Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom – Class 10 English Chapter 2 Notes & NCERT PDF

Overview

Chapter 2 is an extract from *Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom*, describing his inauguration on 10 May 1994 as South Africa's first black President, and his reflections on courage, love and freedom. It is followed by Leslie Norris's poem A Tiger in the Zoo**, about a caged animal longing for freedom.

Background (from the book): Apartheid is a political system that separates people by race; South Africa had it until 1994. Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) fought against it; Mandela spent thirty years in prison. In the first democratic elections the ANC won 252 of the 400 seats. The ceremony was attended by dignitaries from more than 140 countries.

Part 1: The Inauguration

"Tenth May dawned bright and clear." The ceremony takes place in the sandstone amphitheatre formed by the Union Buildings in Pretoria — for decades "the seat of white supremacy", now the site of "a rainbow gathering of different colours and nations". Mandela is accompanied by his daughter Zenani. Mr de Klerk is sworn in as second deputy president, then Thabo Mbeki as first deputy president.

From his speech:

Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.

Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another… Let freedom reign. God bless Africa!

The day is an "autumn day" because South Africa is in the southern hemisphere, where May falls in autumn.

The military: jets, helicopters and troop carriers fly in perfect formation — "not only a display of pinpoint precision and military force, but a demonstration of the military's loyalty to democracy". The highest generals salute Mandela; "not so many years before they would not have saluted but arrested me". A chevron of Impala jets leaves a smoke trail of black, red, green, blue and gold — the new flag.

Two national anthems: whites sing 'Nkosi Sikelel–iAfrika' and blacks sing 'Die Stem', the old anthem — a symbol of reconciliation.

Part 2: Reflections on History and Courage

In the first decade of the twentieth century, after the Anglo-Boer war, white-skinned peoples erected "a system of racial domination" — one of the harshest societies the world has known. In the last decade, it was overturned and replaced by one recognising the rights of all, "regardless of the colour of their skin".

Mandela feels he is "simply the sum of all those African patriots" who went before him — Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chief Luthuli, Yusuf Dadoo, Bram Fischer, Robert Sobukwe. Oppression produced men of extraordinary courage: "Perhaps it requires such depths of oppression to create such heights of character." South Africa's greatest wealth is its people, "finer and truer than the purest diamonds."

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin… if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Even in prison, a "glimmer of humanity" in a guard reassured him. "Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished."

Part 3: Twin Obligations and the Meaning of Freedom

Every man has twin obligations — to his family and to his people/country. In apartheid South Africa, a man of colour who tried to serve his people was "ripped from his family" and forced into "a twilight existence of secrecy and rebellion".

Mandela's changing idea of freedom:

Freedom is indivisible… A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred… The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.

Poem: A Tiger in the Zoo — Leslie Norris

The poem contrasts the tiger in the zoo (stanzas 1, 4, 5) with the tiger in the wild (stanzas 2, 3).

He stalks in his vivid stripes / The few steps of his cage, / On pads of velvet quiet, / In his quiet rage.

Repetition ("velvet quiet… quiet rage"; "brilliant eyes… brilliant stars") stresses his suppressed anger and his longing. The book adds The Tiger (Peter Niblett), The Panther (Rilke) and The Greater Cats (Victoria Sackville-West) to discuss whether zoos are necessary.

Word Power

Board Exam Focus

Model answer outline — "How did Mandela's understanding of freedom change?"

Model answer outline — "What does courage mean to Mandela?" Not the absence of fear but the triumph over it; the brave man conquers fear; learned from comrades who faced torture without breaking.

Model answer outline — "Why were two national anthems sung?" To symbolise unity and reconciliation between whites and blacks; each group sang the other's anthem.

Grammar & Language Focus

Common Mistakes