Inaugural Address of Nelson Mandela
To my compatriots, I have no hesitation in saying
that each one of us is as intimately attached
to the soil of this beautiful country
as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria
and the mimosa trees of the bushveld.
That spiritual and physical oneness
we all share with this common homeland
explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts
as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict,
and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated
by the peoples of the world,
precisely because it has become
the universal base of the pernicious ideology
and practice of racism and racial oppression.
The time for the healing of the wounds has come.
The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.
The time to build is upon us.
We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation.
We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people
from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation,
suffering, gender and other discrimination.
We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom
in conditions of relative peace.
We commit ourselves to the construction
of a complete, just and lasting peace.
We have triumphed in the effort
to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people.
We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society
in which all South Africans, both black and white,
will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts,
assured of their inalienable right to human dignity-
a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.
We understand it still that there is no easy road to freedom.
We know it well that none of us acting alone
can achieve success.
We must therefore act together as a united people,
for national reconciliation,
for nation building,
for the birth of a new world.
Let there be justice for all.
Let there be peace for all.
Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.
Let each know that for each
the body, the mind and the soul
have been freed to fulfil themselves.
Never, never and never again shall it be that
this beautiful land will again
experience the oppression of one by another
and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world.
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement!
Let freedom reign.
God bless Africa!
I thank you!