Nelson Mandela gave a speech in 1964 where he outlined the demands of Africans in South Africa. He said Africans want equal rights including living where they work, owning land, and having their families with them. Mandela said the most important demand was for equal political rights without which their disabilities will be permanent. He acknowledged this sounds revolutionary but said enfranchising all would not result in one racial group dominating the other. Mandela said he has dedicated his life to the struggle of the African people against all domination and hopes to live in a society of harmony and equal opportunity, but is prepared to die for this ideal if necessary.
Nelson Mandela gave a speech in 1964 where he outlined the demands of Africans in South Africa. He said Africans want equal rights including living where they work, owning land, and having their families with them. Mandela said the most important demand was for equal political rights without which their disabilities will be permanent. He acknowledged this sounds revolutionary but said enfranchising all would not result in one racial group dominating the other. Mandela said he has dedicated his life to the struggle of the African people against all domination and hopes to live in a society of harmony and equal opportunity, but is prepared to die for this ideal if necessary.
Nelson Mandela gave a speech in 1964 where he outlined the demands of Africans in South Africa. He said Africans want equal rights including living where they work, owning land, and having their families with them. Mandela said the most important demand was for equal political rights without which their disabilities will be permanent. He acknowledged this sounds revolutionary but said enfranchising all would not result in one racial group dominating the other. Mandela said he has dedicated his life to the struggle of the African people against all domination and hopes to live in a society of harmony and equal opportunity, but is prepared to die for this ideal if necessary.
Nelson Mandela gave a speech in 1964 where he outlined the demands of Africans in South Africa. He said Africans want equal rights including living where they work, owning land, and having their families with them. Mandela said the most important demand was for equal political rights without which their disabilities will be permanent. He acknowledged this sounds revolutionary but said enfranchising all would not result in one racial group dominating the other. Mandela said he has dedicated his life to the struggle of the African people against all domination and hopes to live in a society of harmony and equal opportunity, but is prepared to die for this ideal if necessary.
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Extract of Nelson Mandela’s speech
“I am prepared to die” “Africans want to be paid a living wage. Africans want to perform work which they are capable of doing, and not work which the government declares them to be capable of. Africans want to be allowed to live where they obtain work, and not be endorsed out of an area because they were not born there. Africans want to be allowed to own land in places where they work, and not to be obliged to live in rented houses which they can never call their own. Africans want to be part of the general population, and not confined to living in their own ghettoes. African men want to have their wives and children to live with them where they work, and not be forced into an unnatural existence in men's hostels. African women want to be with their men folk and not be left permanently widowed in the reserves. Africans want to be allowed out after 11 o’clock at night and not to be confined to their rooms like little children. Africans want to be allowed to travel in their own country and to seek work where they want to and not where the Labor Bureau tells them to. Africans want a just share in the whole of South Africa; they want security and a stake in society.
Above all, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy.
But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on color, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one color group by another. The A.N.C. has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs it will not change that policy.
This then is what the A.N.C. is fighting. Their struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”.
