Long Walk to Freedom: Mandela's Memoir

Mandela's memoir, stretches from his childhood and early days as a lawyer through his development as a political organizer and freedom fighter, prisoner and world leader.

The Guardian has a beautiful interactive timeline of his life. The Nelson Mandela Foundation is also a great resource for learning more about Mandela.









Key points in his historic life include:
born, July 18, 1918
ran away to Johannesburg, 1941
joined the ANC, 1944
married to Evelyn Mase, 1944 - 1958
Defiance Campaign, 1952
Mandela and Tambo (first black law firm) established, 1952
government bans, arrests, and Treason Trials, 1952 - 1961
married to Winnie Madikizela, 1958 - 1996
Workers Strike, 1961
sentenced to life imprisonment, 1963
President de Klerk released Mandela, 1990
Nobel Peace Prize, 1993
elected first black President, 1994
signed into law a new constitution based on majority rule, 1996
married Graca Machel, 1998
retired, 2004
convened "The Elders", 2007

There's a movie now, too...

National Level
Mandela is widely known as an advocate of women's rights: in 1993, just before Mandela was elected President, South Africa signed the UN Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and in 1995, South Africa ratified the convention under President Mandela. Explicitly noting the key role women had in the past and future of the nation, President Mandela established a National Women's Day in his first years in office.

The new constitution included equality rights and he introduced basic health care access for women at the same time that it established racial equality. South Africa now has many women in leadership positions and scores among the elite countries of the world on gender gap measurements.

At the same time, women still dominate low-wage sectors of the economy, are more likely to be unemployed and poor, and are commonly exposed to violence -- particularly sexual violence and murder. Human Rights Watch has recently reported on violence against LGBT people, and the maternal health care problems faced by many women in the Eastern Cape.

The disparities are shocking. The possibilities for women in South Africa are at polar extremes, from the best (in political participation and careers) to the worst (in economic and personal freedom).

There are activists who argue that this level of violence is a kind of society-wide expression of post-apartheid post-traumatic stress. This might be a concept that is difficult to really accept, until you start considering the context of dominant gender roles for men and women in violent, oppressive states, and the continued economic and social equality struggles that many South Africans face.

Professional Level
Mandela has recognized the participation of women in the anti-apartheid struggle.In his book, he notes the 1956 march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria, in which 20,000 women protested travel controls on black women.

There is not very much in the early part of the book, however, that is consciously critical of the role of women in his professional life. While many women were part of the struggle, his story of struggle is often very specifically focused on the challenges that he faced (often alone or with other leading men) logistically, strategically, and philosophically.

This clearly changes when he meets Winne.

Personal Level
(work in progress)