The True Meaning of Freedom

Throughout my University days I was known as Freeman. One day, my Aunt came visiting and she had to describe me to my room mates before they knew it was me. 

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Freedom is not an end to slavery. There's almost no more slavery in the world, yet the clamor for freedom is still strong.
Freedom is not about equal rights and treatment. Or else no one is truly free.
Freedom is not the lack of opposition. Or else the fight for freedom won't be a worthy cause. Any cause that seeks to eliminate all opposition is evil.

Freedom is simply the ability to make my own choices.

Here's the more philosophical part.
The truth is no one can take away that ability from you. They can try to limit your choices, but it's not same as taking away your freedom. Nature is constantly limiting our choices. Every night the sun sets, it takes with it some of our options. Every time the rain falls, we lose some options.
All the great men that fought for freedom, actually fought for something bigger. It was freedom that made great Mandela chose a hard life fighting apartheid, spending over 27 years in prison. It was freedom that made the people of South Africa not lose hope. They showed the rest of the world that the ability to make one's own choices is in-born and no one or system can take it away. They can try hard to limit the range of choices. And we, like the great Mandela did, can chose to make it impossible for them. We lose our freedom only when we decide to not make our choices. It wasn't freedom great Mandela and the South Africans fought for; they didn't lose their ability to make their own choices and it was evidenced by the choice of actions they made. They fought for something much bigger. They fought for their future and their land.
We made umbrellas to get back the options rainfall denied us. We made electricity to get back the options sunset denied us. And it was because we had our freedom intact that we could get back the options we were denied.

The only people that lost their freedom were the slaves in Django who didn't use it. The people who trudge through life with someone else's manual. They don't make their own choices. They are the only ones that have lost their freedom, and it's because they threw it away. No one took it from them. They complain about the rain, the sunset, the politicians, the economy, and being born as a Nigerian. They don't take out an umbrella, they don't switch on the light, they don't use their freedom to fight for their future and their land. They simply complain and trudge on.