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Question
At the beginning of his speech, Mandela mentions “an extraordinary human disaster”. What does he mean by this? What is the “glorious... human achievement” he speaks of at the end?
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Solution
By “an extraordinary human disaster,” Mandela refers to the cruel and unjust system of racial discrimination that Black and coloured people in South Africa endured under white rule. When he mentions “the glorious… human achievement,” he is referring to the establishment of South Africa’s first democratic, non-racial government.
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