1

Chapter: II

Nelson Mandela-
Long Walk to Freedom:
The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
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Introduction:

Nelson Mandela was a notable zealot in the racial segregation movement of the

World. He was the sole fountainhead of the freedom, peace, and the Anti-apartheid

Movement in South Africa. Mandela was the active member of the African National

Congress (ANC), who led the Anti-apartheid Movement in South Africa. He was the highly

visible and active person, elevated himself as the foremost leader and the token of the

freedom. His sufferings and pains made him the forerunner of the Anti-apartheid Movement

of South Africa. The invincible nature, anguished imprisonment and the true friendship

enforced Mandela to write the legendary autobiography Long Walk to Freedom: The

Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. In autobiography, he relinquished his ‘self' and expressed

meticulous compassion for the Blacks. As an activist, Mandela has tried to exhibit his sterling

spirit, the sustained efforts and intrinsic incidents in his autobiography. An autobiography

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela became an influential work

about the adverse circumstances of the life of the extremist. Throughout the expedition of

life, Mandela was agitated, disrupted and deteriorated by the adversities, and successfully

completed the mission of his life.

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela:

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela is the autobiography

of an extraordinary person, the activist, writer, revolutionary, public speaker, agitator and

Madiba, father of the nation South Africa known as Nelson Mandela. It is the experienced

work and validation of the existence, which shaped the prowess of Mandela's matchless

personality. According to G.D. Gorender of Caribbean Times, Long Walk to Freedom: The

Autobiography of Nelson Mandela is, “One of those masterpieces, perhaps the greatest of the

twentieth-century autobiographical literature, which is a sharp, poignant, elegant, and

eloquent counter to the prevailing cynicism about the rottenness of politics” (xii). It is the
 3

blueprint of the life of an agitator, who was zealous to fight against the racial segregation in

South Africa. This is the perilous journey of Nelson Mandela, which started from the huts of

Mvezo and convincingly reached to the house of the South African President (the Mahlamba

Ndlopfu).

Eventually, an autobiography embarks with autobiographer's birth, parentage, and the

surroundings. The autobiographer has to limelight the past from his birth and childhood

because, “Childhood is only the preface of a matured man's life story. It foreshadows the later

development … the account of childhood is shaped by the author's consciousness of what the

child ultimately would become” (Pascal 71). Everybody's childhood is momentous to

invigorate the prospective future of the life itself. It is the crucial stage for the nourishment,

but Mandela's childhood was lost in obtaining the fundamental needs. The chapter ‘A

Country Childhood' is like an epigraph of the autobiography. In it, Mandela delineated the

meaning of his name Rolihlahla. His childhood and family background helped him to

outshine his integrity and evidences in his life. The birthplace Mvezo is in the district of

Qunu and the scenery seem so amicable, where chattering and clean rivers run through the

beautiful hills by the sounds of various birds. Rolihlahla Madiba Dalibhunga Mandela, later

known as Nelson Mandela, was born on July 18, 1918. In these pastoral surroundings, he

learnt the Xhosa culture, language, customs, and ideas of the leadership. The name Rolihlahla

meant ‘the one who pulls the branches from a tree,' or simply ‘a troublemaker.' His clan name

Madiba means reconciler, the type of an attachment used by the South Africans. His sister

Mabel has recalled that Mandela was the determined boy, and has the leadership aspects in

him. The family and the African culture have constituted an enduring character of Mandela.

As a young boy, Mandela influence by the decisive nature of his father Gadla

Mandela who built the spirit in Nelson Mandela. His mother Nonqaphi Nosekeni Fanny had

the deep influence of the discipline and self-respect. For Mandela, his mother was his
 4

teacher-friend, who told him the moral and legends of the Xhosa culture. She told that, the

grand Xhosa tradition kept everybody close to the beautiful nature. In an interview, Mandela

remembered the deep influence of nature on his childhood, "This was the beginning of my

love for veldt, for the great open spaces, the simple beauty of nature, and the pure line of the

horizon" (Guiloineau 51). The countryside surroundings of the Transkei made Mandela to

understand the troubles and the problems like the land dispossession, colonization, and

racism. The heartrending early experiences about the exploitation of the Blacks had

awakened the premature mind of Nelson Mandela. The Apartheid Government of South

Africa kept the Blacks away from the fundamental needs. Unfortunately, the sudden decline

of his father's economic status signaled Mandela that his future would not be likely to be

easy. The Blacks kept away from the Church, education, and the political organizations of

