Long Walk to Freedom

 

Long Walk to Freedom

Review by Shannon Richmond

The way in which South Africa transitioned from apartheid to democracy is a model of how strategic nonviolence can work on the national level. This book of Mandela’s stories about his childhood to his first involvement with the African National Congress to his imprisonment on Robben Island where he began writing this autobiography is one of my favorite books for digesting the rich history of South Africa in the twentieth century. The details of Mandela’s and other activists’ choices during this movement can act as a guide for today’s peace-builders.