One can show true potentialities and natural instinct if he/she is free from the
discrimination on the basis of their colour, caste, race, age and gender. Comment-Nelson
Mandela Long Walk to freedom. (80 - 100 words)
Answers
My dissertation examines the manner in which Nelson Mandela employs a braided rhetoric
within a complex socio-political context, as a strategy for dismantling apartheid. I describe braided
rhetoric as the weaving together of both the Western and African rhetorical traditions. African
rhetorical tradition refers to the entire system of artistic forms – visual, oral, and written, which
are employed to celebrate and inculcate the African culture. These forms are employed within
Africa and in the diaspora in ways that are highly persuasive. The Western rhetorical tradition is
employed to describe the Greco-Roman canon with its tropes, figures, and symbols that form a
system for persuasively inculcating, celebrating, and disseminating Western culture. This Western
system of communication, with its derogative depiction of other races, formed the foundation for
justifying imperialism, which in turn helped to produce racist apartheid. Apartheid was predicated
on systemic and institutional racism, which was deployed to fragment Blacks in South Africa.
Therefore, as a resistance leader, Mandela required a unique and complex rhetorical system in
order to bring unity to these Blacks. Mandela’s braided rhetoric provided him with the rhetorical
tools needed to appeal to the cultural commonality of these Blacks, whose ethnic differences had
been effectively exploited by the ruling racial order to divide and weaken them.
Not only were South Africans divided culturally and linguistically, competing anti-
imperialist and anti-racist ideologies that shaped their strategies for resistance movements also
separated them. Further, other South African people of colour, whose vested interests differed from
those of Blacks, were alienated from those resistance movements even as they, too, were exploited
by the ruling racial order.
The discrimination that Nelson Mandela fought was one based on the colour of the skin. The whites oppressed the blacks simply because the Africans had a darker skin tone. This oppression meant that the blacks were prohibited from attending the same schools and colleges as the whites, and also did not have basic fundamental rights like freedom of speech. When one is too busy fighting a war at the community level, one cannot possibly focus on personal growth. So, discrimination of any sort increases obstacles, reduces confidence and causes frustration. None of these assist a person in reaching one’s true potential because these are not positive factors. Instead, these increase negativity and ruin one’s peace of mind. Again, without peace of mind, one cannot focus on one’s goals wholeheartedly. And half-hearted efforts do not help an individual achieve the heights that one is capable of.