On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans...
A blind pursuit of cheap popularity has nothing to do with revolu
There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless peop...
The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British culture, British institutions, were automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing as African culture.
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. -Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1918)
Our single most important challenge is therefore to help establish a social order in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual.
I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political s...
Nonviolence is a good policy when the conditions permit.
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.
Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa's leading organization - and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think.
I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight wit...
A Nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it's lowest ones
When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.
Forget the past.
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.
I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the en...
I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.