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Chapter 110
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Long Walk to Freedom, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Division
Negotiation, Democracy, and Progress
Nonviolent Protest vs. Violent Protest
The Value of Optimism
Summary
Analysis
Mandela begins building a country house for himself in Qunu, which is completed in the fall of 1993. In April of 1993, a popular ANC and MK member named Chris Hani gets assassinated by white supremacists, and some fear that this could spark a race war. Mandela is angry but urges people to resist starting a civil war, as white supremacists want. Mandela experiences another great loss as Tambo, who has been ill for a while, passes away from a stroke. Mandela often thought of Tambo in prison, and he arranges for the ANC to give Tambo a state funeral, even though the ANC is not yet in power.
Now that democratic elections are in sight, Mandela begins increasingly abandoning the violent tactics he sometimes considered in the past, believing that violence will only destabilize the election plan in place. Mandela strives to create a sense of stability and normalcy, giving his old friend Tambo a state funeral in order to make it feel like ANC is already a political party with legitimate power.
Themes
