No Easy Walk to Freedom

Part 1 (Chapters 1-2)

Reading Check

1. The Defiance Campaign (Chapter 1)

2. The African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) (Chapter 1)

3. The Liberal Party (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. The “M” Plan aimed to consolidate the Congress machinery by mobilizing mass support since the Nationalist government had passed laws to suppress Congress organizations. Government policy included the prohibition of meetings, the Public Safety Act, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and the Suppression of Communism Act. (Chapter 1)

2. An alliance of the ANC and the SAIC formulated the “M” Plan. In addition, Mandela welcomed genuine white allyship in the anti-apartheid struggle. (Chapters 1, 2)

Part 2 (Chapters 3-5)

Reading Check

1. Gold mining and farming magnates (Chapter 4)

2. The Freedom Charter (Chapter 3)

3. The rehabilitation scheme, the poll tax, and tribal rule (Chapter 4)

4. Hitlerite Germany (Chapter 5)

5. The Bantu Education Act and the Separate Universities Act (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. According to Mandela, the primary aim of apartheid policy was to create a cheap Black labor force for the mining magnates and farmers. This involved confining Black South Africans to Native Reserves and making them dependent on wage earnings, as well as giving them an inferior education that limited employment opportunities. (Chapters 3-5)

2. The Separate Universities Education Act extended the Bantu Education Act to higher education institutions and enforced white supremacist ideology at the university level. It aroused popular indignation because it destroyed the open university tradition of the modern world. (Chapter 5)

Part 3 (Chapters 6-9)

Reading Check

1. The Congress of the People (COP) (Chapter 6)

2. Workers and non-European traders and businessmen, respectively (Chapter 6)

3. Boycotting (Chapter 7)

4. Bantustan policy (Chapter 8)

5. The Programme of Action (Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. Mandela considered boycotting a tactical weapon as opposed to a matter of principle. It is not always the right tactic to use because its outcome could be more harmful than beneficial. Sometimes other tactics are more effective at advancing the aims of a resistance struggle. (Chapter 7)

2. The Nationalist government claimed that the Bantustan policy would allow self-government for Black South Africans. Mandela, however, argued that the policy was an apartheid scheme aimed at denying Black autonomy and removing Black workers and intellectuals from city centers. (Chapter 8)

Part 4 (Chapters 10-13)

Reading Check

1. The All-In African Conference (Chapter 10)

2. The National Action Council (NAC), with the task of implementing the resolutions (Chapter 10)

3. The General Strike (Chapter 11)

4. Nonviolence (Chapter 11)

5. Diplomatic and economic sanctions on the South African government (Chapter 10, 11, and 13)

Short Answer

1. The All-In African Conference demanded that the Nationalist government call a national convention. Should the government fail to meet the demand, the people resolved to embark on a campaign of noncooperation. They also called for the international community to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions against the South African government. (Chapter 10)

2. He believed that it would have been a political misstep to become a martyr and that the noncooperation campaign needed to continue immediately. (Chapter 12)

Part 5 (Chapters 14-15)

Reading Check

1. Because it would not be a fair and proper trial, and because Mandela was not legally or morally obligated to follow laws that were passed without political representation (Chapter 14)

2. The Department of Justice (Chapter 14)

3. The Group Areas Act (Chapter 14)

4. Umkonto we Sizwe (Chapter 15)

5. Sabotage (Chapter 15)

6. The Communist Party (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. He chose to conduct his own defense because of the public platform the trial provided, speaking on behalf of the people and the ANC and recognizing that the trial raised larger issues about the Nationalist government. (Chapter 14)

2. Mandela implicates the Nationalist government because it chose to respond to the ANC’s nonviolent resistance with great violence and force. It also closed off all legal means of opposition to the regime. (Chapter 15)