A Long Walk to Freedom

Bought this book in Sept. And was forced to stop reading it when things got really busy in school.

Finally sat down and finished the book.

And gosh! at the end of it, i felt like i have vicariously lived the life of a freedom fighter. Who paid harsh prices for his beliefs. An honest and humbling account of spending more than 25 years in prison.

The wondrous thing about the book was...it was never a platform of self-praise and justifications. Mistakes made were admitted. Regrets were sounded. The recognition of the contributions of others continually echoed throughout the book. It was consistently reiterated that NM was no super human. but a person put in position through circumstances and the struggle of those before him. Such a humble and wondrous thing for a politician to say! that he was in power not out of his own strength but through circumstances! the thought of it... just befuddled me a little...and increased my sense of admiration for this person.

There were moments in the book where things get a little droning..with the methodological reports on prison life and trials.

But the last chapter of the book made it all worthwhile.

I sat there. relishing in the power of it.

"It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity."

And somehow this gave me courage. personal courage to face the woes in life.

God Bless Afrika indeed!