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?

By ‘an extraordinary human disaster’ Mandela means to state the practice of ‘apartheid’ in South Africa. ‘Apartheid’ is a political system that separates people according to their race. During this there was a racial segregation based on colour and the blacks suffered a lot. They were not allowed to demand freedom or any right. Mandela himself had to spend many years on infamous ‘Robben Island’ as a prisoner where he was beaten mercilessly.
He considered it as great glorious human achievement to liberate all people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.

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