In a modern age which seems obsessed with the cult of celebrity, the concept of the heroic characterised by strength of character and motivated by altruistic action would often appear to be relegated to some metaphorical backwater - out of sight and out of mind.
This book written a decade ago champions this viewpoint, portraying it in an articulate and self efface manner. Like all inspirational works it provokes a re-assessment of existing perceptions creating a deeper insight of the issues involved and hopefully leading to a desire on the part of the reader to reshape the contours of his\her immediate environment
. . . . The policy of apartheid created a deep and lasting wound in my country and my people. All of us will spend many years, if not generations recovering from that profound hurt. But the decades of oppression and brutality had another unintended, effect, and that was it produced the Oliver Tambos, the Walter Sisulus, the Bram Fishers of our time - men of such extraordinary courage wisdom and generosity that their like will never be known again. Perhaps it requires such depths of oppression to create such heights of character. My country is rich in the minerals and gems that lie beneath its soil, but I have always known that its greatest wealth is its people, finer and truer than the purest diamonds.
It is from these comrades in the struggle that I learned the meaning of courage. Time and time again, I have seen men and women risk and give their lives for an idea. I have seen men stand up to attacks and torture without breaking, showing a strength and resilience that defies the imagination. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
I never lost hope that great transformation would occur. Not only because of the great heroes I have already cited, but because of the courage of the ordinary men and women of my country. I always knew that deep down in every human heart there was mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Even in the grimmest times in prison, when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going. Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished.
It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom., just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor are robbed of their humanity.
When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressor and oppressed both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.
I have walked the long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.

Read by Fiona Blackburn Dublin Unitarian Church May 2005