South Africa. The European conquest and colonization had badly influenced the economic

and the social status of the Xhosa clan. Mandela's father was the landowner, but the unjust

government had deposed him as the headman over the small matter of a local dispute. It

resulted in the loss of most of the land, cattle of the Mandela family so the family moved to a

larger village Qunu. The loss of power and property stirred up Gadla Mandela and he tried to

collect the Xhosas against the unjust White laws, but the Xhosa's were weakened by the

‘divide and rule' strategy. These disputes were fruitful for Nelson Mandela to understand the

problems of the land ownership, the cruel and knave White mentality. Many years later, in

1964, Nelson Mandela stated the situations during the time of his father, “…there was

evidence of the growth of class stratification, with chiefs holding more land and cattle than

commoners, but the principle of sharing remained widespread” (Peires 87). Despite his

father's loss of property, Rolihlahla Mandela recalled his time in Qunu was the happiest years

of his boyhood. In a single room missionary school, his elementary school teacher Ms.

Mdingane gave him a British name Nelson. Everything was under the influence of the white
 5

authorities, as he writes in Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela,

"The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British institutions

were automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing (to the authorities) as

African culture" (Mandela 16). It was the principal defect of the education system, where the

natives kept away from the advantageous and pragmatic knowledge of freedom and

revolution. Apart from the above adverse happenings, the accidental death of Mandela's

father created the strenuous situation before the family and immediately the family was

moved to the ‘Great Place' of Mqhekezweni, the home of the Paramount Chief of Thembu

land of Jongintaba. Fortunately, Jongintaba and his wife No-England accepted the

guardianship of Gadla's son Nelson. This was the situation where Nelson has to

accommodate with the new family. In very early age, he cleverly adjusted himself to the

wavering position of the family.

In the House of the Chief, Nelson accomplished the techniques of the royal court.

There he learned, “Democracy meant all men were to be heard, and a decision was taken

together as a people. Majority rule was a foreign notion. A minority was not to be crushed by

a majority” (25). He heard the violent ideas on the exploitations of the Blacks by the Whites.

Mandela recalled the preparation of his mind during the childhood, “As a leader, I have

always followed the principles, I first saw demonstrated by the regent at the Great Place”

(25). There, he studied English, Xhosa history, geography and regularly attended the Church

with the regent, who later enrolled him in another higher school at Qokolweni. At the age of

sixteen, Nelson underwent the Thembu initiation rituals to prove his courage, the transition to

manhood. The name Mandela was given after the ritual “Dalibhunga” or “founder of the

Bhunga” (33), the name shaped his political leadership and the prophetic and legendary of

South Africa. Though the rituals offered on Mandela, as Callinicos and Luli wrote about the

Xhosas rituals in South Africa, “For we Xhosas, and all Black South Africans, are a
 6

conquered people. We are slaves in our own country. We are tenants on our own soil. We

have no strength, no power, and no control over our own destiny in the land of our birth”

(26). They have to work in mines. Mandela was not destined to work in the mines but

working as the Thembu Chief. Though he was living in the Royal House, he was continually

visiting his mother and siblings. His younger relative Arthur Mandela has told about

Mandela’s nature, “It was clear that he was a leader because he had great respect for a decent

education” (Limb 7). It is about the exhaustive attachment of Mandela with the family and

members. He was impatient for the success, sent to the University College of Fort Hare,

where he was the only Black among 150 students. The University College of Fort Hare was

the only education center for the Blacks, where Mandela realized that education is the most

powerful weapon, which you can use to change the World. As he writes,

For young black South Africans like myself, it was Oxford and
Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, all rolled into one… …I felt that
I was being groomed for success in the world. I was pleased
that the regent would now have a member of his clan with a
university degree. (51)

The enthusiasm for education made him a prominent student in Fort Hare. He influences by

Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery and the teachings of Prof. Z.K.

