“Glory and Hope” was Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural speech as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa. At the time, South Africa was in a rough transition from a system of Apartheid with segregation of people based on race and class divisions to a system with renewed hope for equality to all of their citizens. As the first democratically elected State President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela planned to ease the transition, giving the Africans a sense of pride and security; this speech is the first example of his effort.
Reading this speech, the reader encounters lines that tell of pride, passion, and devotion. They realize that Nelson Mandela wrote the speech with his heart rather than with his mind. After tough times, Mandela is not ashamed of his land and believes that with hard work and patience from the citizens of South Africa, they can “reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all hopes of a glorious life for all,”(Glory and Hope by Nelson Mandela).
