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Chapter 17
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 has gotten used to an urban lifestyle, so but a part of him still feels most at home in a rural setting, like when he drives in his car out to the Orange Free State to celebrate the end of the government’s travel ban on him. But out at this rural area, police are waiting for him, and they give him even more severe bans, again limiting his travel and forcing him to resign from the ANC. Mandela is crushed and doesn’t like being forced to the sidelines of a cause that has become his whole life by this point.
The travel bans that the government places on Mandela to restrict his physical movement also represent how in general the government is trying to restrict the autonomy of Black South Africans—stopping their social mobility as well. The fact that the police are waiting for Mandela even out in a rural area reflects the extent to which Black South Africans are increasingly living under a state of surveillance.
Themes