Mathews and D.D.T. Jabavu. The university teachers had precisely influenced the character

and ideology of Mandela. The teachers' significant role had strengthened his African identity,

where he proved himself as the combatant for the principles of equality and freedom. These

two principles had become an integral part of his militancy to encounter the future

challenges. His early days were sighted in the future revolutionary actions. As Mtirara and

Joyi told about his childhood,

Mandela's childhood and early youth offer important insights

into his later ideas and leadership style. The African traditions
that Mandela learned at Mvezo, Qunu and Mqhekezweni
emphasized kinship, hospitality, ubuntu, collective decision-
making, reconciliation, and honor. (Limb 7)
 7

Mandela confronts with many impediments and obstacles, but he did not left the path

of hardship and quest of the self. Not only in the society but also in the Church, the Blacks

segregated by the Whites. Mandela’s feelings about the situation expresses by Tom Lodge,

These feelings were strengthened as he began to witness and

experience the arrogance and racism of school and government
authorities. The strong collective bonds and feelings of mutual
support felt among Africans across families and clans, as seen
in Mandela's adoption by the Paramount Chief, would become
a hallmark of Mandela's politics. (77)

It was the foundation of the combating character of Mandela. As an anti-apartheid

leader, during the last year of his degree, he elects as the member of the Student

Representative Council, the highest student organization at the college of Fort Hare.

However, he was impatient in the university due to the segregation policies of the

government. This restlessness could not support Mandela to live and learn in the university,

so with the little knowledge, he returned to Mqhekezweni. However, the days from the ‘Great

Place' had widened the new perspectives in his life.

The various significant situations were preparing the mind of the young zealot

Mandela to fight for the rights of the Blacks. Now, he was in search of the new horizons of

the inevitable challenges of the life. His young age and independent thinking was the

transition of his exotic and independent ideology. As Guiloineau wrote, “The circumstances

of Mandela's youth led him to the perpetual search for what is right and true in constant

pursuit of fairness and recognition for the colorful, valiant history and tradition of black

South Africans” (Guiloineau 45). Now, Mandela was ready to discover his destiny in his

work and decided to fight with the Apartheid government for the rights of the anti-apartheids.

Mandela was living in the Royal House, but the strictness of the Regent contrived

Mandela to flee to Johannesburg and accepted the job clerk in Crown Mines. It was the true

place for Mandela to experience the pathetic situations of the Blacks. The inhuman

segregation in coalmines had churned Mandela's youth. As Mandela wrote,

 8

Everywhere I looked, I saw black men in dusty overalls looking

tired and bent. They lived on the grounds in bleak, single-sex
barracks that contained hundreds of concrete bunks separated
from each other by only a few inches. (73)

The mineworkers were experiencing the deathbed situations everywhere in the life. In that

situation, he requested for the job and rejected. But his friend Justice helped him to get the

job in the gold mine. There he had observed the agonizing conditions of the Black mine

workers who segregated and exploited administratively by various ethnic groups. The South

African government had banned the labor unions and the mine companies were forcing the

Blacks to live single during the working period. Mandela was thinking to change these

pathetic conditions of the Black mine workers. Now, he wanted to fight legally with the

segregation laws of the government, but his law degree was not completed. Now it was the

need of time where he had to complete his degree. So, he decided to leave the job of the clerk

and he went to Johannesburg for completion of the law degree. His well-wisher Mr. Well-

Beloved had supported him because he knows that an education could not be only to fill the

pail but to light the fire in a learner's life.

In Johannesburg, he was living with his cousin Garlick Mbekieni, where Mandela told

Garlik that his ambitions to complete the law degree. During the Johannesburg days, there

was the meeting of Mandela and Walter Sisulu, where “Sisulu ran a real estate office that

specialized in properties for Africans” (79). Sisulu realized the fire-fighting attitude in

Mandela and he sent him to Sidelsky for the job of a clerk. There, he met another black leader

Mr. Gaur, who “was indeed a troublemaker in the best sense of that term, and was an

influential man in the African community. ... Not only was he more knowledgeable, he was

bolder and more confident” (84). In Johannesburg, Mandela became the friend of Nat

Bregman, a thoughtful White, impressed by the thoughts of Jan Smuts, Franklin D Roosevelt,

and Winston Churchill. These personalities influenced the character of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela was living in Alexandria, where Mr. Xuma has gave him one tin-roofed room at the
 9

back of his property, where there was no electricity, and no running water to the tap. Working

as a clerk in the firm of Sidelsky, he had completed his law degree. His exhilarating

experiences about the life of the Blacks in the Dark City-Alexandra have totally changed his

mind. Instead of doing lawyers practice, he decided to work for unintelligible life of the

