Long Walk to Freedom

When Mandela returns to Johannesburg, he gets caught up in a controversy over whether ANC should participate in the Bantu Authorities. Mandela thinks it could be a good opportunity to spread the ANC platform, but the younger activists who want no part in any apartheid structure remind Mandela of his own younger self. Mandela also agrees that the government’s policies to resettle African people by ethnic group are cruel, treating people’s lives like a “jigsaw puzzle.”

Mandela gets banned again from traveling and attending political meetings, this time for five years. This time, he is more determined than ever not to let his ban affect his activism. Surprisingly, one of the biggest conflicts Mandela helps mediate during this period is at a local boxing gym where he often trains. Several boxers feel the owner is neglecting the gym and want to go start a new one. Mandela calls a meeting with both sides, but it resolves nothing. Mandela goes with the boxers to a series of new locations, none of which are any better than the old one. Although Mandela is unable to resolve this dispute, he remains fascinated by boxing because while African boxers often earn little money for their work, many have overcome the odds to build a global reputation.