Summary

In Part Eleven, Mandela details the day of his release. He holds a press conference the next day. Reporters ask whether he hates whites, to which Mandela responds by affirming that he hates the system not white people, and that whites will play a critical role in rebuilding the country. He is then flown to Soweto, where thousands of black African demonstrators have turned up to celebrate his release. He returns with Winnie to their home.

Two weeks later, he flies to Lusaka for a meeting of the National Executive Committee. He then begins a tour of Africa and tries to acclimatize towards a more accelerated and technological world. He meets privately with de Klerk in Cape Town. Mandela notes that de Klerk was a “gradualist, a careful pragmatist” who making negotiations only “to ensure power for the Afrikaner in a new...