Post # 24
Nelson Mandela Inaugural Address
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Famous apartheid protester and later president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela is world renowned for work in building a nation from the bottom up and fighting injustice until the day he died.
Famous apartheid protester and later president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela is world renowned for work in building a nation from the bottom up and fighting injustice until the day he died.
Summary:
Mandela was the first democratically elected president of South Africa, and this is his inaugural address. It talks little of what will happen, and focuses on how the nation has pulled itself from being the “universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and oppression” to a nation liberated from its own path and set on a new one. He thanks the nations who supported them and allowed them to free themselves, and he pledges to the people that the country will never go back to what it was. He refers to it as a “common victory for human justice, for peace, for human dignity”. His basic premise is that it is time to start reconstruction of South Africa.
Mandela was the first democratically elected president of South Africa, and this is his inaugural address. It talks little of what will happen, and focuses on how the nation has pulled itself from being the “universal base of the pernicious ideology and practice of racism and oppression” to a nation liberated from its own path and set on a new one. He thanks the nations who supported them and allowed them to free themselves, and he pledges to the people that the country will never go back to what it was. He refers to it as a “common victory for human justice, for peace, for human dignity”. His basic premise is that it is time to start reconstruction of South Africa.
Analysis: The battle of apartheid was won by international collaboration, when countless other nations decided to end trade with South Africa. In face of this triumph, Mandela bases a lot of his points on the power of unity, both within his international allies and within a nation torn with racism. His purpose is to bring all the people of the country together to rebuild the country, and we know that it will be tough journey but his dream is realized.
Some devices he used to achieve this were –
Ethos: Obvious but powerful. Although he has just been elected president, he maintains a very humble tone with phrases like “all of us”, “to my compatriots”, “we all share” “humbled”. At the beginning of the speech he connects himself with the geography of the nation by talking about the mimosa trees and the summer flowers. The only word he uses to refer to himself is “we”.
Parallelism: There are two places in the speech where he has three parallel phrases used to emphasize a point. For example, the one at the end of the speech is “Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work… and salt for all.”
Repetition: He repeats what the country once was multiple times. For example, he lists “bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, and gender” in slight variations several times.
References to foreign allies: He refers particularly to America’s fight for freedom from England so long ago with embedded phrases like “we the people”, “inalienable rights” and “God bless Africa”.
Juxtaposition: It is used in the speech to contrast soft ideas of the future with the harsh reality of the past. In the second paragraph he speaks of blooming flowers and mimosa trees. In the next paragraph, he talks about a nation torn apart, “spurned, outlawed, and isolated”. Later he lists traits of the new nation like “democratic, non-racial” then says they will leave the “valley of darkness”.
Some devices he used to achieve this were –
Ethos: Obvious but powerful. Although he has just been elected president, he maintains a very humble tone with phrases like “all of us”, “to my compatriots”, “we all share” “humbled”. At the beginning of the speech he connects himself with the geography of the nation by talking about the mimosa trees and the summer flowers. The only word he uses to refer to himself is “we”.
Parallelism: There are two places in the speech where he has three parallel phrases used to emphasize a point. For example, the one at the end of the speech is “Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work… and salt for all.”
Repetition: He repeats what the country once was multiple times. For example, he lists “bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, and gender” in slight variations several times.
References to foreign allies: He refers particularly to America’s fight for freedom from England so long ago with embedded phrases like “we the people”, “inalienable rights” and “God bless Africa”.
Juxtaposition: It is used in the speech to contrast soft ideas of the future with the harsh reality of the past. In the second paragraph he speaks of blooming flowers and mimosa trees. In the next paragraph, he talks about a nation torn apart, “spurned, outlawed, and isolated”. Later he lists traits of the new nation like “democratic, non-racial” then says they will leave the “valley of darkness”.
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