THE LONG WALK TO FREEDOM.. Vol. Two

THE LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

ARE WE REALLY FREE YET??

Volume Two

By

Anthony Onu

I have walked a long walk to freedom, it has been a lonely road, but it is not over yet.
                                                                             Nelson Mandela...

Nearly 100 years after the emancipation of slaves by President Abraham Lincoln, there was still slavery and intense racial discrimination towards the African-Americans. 

Blacks living in the southern states still inhabited a startely unequal world of disenfranchisement, segregation and various forms of oppression including race-inspired violence. Government law at local and state levels barred them from so many things with the Jim Crows laws; this is a law that was passed by the southern states that created two separate societies; one black and one white. Blacks and white could not sit together in the same rail car, sit in the same waiting room, sit in the same theatre, attend the same school or even eat in the same restaurant. African Americans were denied access to beaches, swimming pools, parks, picnic areas and many hospitals.

The fight and quest for freedom started almost immediately. The initial phase began with Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat in a white bus ride. When she was jailed, a black community boycott of the city’s buses began.

Martin Luther king jnr, a Baptist minister and social activist emerged as the boycotts movement most effective leader. In the turbulent decade and a half that followed, he led the people through non-violent protests and civil disobedience to bring about change. These movements resulted to the US supreme court striking down the “separate but equal doctrine” that formed the basis for the state sanctioned discrimination. The federal government also made legislative headway with initiatives such as the voting rights act of 1965 and the civil rights act of 1968. The resulting legislation's outlawed segregation in public facilities and racial discrimination in employment and education.

 Many leaders from the African-American community and beyond rose to prominence during this era; martin Luther king jnr, Rosa parks, Malcolm X, Andrew Goodman and others. They risked and sometimes lost their lives in the pursuit of freedom and equality.

At the time the blacks in America was wrapping up their struggle for freedom, blacks in south Africa was about to start the bondage and sufferings of apartheid. 

Surprisingly, Apartheid in South Africa started in 1948. The year that the United Nations released the legal slavery abolitionism.

The apartheid system was a racial segregation  enforced through legislation by the white ‘minority’ where the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants were suppressed. This race laws touched every aspect of social life; no inter-racial marriage, ‘white-only’ jobs, suppression of political rights including voting etc.

All blacks were required to carry ‘passbooks’ in order to access non-black areas. Those living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa. They were aliens in their own country. Non-compliance with these laws was dealt with very harshly, including being incarcerated for up to six months without any type of hearings. This created extreme poverty, low educational qualifications and division in the black community.

Mans natural instinct to be free rose again!!

Nelson Mandela’s long walk from apartheid prisoner to south-African president remade a country and inspired the world.

Twenty-three years earlier, on February 11, 1990, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela emerged, greying but unbowed from 27 years in detention for opposing the white-minority apartheid regime.

It was defining moment of the 20^th century. “Apartheid was over”

“I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all”. A 71 year old Mandela said in his first public speech in 27 years. “i stand here before you, not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you the people”

At this level, we have fought and achieved equal political and social rights.

But has freedom finally come?? Well i don’t think so. The second level was just over..

During the civil rights movement, martin Luther king jnr gave a defining speech “I have a dream ‘he said’ that one day, this nation will rise up to live the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men were created equal”.

Question is, what happened along the way?? Why was his mind not operating at the same frequency as the other man?

To be continued.... Stay tuned!!!!