In South Africa, I feel I am a stranger, at best an animal.
Oliver TamboRead
How do you deal with a criminal that will not listen to what you have to say and who continues his policy of violence? Some say you continue to talk and let him tire himself out. But nearly 40 years after the institution of apartheid, is there anyone who still believes that verbal persuasion will work?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the effectiveness of dialogue with those who refuse to listen and resort to violence.
Oliver Tambo's quote reflects on the futility of communication with individuals entrenched in violent ideologies, especially in the context of apartheid. It suggests that after decades of unsuccessful dialogue, there is skepticism about the potential for peaceful persuasion to change the minds of those who are resolute in their violent ways.
Themes
ViolenceDialogueApartheidPersuasionPolicy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about conflict resolution in global politics.
More from Oliver Tambo
All quotes →The more pressure you bring from without, the less internal pressure is necessary.
Oliver TamboRead
The sanctions will not kill us. It's apartheid that's killing us.
Oliver TamboRead
The U.S. is the last country that should see itself as an ally of the apartheid system.
Oliver TamboRead
It was of limited usefulness to head great rallies. The government did not listen, and, soon enough, the tear gas and the muzzles of the guns were turned against the people. The justice of our cries went unrecognized.
Oliver TamboRead
It was becoming clear that, from being at the top at Holy Cross, we were at the bottom at St. Peter's. Objectively, this was very good, for it offered us a challenge and an opportunity to grow if we were ready to take it; and we surely were.
Oliver TamboRead
Similar quotes
I am not conscious of a single experience throughout my three months' stay in England and Europe that made me feel that after all East is East and West is West. On the contrary, I have been convinced more than ever that human nature is much the same, no matter under what clime it flourishes, and that if you approached people with trust and affection you would have ten-fold trust and thousand-fold affection returned to you.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Our particular problem in America at this point in history is the widespread loss of the sense of individual significance, a loss which is sensed inwardly as impotence.
Rollo MayRead
Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault.
Henry Anatole GrunwaldRead
Silence is an ornament for women.
SophoclesRead
Slavery, if it can be legalized at all, can be legalized only by positive legislation. Natural law gives it no aid. Custom imparts to it no legal sanction.
Lysander SpoonerRead
The Son of God did not want to be seen and found in heaven. Therefore he descended from heaven into this humility and came to us in our flesh, laid himself into the womb of his mother and into the manger and went on to the cross. This was the ladder that he placed on earth so that we might ascend to God on it. This is the way you must take.
Martin LutherRead