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Chapter 45
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
Winnie visits Mandela occasionally but has been coming less frequently as the police become more vigilant. On a visit, one of Mandela’s sons accidentally reveals Mandela’s real name to one of the White children living on the farm, and Mandela decides it’s time to move on. But first, Mandela goes abroad to represent ANC at a conference about pan-African freedom. Traveling through Tanganyika to get on a flight to Ethiopia, Mandela realizes for the first time what it feels like to be free in a country ruled by African people. It surprises Mandela to see that the plane’s pilot is African, but then he realizes that his expectations have just been warped by apartheid.
Mandela expands his goals, attempting to build a diverse coalition not just in South Africa but globally. Even though Mandela is optimistic about what Black South Africans can accomplish, seeing other countries with Black leaders helps to expand his horizons. Mandela uses the example of the airline pilot to illustrate this, showing how as much as he's spoken about the capabilities of Black people, he didn't realize that he himself still associated highly skilled jobs like flying planes as the domain of White people. Mandela will bring this sense of possibility back with him to South Africa.
Themes