Blacks. The black Africans treated like the slaves in the country. Mandela wrote, “Urban life

tended to abrade tribal and ethnic distinctions, and instead of being Xhosas, or Sothos, or

Zulus, or Shangaans, we were Alexandrians” (89). The life of the Blacks from Alexandra had

generated the keen observer in Mandela. For him, Alexandra was a treasured place of

exploitation. He deeply accustoms by the poverty, “In that first year, I learned more about

poverty than I did in all my childhood days” (89). He was writing about his varied

experiences as a youth of twenty-five. After a year, he left the Xuma house with the

expressions of gratitude and hospitality and shifted to Witwatersrand Native Labour

Association (WNLA) with his friend Mr. Festile. The WNLA days were more interesting,

where Mandela was eager to learn the Xhosa customs and language. He has started the

lawyer’s practice in Johannesburg, which was an unimaginable moment for Mandela because

the Thembu boy from Qunu settles in Johannesburg as a lawyer. Mandela wrote, “My head

told me that it was the right of every man to plan his own future as he pleased and choose his

role in life. Was I not permitted to make my own choices” (98)? Rationally, Mandela has

proved himself as a vigilant, tough, self-reliant and the stronger identity for the Blacks in

Johannesburg. During those days, Mr. Gaur guided Mandela that, “Education is all well and

good … We are poor, we have few teachers and even fewer schools. We do not even have the

power to educate ourselves” (99). The prominent speaker and thinker Mr. Gaur was his

mentor who made a profound impression on the ideology of Mandela. The ideals of Gour

had prepared Mandela to counteract the in just apartheid rule in South Africa. Mr. Gaur was

the member of the Advisory Board of the African National Congress, where Mandela went
 10

with him to attend the meetings of the ANC. He has observed the administration and

discussions in the meetings of the ANC. The debate in the ANC meetings has prepared

Mandela's mind to participate in the actions of the ANC. In result of this, in the 1943,

Mandela participated in, “… support of the Alexandria bus boycott, and a protest against the

raising of fares from four pence to five” (100). The thoughts and actions of Gaur were

decisive in his life. It was the beginning of the revolutionary life of Nelson Mandela. He was

paying the attention to the actions of Gaur and the ANC. He had seen the dreadful conditions

of the Blacks, where the Apartheid government was opposed the acts of the ANC.

Apart from this, Mr. Sidelsky warned Mandela that if he wanted to be a lawyer, he

must keep himself away from the politics and the friendship of Mr. Gaur and Sisulu. In result

of the indifferences in Sidelsky and Gaur, Mr. Gaur resigned the firm of Sidelsky and advised

Mandela to work with him. Gaur was the man who wanted to fight for the life of the Blacks.

The profound influence of Mr. Gaur and Walter Sisulu had changed the stream of Mandela's

life. Mandela had realized his duties for his people, where he wrote, “I felt that all the

currents in my life were taking me away from the Transkei and toward what seemed like the

center, a place where regional and ethnic loyalties gave way before a common purpose”

(102). These consequences revolutionized Mandela about the problems of the Blacks in

South Africa. Walter Sisulu and Mr. Gaur contrived Mandela as a good reader, thinker, and

activist by providing the useful literature and communicating with the leaders of the ANC. In

result of this, Mandela understood the differences between his past assumptions and the

original experiences of the Anti-apartheid Movement in country. The successful career and

salary were not the limitations of his life, but he wanted to change the lives of the Blacks in

South Africa. In those days, the segregated behavior of the university professors to the

African Black students had deeply hurts the mind of Mandela. The university atmosphere had

sprouted Mandela to fight for the rights of the Blacks. During the law education in university,
 11

the friends like Joe Solovo, Ruth, George Bizos and Bram Fischer and some Indians have

influenced the thoughts of Nelson Mandela. The aching and shocking experiences from the

university and public life of South Africa had opened the pensive horizons for Mandela to

work against the exploitation of the Blacks. Mandela embarked on the experiences of politics,

law, and segregation of the country. The guidance of Sisulu and Gaur made him a clerk,

student, thinker, and agitator to awaken the suppressed and oppressed South Africans. His

contemporary Africans also aligned with his liberation struggle against the apartheid

government. So, “Nelson Mandela was about to launch himself into the maelstrom of African

politics that, over the next decade, would see him rise rapidly to become a prominent African

political leader and a household name across the country” (Limb 32). The period has

nourished the character of Mandela as the revolutionary politician, raising the questions

against the apartheid government about the troubles and exploitation of the Blacks.

