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Chapter 68
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
After a few years in prison, Mandela despairs that the state has grown stronger, and ANC has grown weaker. Still, the liberation struggle continues in other parts of Africa, with MK soldiers fighting in Rhodesia. Mandela also hears of Luthuli’s death, which leaves an even bigger leadership void. The ANC members on Robben Island form a leadership body that they call the High Organ, and it includes Mandela, Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, and Raymond Mhlaba. It’s controversial because all four members are Xhosa, but Mandela feels this was just coincidence and that the leaders remain impartial. Still, they decide to add a rotating fifth member who will not be Xhosa.
As the book goes on, Mandela’s objectives have expanded, with his new goal being liberation not just for oppressed South Africans but for people suffering oppression across Africa and around the rest of the world. Partly because of Mandela’s universal outlook, he is concerned with the optics of all of the Robben Island ANC members being from the same ethnic group. Mandela’s willingness to add a fifth member shows how he takes great efforts to try to overcome weaknesses in his image.
Themes
