Great Political Speeches: Nelson Mandela Quiz

The Government often answers its critics by saying that in South Africa are economically better off than the inhabitants of the other countries in Africa. Our complaint is not that we are poor by comparison with people in other countries, but that we are poor by comparison with the in our own country, and that we are prevented by from altering this imbalance.

The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of . White supremacy implies . Legislation designed to preserve white supremacy entrenches this notion.

Africans want to be paid a living wage. Africans want to be allowed 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. Africans want to be allowed in their own country and to seek work where they want to and not where the Labour Bureau tells them to. Africans want in the whole of South Africa; they want security and a stake in society.

Above all, we want , because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear .

But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on colour, is entirely and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one colour group by another. The has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs it will not change that policy.

Their struggle is a truly 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 . I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with . 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 .