Long Walk to Freedom

Nelson Mandela, 1994

Nelson Mandela tells his own story, from a Thembu village childhood through the armed struggle, 27 years in prison and the talks that ended apartheid.

Get the app Read on the web

11 parts, about 38 minutes to read.

Why read it

Traces one life from village boyhood through armed struggle and prison to power, explaining the reasoning behind each change of tactics
Shows how prisoners kept together shared what they learned and held firm, and how talking with the enemy helped end apartheid
Candid about the price paid: the author weighs a broken family against duty to his people and rarely spares himself

Who it is for

Readers who want to know how apartheid actually ended
Activists wrestling with when nonviolence stops working
Leaders facing long odds who need patience and resolve

What the summary covers

A Country Childhood3 min
Johannesburg2 min
Birth of a Freedom Fighter3 min
The Struggle Is My Life3 min
Treason3 min
The Black Pimpernel3 min
Rivonia4 min
Robben Island: The Dark Years3 min
Robben Island: Beginning to Hope4 min
Talking with the Enemy4 min
Freedom6 min

Recommended by

Barack Obama44th President of the United States
Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand history – and then go out and change it.

About the author

Nelson MandelaFormer president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, died in 2013
- Born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Studied at University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand, where he studied law
- Joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped form its Youth League
- Opened the law firm Mandela and Tambo with Oliver Tambo in August 1952
- Sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 June 1964 and held on Robben Island from 1964 to 1982, then at Pollsmoor Prison
- Released from prison on 11 February 1990
- Inaugurated on 10 May 1994 as South Africa's first democratically elected President
- Died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013