Heroes: Principles of African Greatness - Dispatch 6 Themes

When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both . . . We are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
—Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 1995

Freedom, as Mandela suggests, is a process—and a deeply personal one, at that. South Africa’s vaunted “long walk to freedom” over the course of the 20th century makes up one of the largest and most sweeping sets of stories within Heroes. It suggests a struggle ongoing and not yet complete.
Nelson, and Winnie. Tutu, and Biko. Brenda. Kathrada, Sisulu, Mhlaba, Motsoaledi, Mlangeni, Mbeki, and Goldberg. Ditsie and Nkoli. This section encompasses some of Heroes’ most iconic, larger-than-life personalities—along with some whose names have not yet earned mononymic brand status (but who, it will be argued, might yet deserve it).