Nelson Mandela realized that the segregated situation could change by spreading

education and awakening the people about the fundamental rights in country. As Dr. B.R.

Ambedkar stated the influence of the education on human life,

If you want to develop the society then you need to spread up

the education. Education eradicates the bias of people, which
results to minimize the exploitation, domination, of those
people who try to take the benefit of the so-called illiterate
people. (Anjanikar 23)

Such rustling thoughts were running through the veins of young Mandela to prevent the

pangs of the Blacks in the country. He realized that, the education has the power to change in

the defiled system of the Apartheid Government of South Africa. Now he decided to spend

his life for the liberation of the Africans from the apartheid rule, because “His life

circumscribed by the racist laws and regulations that cripple his growth, dim his potential,

and stunt his life” (109). There were many events, which prepared him fought against the

wrathful situations of the country. In this situation, the harmonious relationship with the
 12

intellectuals and educationists made him strong, reasonable and practically dedicated to his

work. Especially, he influenced by the principles of the ANC because, “The ANC was the

one organization that welcomed everyone, that saw itself as a great umbrella under which all

Africans could find shelter” (110). On the international platform, in forties, the world was

undergoing through the changes in the ruling strategies and political ideals. Roosevelt and

Churchill the Atlantic Charter signed reaffirmed the faith in the dignity of the democratic

principles. Such vital democratic principles influenced the ANC, and the organization creates

its own charter called ‘Africans' Claims' aimed the complete citizenship and freedom to the

Africans.

It was the decisive period in South Africa for the growth and dissemination of the

Anti-apartheid Movement. On the other hand, Walter Sisulu encouraged Mandela to be firm

with the democratic principles in the meetings of the ANC. Apart from the guidance and

discussions with Gaur and Sisulu, Mandela met Anton Lembede, one of the famous lawyers

and founders of the ANC. His speeches consequently empowered the South African youths.

Lembede, in the words of Mandela,

He was capable of developing to the same extent as the white

man, citing such African heroes as Marcus Garvey, W. E. B.
Du Bois, and Haile Selassie. He believed blacks had to improve
their own self-image before they could initiate successful mass
action. He preached self-reliance and self-determination and
called his philosophy Africanism. (110)

Lembede is the leading the ideologist of the African youths. Lembede asserted that the new

spirit could arouse the people of South Africa. He mentioned the ethnic differences from

South Africa. Lembede wanted that all young men and women should gather under one head

of the ANC and think that we are not Xhosa, Ndebeles, or Tswans but the South Africans

first. Therefore, Lembede, Sisulu, and Mandela uniquely made the policy to form the Youth

League (YL) of the ANC in order to fight altogether for complete freedom of South Africa.

In April 1944, Sisulu, Mandela, Mbata and William Nkomo called the meeting of a hundred
 13

men and formed the Youth League of the ANC (YLANC). The members of the Youth

League were graduates from Fort Hare, who formed the mass-movement among the South

African people. In the formation meeting of the Youth League, Lembede delivered his

historical speech with the emerging spirits of the African Nationalism where Mandela elected

as ‘the Founder Executive Committee Member' of the Youth League. As Mandela stated the

goal of Youth League:

African nationalism was our battle cry, and our creed was the
creation of one nation out of many tribes, the overthrow of
white supremacy, and the establishment of a truly democratic
form of government. Our manifesto stated: We believe that the
national liberation of Africans will be achieved by Africans
themselves … the Congress Youth League must be the brains-
trust and power station of the spirit of African nationalism.
(114)

The Youth League opposed the anti-African legislations such as the Land Act (1913), the

Urban Areas Act (1927) and the Representation of Natives Act (1936). All the acts against

the rights of the Black Africans like the acquisition of African's land, cheap labors to

Africans in white industries and removing Africans from common voting. The manifesto of

the Youth League was, “Africans must struggle for development, progress, and national

liberation so as to occupy their rightful and honorable place among nations of the world”

