Long Walk to Freedom

by Nelson Mandela

When describing why the African National Congress took the fateful decision to give up on nonviolence and take up arms, Mandela writes that they had no choice, that “the oppressor defines the nature of the struggle.” But it wasn’t the oppressor who defined the nature of the victory. Nelson Mandela did that, and so the nature of the victory over apartheid in South Africa had two essential elements: reconciling with the people who had marshaled the horrible forces of apartheid, and sharing power with them.