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Comparing and Contrasting Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Address and Kevin Rudd’s Sorry Speech

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Comparing and Contrasting Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Address and Kevin Rudd’s Sorry Speech
Nelson Mandela’s inaugural address was delivered outdoors in an amphitheatre on 10th May 1994 at the Union Buildings, South Africa. The Union Buildings housed the first democratically elected, first black and first equal president of South Africa. This historic event was attended by politicians and dignitaries from over 140 countries all over the world, such as Bill Clinton, the President of the United States at the time, and John Mayor, British PM at the time. This address was to show that after years of oppression, blacks and coloureds were no longer separated from whites and the country was starting to become united as one. Fourteen years after this celebrated address, new Labor Prime Minister of Australia after ten years of Liberal Party rule, Kevin Rudd’s speech was read at specifically 9am on 13th February 2008 in Canberra, Australia, and also it was televised and set up in big screens around the country. This momentous occasion was attended by Australian politicians and past Prime Ministers. This address was to apologize for years of “Stolen Generations” where children from Aboriginal natives, numbered up to 50,000, between late 1800’s and late 1900’s by European invaders and past ancestors to the people of Australia.

In the first three lines of Nelson Mandela’s speech he uses anaphora to emphasise the time for change for S.A. has come, “The time for… The moment to… The time”. He also uses personal pronouns such as “we” throughout the speech to stress the feeling of unity throughout the country of black and whites and coloureds. He also uses the rule of three like “ Complete, just, and lasting peace” or lists such as “poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination” to really emphasise the importance of the subject and to draw the audience in to thinking about the subject. Mandela uses personification, metaphors and similes for example “Implant hope in the breasts of millions of our people” to again accentuate that this involves

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