(“ANC Youth League Manifesto 1994”). The Youth League captivated most of the ANC

policies to support for the black labor unions and working as the ‘brains trust and power-

station' of the spirit of ‘the African Nationalism.’ It was the theoretical beginning of Nelson

Mandela as the freedom fighter of South Africa. The personality and speeches of Lembede,

Mda, and Sisulu influenced the Youth League. Mandela's lifelong friend Oliver Tambo

commented about the influence of the Youth League, “The many long meetings held between

Lembede, Mda, Sisulu, Mandela and I, Mandela was not one with Lembede on those

positions which could be described as ultra-nationalistic” (Lembede, et al. 96). Very soon, the
 14

Youth League (YL) became a famous organization, where Mandela and friends strongly

opposed the entry of the Communists and the Whites in it.

During the Youth League days, Mandela fell in love with Evelyn Mase, a pretty

countryside girl taking the training of nurse in Johannesburg. He asked her for marriage and

she agreed. The Mandela-Evelyn marriage simply held in Native Commissioner's Court of

Johannesburg. In 1946, Mandela emerged as the mass leader, and he supported the strike of

the African Mine Workers Union (AMFU) where the thousands of the mineworkers went on

the strike. It was the first largest strike in the history of South Africa. The Apartheid

government tried to crush it and, consequently, arrested the prominent leaders and sent to the

jail. This merciless action of the government has resulted in the Minors March on labor

offices of the government. But the Apartheid government brutally crushed the march, where

twelve miners were killed in the police action. In result of the innocent deaths of the strikers,

the Youth League declared the strong support to the workers' strike with the statement, “Mine

Workers' struggle is our struggle. …We demand a living wage for all African workers” (89).

The strike and the innocent deaths affected Mandela and immediately he started the eloquent

combat with the government by the moral support of the friends like J.B. Marks, Kotane, and

Usuf Dadoo. The pathetic conditions of the country forced Mandela to get into the politics of

South Africa. The Apartheid government has passed the 1946 Ghetto Act, which curtailed the

free activities of the Indians and Africans and restrained them from ‘the right to buy property'

in South Africa. Against the 1946 Ghetto Act, all the political and non-political organizations

from South Africa conducted a mass campaign with priests, housewives, doctors, lawyers,

traders, and students took place in the strike. Two thousand volunteers went to jail for the

protection of the fundamental rights of the people in the country. The ANC and the Youth

League gave its full support to the strike. For the mass rallies and protest, the Indian Freedom

campaign was the model for it. As Mandela wrote,

 15

The Indian campaign became a model for the type of protest

that we in the Youth League were calling for. It instilled a spirit
of defiance and radicalism among the people, broke the fear of
prison, and boosted the popularity and influence of the NIC and
TIC. (119)

The Government was brutally behaving with the Black Africans, Indians equally with the

coloreds of South Africa. Hence, Mandela met Meer, Singh and other Indians to discuss the

situation in South Africa. As Ismail Meer wrote in his diary, “The two friends' personal

friendship and trust overcame prejudice and distrust, and paved the way for united action”

(Meer 121). The non-violent Indian freedom struggle of Mahatma Gandhi influenced

Mandela.

In Africa, the Indians and Coloreds united against the segregation policies of the

Apartheid government. The ANC and Indian Natal Congress (INC) were agreed on ‘Votes

for All’ campaign. In 1947, the ANC and the Indian Natal Congress leaders such as Yousuf

Dadoo and Niker signed ‘Xuma-Dadoo-Naiker-Doctors Pact' agreement, but Mandela and the

Youth League did not agree because all Africans political organizations not participated in it.

The Apartheid government was using ‘Divide and Rule’ policy by raising the riots cases

against the Africans and Indians. The Divide and Rule policy was successful because the

people frightened of the armed police actions of the government and not participating in

various actions of the ANC and other organizations. Finally, the African National Congress

and Natal Indian Congress established a joint council to overcome the dispute in each other

and decided to fight united. On the other hand, Mandela and Lembede were discussing the

action of the Youth League. Unfortunately, the intellectual lineage of the ANCYL, Mr.

