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Chapter 92
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 meeting with a group that includes Coetsee and Dr. Barnard in 1988. Their first meeting is awkward, but as they meet more, Mandela finds that they’re surprisingly open-minded and don’t actually know much about the ANC. He tells them that when it comes to violence, “it is always the oppressor, not the oppressed who dictates the form of struggle.” Mandela tries to reassure them that Communists aren’t so frightening, and that Mandela’s own economic ideas are less radical than the Communists anyway. He promises that ANC wants to govern all people of South Africa equally, even the White minority.
Just as he’s done since he used to play in the veld as a boy, Mandela tries to treat his enemies honorably, particularly when they seem receptive to listening. Here Mandela again justifies violence as a potential form of protest, blaming the violence on oppressors who create conditions where violence is necessary. Still, Mandela is also careful to deny his association with some radical policies like Communism, showing how he is looking to find common ground with the government.
Themes
