107 pages • 3-hour read
Long Walk to Freedom
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During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PART 1
Reading Check
1. To what word in English does Nelson Mandela’s birth name “Rolihlahla” roughly translate?
2. Where does Mandela attend college?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Mandela’s boarding school experiences help him to understand the racialization of South African society?
Paired Resource
“Nelson Mandela: A Life in Pictures”
- Published in 2013 upon Mandela’s death, The Guardian has compiled a series of photos that illustrate key points in Mandela’s life.
- This article reflects upon Mandela’s role in alleviating The Struggle for South Africans.
- What can you glean from the photographs of Mandela’s childhood in this piece? Does the Healdtown Comprehensive School look as you imagined?
PART 2
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the white lawyer who employs Mandela as a legal secretary?
2. When Mandela enrolls at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, what type of degree does he seek?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Mandela’s move to Johannesburg expand his horizons?
2. How does Mandela’s friendship with Gaur Radebe affect the course of his life?
PART 3
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the ANC’s charter created in 1941, which was inspired by the US’s Atlantic Charter?
2. What union workers go on strike in 1946 in Johannesburg, showing Mandela and others an example of mass resistance?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is activist Anton Lembede’s philosophy of Africanism?
2. What are Mandela’s main thoughts on the Defiance Campaign? Does he find it to be successful?
PART 4
Reading Check
1. With which of his former classmates does Mandela open a law firm at the end of 1952?
2. At what event is Mandela’s infamous “No Easy Walk to Freedom” speech read in September 1953?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. In 1953, what is the situation with Sophiatown that causes Mandela to be the target of the South African government?
2. What is the Bantu Education Act?
PART 5
Reading Check
1. With whom does Madela fall in love during his preparatory examination for high treason in 1956?
2. What group of laws that controlled the movement of Black, Indian, and other people deemed “Colored” does the ANC Women’s League protest In 1957?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the Sharpeville massacre? Why is it an important moment in apartheid history?
2. What is an example of the South African government’s ineptitude that Mandela details regarding prisoners’ detention?
Paired Resource
“Brian Widlake Interview 1961”
- This video from the Nelson Mandela Foundation is Mandela’s first television interview, conducted by the British journalist Brian Widlake.
- The interview gives insight into Mandela’s thinking in the early stages of The Struggle.
- What does Mandela say is the South African’s citizens primary desire in the anti-apartheid efforts? How does Mandela’s comments reflect his underlying humanist beliefs?
PART 6
Reading Check
1. What branch of their organization does the ANC decide to jettison?
2. Who are examples of famous figures connected to guerilla warfare that Mandela studies?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. The ANC debates whether to make their May 29th action a strike or a “stay-at-home.” Which does Mandela prefer and why?
2. How does Mandela spend his early days in hiding from the South African government?
PART 7
Reading Check
1. When Mandela is jailed in Marshall Square in Johannesburg, who occupies the cell next to his?
2. By what name is The General Law Amendment Act better known?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the reason why Mandela ultimately abandons his plan to escape Marshall Square?
2. What happens when Mandela refuses to wear the prison shorts assigned to African prisoners at Pretoria Local?
PART 8
Reading Check
1. Who tells Mandela that he is moving to a prison where he will be able to see the ocean, referring to Robben Island?
2. Which London-based publication has a journalist take a photo of Mandela at Robben Island, the only picture taken while he is imprisoned there?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the daily routine like for prisoners of Robben Island? How does it differ depending on the prisoner’s race?
2. What is the relationship between criminal prisoners and political prisoners at Robben Island?
Paired Resource
“Mandela ‘Back’ in his Robben Island Cell – BBC News”
- In this 2-minute clip, BBC News follows Mandela as he revisits his cell in Robben Island for the first time in decades.
- Characteristic of his beliefs rooted in Humanism, Mandela can see the “moments of joy” during his time in prison.
- What do you think about Mandela reflecting upon how prison was a “wonderful opportunity” in some respects?
PART 9
Reading Check
1. Mandela plays what role in the Robben Island prisoners’ production of Antigone?
2. By what nickname does Robben Island become known, due to the fact that prisoners tend to educate one another?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Mandela succeed in getting the notoriously brutal Colonel Piet Badenhorst transferred off Robben Island?
Paired Resource
“Morgan Freeman on Nelson Mandela”
- Actor Morgan Freeman played the role of Mandela in the 2009 film Invictus. In this 6-minute interview, Charlie Rose asks Freeman about his relationship with Mandela.
- Freeman discusses how The Struggle defined Mandela’s life, mentioning how Mandela felt that his personal family life was a failure; consequently, he felt the people of South Africa became, in a sense, his “family.”
- Freeman calls Mandela “commanding” without being “lordly.” What does this mean? How do select moments in Long Walk to Freedom support this description?
PART 10
Reading Check
1. Who finally sees Mandela after 21 years, after contact visits are permitted in May 1984?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What occurs during the historic first meeting between Mandela and President de Klerk in December 1989? Why is it significant?
PART 11
Reading Check
1. What is the official date when Mandela is released from prison?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. When Mandela is named president of South Africa in 1994, how does he see the function and purpose of his role?
Recommended Next Reads
No Easy Walk to Freedom: Speeches, Letters, and Other Writings by Nelson Mandela
- This collection compiles Mandela’s most famous speeches, articles, and letters from underground, as well as certain transcripts from his trials.
- This collection highlights the power of words, both written and spoken, in Mandela’s activism related to The Struggle.
- Focusing less on biography, No Easy Walk to Freedom provides a different angle on Mandela’s role in dismantling the apartheid in South Africa.