Lembed died in 1947 on an account of the severe stomachache. It was the great loss of the

Youth League. Lembed was the architect of the YL and the Programme of Action (PA)

against the apartheid government. The death of Lembede paralyzed Mandela and the Youth

League. Not only Mandela and ANCYL but also “Many were deeply affected by his death.
 16

Walter Sisulu seemed almost prostrate with grief. His passing was a setback to the

movement. For the ANC, Lembede was a fountain of ideas and attracted others to the

organization” (123). The departure of Lembede created a huge vacuum in the Youth League.

Now, Peter Mda was leading the Youth League and the Programme of Action prepared by

Lembede. Mda was man of tolerance, talent, and maturity. He thought that the Youth League

has the sufficient power to work as the internal pressure group against the Apartheid

government. In the ANCYL and Mda started the Programme of Action and changed the

strategy to fight with the government. The ANC and YL have become more aggressive under

the leadership of Mda.

In 1947, first time Mandela elected as the member of Executive Committee of the

Transvaal ANC under the Presidency of Ramonovoe. He discussed with Ramonovoe about

The Ghetto Act and Doctors Pact, which were burning issues of the Apartheid government. In

1948, the elections held between the ruling United Party and Nationalist Party in leadership

of General Smuts and Dr. Daniel Malan respectively. About the Nationalist Party's election

campaign, Mandela wrote,

The National Party’s campaign centered on the ‘swart gevaar'

(the ‘black danger'), and they fought the election on the twin
slogans of ‘Die kaffer op syplek' (‘the nigger in his place') and
‘Die koeliesuit die land' (‘the coolies out of the country')-
coolies being the Afrikaner's derogatory term for Indians. (127)

These segregated views of the Nationalist Party about the Blacks and Indians in the election

provided fertile ground to build the mass movements in protection of the civil rights of the

Africans. The political atmosphere stirred up with various ideological disputes and

discussions. Dr. Malan of the Nationalist Party was contesting the elections based on, “Die

wit man moetaltyd baas wees-The White man must always remain boss” (128). He insisted

that the Apartheid means that the Whites were superior to Africans, Coloreds, and Indians.

The elections centers by the Whites, for the Whites where the Nationalist Party won the
 17

narrow margin of the votes. Again, the Nationalist Party was ruling South Africa with the

policy of intensified racial segregation. The Malan government of the Nationalist Party

stopped the use of the African language in schools and offices and adopted English as the

first language of South Africa. The ruling government's principles harshly crushed the

Colored Movements of the country. There was the total imposition of the Apartheid Acts to

segregate the Coloreds. Nelson Mandela harshly condemned this racial discrimination as the

‘insane policy’ of the Malan government. The government forced the racial discrimination,

the Blacks to unite and fight against the segregation policies of the Malan government. The

Blacks prevents from the right to voting during the elections. As Pillay mentions the speech

of Albert Lutuli about the Malan's unjust government and laws,

Apartheid laws are being enacted in great haste and impatience

and are being implemented at the same tempo and ruthlessness,
with utter disregard for the feelings and the sufferings of the
people affected who happen to be vote less and, therefore,
voiceless and defenseless non-whites. (Pillay 61)

The situation made Mandela to contemplate the circumstances of the anti-apartheids

of South Africa. Mda and Youth League refused the government acts and created the

powerful national liberation movement led by the slogan ‘By Africans and for Africans’. In

result of this, the Malan government restricted the movements of the people and the

government brutally suppressed the Indians, Coloreds, and Africans.

In result of this, the ANC and the Youth League has drafted a Programme of Action

(PA) in the form of boycotts, strikes, stand-at-home, and passive resistance and protested the

demonstrations in various parts of South Africa. The country turned into the upheaval against

of the Malan government's unjust acts. During this period, there were many changes in the

officials of the ANC; where Dr. Moroka elected as the President, Walter Sisulu was the

Secretary and Oliver Tambo was the National Executive of the ANC. Now, the ANC was

battling for the political rights of the Blacks and protesting the Malan government. The first
 18

successful mass action Defend Free Speech Convention held in 1950, where ten thousand

people participated in it. However, the government tightly screwed the mass movements. The

government started the actions against strikers and once again, the Malan Government

brutally crushed the strike. For the armed action on the mass movements in the country, the

government introduced the Suppression of Communism Act by which the government can

make any organization outlaw and restrict any individual. The Suppression of Communism

Act (SCA),

Defined communism extraordinarily, widely and was also used

against people who were not communists at all. Some orders
amounted to house arrest and no visitors were permitted aside
from a lawyer or doctor. Banning orders were ranged from one
to five years but were applied successfully. (Badat 24)

The biased SCA act has forced the all organizations and leaders to unite against the

Malan government. All the African and Indian anti-apartheid organizations and leaders

planned the huge strike. Awakening for the strike, Walter Sisulu, Moses Kotane, Motlana and

Oliver Tambo traveled through the countryside and Mandela given the charge of the ANC.

