Mandela's Inauguration Speech by Nelson Mandela (excerpt) 10 May 1994 ... [1] Today, all of us do, by our presence here, and by our celebrations in other parts of our country and the world, confer glory and hope to newborn liberty. [2] Out of the experience of and extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. [3] Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for glorious life for all. ... [4] 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. [5] Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change. [6] We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the flowers bloom. [7] 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. [8] We, the people of South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has taken us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws no so long ago, have today been given the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our own soil. [9] We thank all our distinguished international guests for having come to take possession people of our country of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for peace, for human dignity. [10] We trust that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges of building peac