- No Easy Walk to Freedom on SuperSummary
No Future Without Forgiveness by Desmond Tutu
- Named by Mandela as Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, Desmond Tutu was at the heart of the movement to heal South Africa post-apartheid. In this book, Tutu argues that true reconciliation can only be achieved by confronting the past with honesty and compassion.
- Tutu, like Mandela, embraces Humanism as a guiding philosophy in politics and in life.
- No Future Without Forgiveness gives a glimpse into post-apartheid South Africa, as Tutu helps citizens reckon—spiritually and politically—with their problematic and racist past.
- No Future Without Forgiveness on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
PART 1
Reading Check
1. “Troublemaker” (Chapters 1-4)
2. The University College of Fort Hare (Chapters 5-8)
Short Answer
1. Mandela has little contact with white people in his early childhood and is not exposed to the racism of South African society. At boarding school, he sees that Africans are treated as inherently inferior to white people, no matter their intelligence, ambition, background, or goals. (Part 1)
PART 2
Reading Check
1. Lazar Sidelsky (Chapter 9)
2. A law degree (Chapter 10)
Short Answer
1. The law office in Johannesburg introduces Mandela to Africans and white people with ideas that challenge his beliefs. What is more, at this time Mandela realizes his education is focused on the “small picture”—i.e., learning facts and figures; now, he can see the “big picture” as he views the world in a broader context. (Chapter 9)
2. As a member of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, Gaur is deeply politically active. He helps lead a bus boycott in Alexandra, which shows Mandela a mass mobilization campaign for the first time. (Chapter 10)
PART 3
Reading Check
1. The African Claims (Chapter 11)
2. Miners (Chapter 12)
Short Answer
1. Africanism upholds that Black people should improve their own self-image, and that they should have self-reliance and self-determinism. Africanism calls for Africans to reject Western propaganda about the inferiority of Black people. (Chapter 12)
2. Mandela thinks the Defiance Campaign is ultimately successful in helping raise Africans’ political consciousness. It removes the stigma associated with imprisonment, and it helps build ANC’s membership (Chapter 14)
PART 4
Reading Check
1. Oliver Tambo (Chapters 15-16)
2. The ANC Conference in Transvaal (Chapters 18-19)
Short Answer
1. Mandela leads the resistance against the government’s campaign to clear out Sophiatown under the Western Areas Removal. In 1953, he gives a speech saying that violence is the only weapon that can destroy apartheid. (Chapter 17)
2. The Bantu Education Act gives control of the African education system from the Department of Education to the Native Affairs Department. This means that non-government schools are at risk of losing their subsidies if they refuse to accept government administration. (Chapter 20)
PART 5
Reading Check
1. Winnie Madikizela (Chapters 23-27)
2. Pass laws (Chapters 28-29)
Short Answer
1. The Sharpeville massacre occurs on March 21, 1960. The South African police open fire on a group of Black protesters outside of a Transvaal police station, killing 69 people and injuring 180. The massacre brings international attention (and condemnation) to South Africa’s regime for the first time. (Chapters 31-33)
2. A prison guard inadvertently sets Wilton Mkwayi free. Mkwayi goes on to become an important international representative of the ANC. Mandela also details various ways in which apartheid principles resulted in absurdity during his prison detention in 1960. (Chapters 34-35)
PART 6
Reading Check
1. Their military wing (Chapter 41)
2. Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara (Chapter 42)
Short Answer
1. Mandela prefers the “stay-at-home” because it makes them less of an obvious target for the state’s apartheid forces. (Chapter 40)
2. Mandela spends his time reading military theory and planning sabotage at night. He moves frequently so as to remain undetected. (Chapter 43)
PART 7
Reading Check
1. Walter Sisulu (Chapter 49)
2. The 90-Day Detention Law (Chapters 53-54)
Short Answer
1. He decides that the risk of failure is too great. If he were to fail, it would endanger the entire MK command. (Chapter 50)
2. The warden permits him long pants, but he forces Mandela into solitary confinement. After several weeks, Mandela relents and agrees to wear shorts to be released from solitary. (Chapter 52)
PART 8
Reading Check
1. Colonel Aucamp (Chapters 59-60)
2. The Daily Telegraph (Chapters 62-63)
Short Answer
1. Prisoners break rocks in the block’s courtyard. They are not allowed to talk while working, and the mood is grim. White prisoners are given preferential treatment compared to Black prisons; for example, African prisoners are denied bread since they allegedly do not like “European food.” (Chapter 61)
2. It is combative. The criminal prisoners harass the political prisoners; they make a mocking song about the Rivonia trial. The political prisoners respond with their own mocking songs. After several weeks, a guard puts a stop to the singing. (Chapter 64)
PART 9
Reading Check
1. Creon, king of Thebes (Chapter 71)
2. University (Chapters 74-76)
Short Answer
1. In front of a panel of 3 judges, Mandela provokes Badenhorst. Badenhorst threatens Mandela, to the judges’ displeasure; Badenhorst changes his ways. Within a few months he is transferred from the island. (Chapters 72-73)
PART 10
Reading Check
1. Winnie (Chapter 87)
Short Answer
1. De Klerk and Mandela discuss the issue of “group rights,” which were a means of giving white Afrikaners veto power over the political will of the Black majority. Mandela feels that de Klerk takes his opinions and views in good faith. It is significant in that, soon after this meeting, de Klerk informs Mandela that he will be released from prison. (Chapters 98-99)
PART 11
Reading Check
1. February 11, 1990 (Chapter 100)
Short Answer
1. He sees his role as a facilitator of reconciliation. He stresses that the anti-apartheid movement wasn’t about any particular race; it was about dismantling a system of oppression. (Chapters 114-115)
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