On February 11 1990, after being freed from Victor Verster Prison following 27 years of incarceration as a political prisoner, Nelson Mandela delivered his first public address (Mandela, 1990). What follows is a rhetorical analysis of this speech, with particular reference to the relationship between the communication, negotiation, and conflict resolution concepts used in the speech and the outcomes of those concepts.

Communication Concepts

In examining the communication concepts in the speech, this section provides an analysis of the speaker, the audience, the language of the speech, as well specific rhetorical devices that Mandela used.

The Speaker

The management development and training market has had to reinvent itself over the past 18 months. As corporates have taken the opportunity to reexamine the investment in organizational development, providers have found creative ways to continue to offer top-quality content and expert faculty to the markets where they are needed most. One of the tools that has facilitated this process is the virtual classroom. There is no doubt that first prize in a development context is a face to face intervention, however the past year has shown that, when used correctly, the virtual platform offers a multitude of possibilities:

(a) Real time interactivity across numerous geographies