How did Mandela’s understanding of freedom change with age and experience?

Would you agree that the “depths of oppression” create “heights of character”? How does Mandela illustrate this? Can you add your own examples to this argument?

What does Mandela mean when he says he is “simply the sum of all those African patriots”, who had gone before him?

Why did such a large number of international leaders attend the inauguration? What did it signify the triumph of?

Does Mandela think the oppressor is free? Why/Why not?

What did being free mean to Mandela as a boy, and as a student? How does he contrast these “transitory freedoms” with “the basic and honorable freedoms”?