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Chapter 52
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
While Mandela’s trial is going in in 1962, the ANC holds its first annual conference in a few years. ANC finally acknowledges MK as its military arm. The government goes ahead with the bantustan system, which people protest with acts of sabotage. On March 1, 1963, the government implements a law specifically to combat MK. It gives the government more power to detail suspected political offenders, and stories spread about people being abused in jail. Some political prisoners, like Sobukwe, are simply re-detained after their original sentences are up.
The ANC’s acknowledgment of MK as its military arm reflects how, despite initial resistance, more people in the organization are coming around to Mandela’s idea that violence may be the only option remaining. This dovetails with the government’s increasing abuses of civil rights, including imprisoning people with even less justification than before and abusing people in prison. These actions suggest the government is even less willing that before to listen to reasonable arguments.
Themes
