Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom — Class 10 MCQs with Answers

Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom — important questions & MCQs with answers (Class 10 English)

6 solved questions from this chapter's difficulty levels, each with its answer and explanation. Tap an option to check yourself.

0 of 6 answered

1. Q1 of 6Easy

   Mandela became the first ___ President of South Africa.

   AWhiteBForeign-bornCAsianDBlack
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   Answer: Black

   Explanation: First democratically elected Black President in 1994.

2. Q2 of 6Easy

   Apartheid was a system of:

   ARacial segregationBEquality for all racesCA federal governmentDCommunist rule
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   Answer: Racial segregation

   Explanation: Legal racial separation in South Africa.

3. Q3 of 6Medium

   Why could Mandela not meet his obligations to his own family?

   AHis family had emigrated from South AfricaBHe chose politics because he disliked family lifeCHis family refused to see himDApartheid made it impossible to honour both obligations
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   Answer: Apartheid made it impossible to honour both obligations

   Explanation: He describes the twin obligations as irreconcilable under that system.

4. Q4 of 6Medium

   The textbook explains Mandela's phrase 'the Oliver Tambos, the Walter Sisulus… of our time'. What does it mean?

   AOnly these six men and no one else at allBThe families and children of these six menCMany men of their kind, not all as well knownDSix men who later wrote the new Constitution
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   Answer: Many men of their kind, not all as well known

   Explanation: The textbook says the names used this way mean 'many men of their type or kind, whose names may not be as well known'.

5. Q5 of 6Hard

   What is the effect of the detail that generals who could once have arrested him now saluted?

   AIt shows that the generals had always supported himBIt suggests the army had seized controlCIt proves the ceremony was stagedDIt measures the scale of the change in a single image
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   Answer: It measures the scale of the change in a single image

   Explanation: One concrete reversal carries the whole transformation.

6. Q6 of 6Hard

   Why is 'a deep and lasting wound' more effective than a statistic would be?

   AIt makes the damage sound smaller than it wasBStatistics were not available to MandelaCIt names a harm that outlives the system behind itDIt avoids having to give any evidence
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   Answer: It names a harm that outlives the system behind it

   Explanation: A wound persists after the weapon is gone — which is his point about apartheid.

Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom notes: key concepts (Class 10 English)

An extract from Mandela's autobiography, opening at his inauguration on 10 May 1994 and looking back at apartheid, at his own changing idea of freedom, and at the comrades he says he is the sum of. Literature carries 40 of the 80 marks in Class 10, and this is one of its most quotable chapters.

The inauguration

10 May 1994, with dignitaries from 140 countries present. Mandela became South Africa's first democratically elected Black President.

Who was sworn in

Thabo Mbeki as first deputy president and Mr de Klerk — the outgoing president — as second deputy president.

The two anthems

Both the old and the new anthem were sung: the whites sang 'Nkosi Sikelel'iAfrika' and the blacks sang 'Die Stem'. Each community singing the other's anthem was the meaning of the day.

Apartheid

A legal system of racial segregation which, Mandela writes, left 'a deep and lasting wound' in his country and his people — an image chosen because a wound outlasts the weapon.

Why he calls it among the harshest

Not because of any single cruelty but because the injustice was deliberately BUILT as a system rather than merely tolerated.

Depth of oppression, height of character

His claim that extreme injustice produced men and women of extraordinary courage — and he offers his comrades as the evidence for it.

Born free

'I was not born with a hunger to be free. I was born free.' His boyhood freedom was to run in the fields near his mother's hut.

Transitory freedoms

Those boyhood freedoms were real but passing, and left the central constraint on his life untouched. His hunger became political when he saw that the freedom had been an illusion.

Freedom is indivisible

The chains on one of his people were chains on all — oppression of any one person limits the freedom of everyone, which is why he could not be free alone.

Freedom brings responsibilities

'With freedom come responsibilities' — and he records that apartheid made it impossible to honour his obligations to his family and to his people at once.

Hate is learned

'No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin' — hate has to be taught, and so can be unlearned.

The comrades

He names Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chief Luthuli, Yusuf Dadoo, Bram Fischer and Robert Sobukwe, and calls himself 'the sum of' the African patriots who went before him.

Rhetoric to know

'Never, never and never again' — triple repetition that turns a statement into an oath. 'A rainbow gathering' — unity that preserves difference instead of erasing it.

Why he opens at the ceremony

Beginning at the outcome lets him look back over the cost, and turns the chapter into a reflection rather than a narrative. He avoids triumphalism by crediting predecessors, naming the cost, and pointing forward.