhian philosophy even after the independance of South Africa and ruled the country only for five years to spread peace, equality and fraternity among South African black, white and Coloureds. Nelson Mandela came to power with the goals to establish the real rainbow nation, console the souls of sufferers and show the right path of progress to the younger generation. This idea of ANC carried forward in the consequent chapters as well. CONCLUSION: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela is not just a book of fascinating story but it is the epic story of the man and nation who attained their common goal of freedom and justice. The story told by the subject itself is not only fascinating but also very true and realistic. The small boy from a remote tribal village of South Africa came across his way towards the basic problem of the country that was racial discrimination. He thought beyond himself and became the part of the struggle which had no destiny. The mighty military rule was too powerful to 494