Mandela coordinating the mass action by collecting the feedbacks and reports from the

different parts of the country. It was the ‘moral boosting period' for the ANC leaders and

other organizations to fight against the Apartheid government. Mandela's first exhilarating

experience, where he planned the battle as the national Anti-apartheid campaign ‘The Civil

Disobedience' against the government. The campaign was running under Mahatma Gandhi's

principles of ‘non-violence’ where thousands of the volunteers participated in it.

However, Mandela was fighting on the two fronts that were the nation and the family.

His wife Evelyn did not like Mandela's participation in the national movement of South

Africa. She wanted to prepare her son as the priest; on the other hand, Mandela taken them to

the ANC meetings. In this difficult situation, he was restless, and missing the home and

thinking about the divorce. He was very disturbed, as he says, “The struggle, I was learning,
 19

was all-consuming. A man involved in the struggle was a man without a home life” (139). He

was fighting with the government but missing his family. The reading of Marx, Engels,

Lenin, Stalin, and Mao-Tse-Tung made him a candidly strong-willed man and ready to

confront any challenge of the life. The Communist Manifesto and Das Capital, and the

concept of the classless society inspired him. He realized that, the simplicity and generosity

are the general principles of the happy life. He influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-

violence. His strong convictions have elevated him an agitator and the honest nationalist of

the World. As Mandela answered the question about his role in the battle for freedom, “For

me, there was no contradiction. I was first and foremost an African nationalist fighting for

our emancipation from minority rule and the right to control our own destiny” (138). He

thoroughly determined to fight with the Government authorities for the life and freedom of

the anti-apartheids of South Africa. The atrocious rules of the Government beastly scrunched

the Blacks from South Africa.

In the Programme of Action (PA), the ANC and Youth League successfully declared

‘The National Protest Day’, where the Malan government passed the Population Registration

Act (PRA) and the Group Area Act (GAA) to stop the mass actions on The National Protest

Day. According to the GAA,

Each racial group could own land, occupy premises, and trade
only in its own separate area. Indians could henceforth only
live in Indian areas, Africans in African, Coloureds in
Coloured. If whites wanted the land or houses of the other
groups, they could simply declare the land a white area and
take it. (140)

The Group Area Act was as cruel as the rules of Manusmriti. The Malan government

discriminates the South African people in various classes. In South Africa, the Whites get

higher power than the Blacks do. In addition to this, the Government also passed The

Separate Representation of Voters Act (SRVA) and the Bantu Authority Act (BAA), which

separated the colored voter's list and the second act abolished the Natives Representative
 20

Council of South Africa. As Grand Saff wrote about the above inhuman laws, “… as it meant

that facilities such as swimming pools, schools, recreation facilities and could be reserved for

the race in whose group area they were located” (Saff 47). All these unjust laws stirred the

atmosphere of South Africa, and there was a big rally of the coloreds marched against the

BBA and SRV Acts in Cape Town. Now in the leadership of Mandela, the Indians, Coloreds,

and Africans come together to resist the brutal acts of the Malan government. The ANC and

the other organizations harshly condemned the unjust acts of the government and decided to

launch the unique campaign against it. The ANC wrote a letter through Mandela to President

Malan and requested to re-examine and withdraw the acts against the authorities of the

African People. However, the government did not accept the request and the acts continued to

suppress the Africans. During the protest days, when Mandela was traveling through South

Africa, the police suspected and arrested Mandela as the ‘Kaffir’. The Colored and Africans

were Kaffirs in their own country. The government threatened the ANC and the organizations

about the harsh action against them. In result of the reply, the ANC, SAIC, Communist Party

decided for Satyagraha, a non-violence campaign against the brutal acts. It was the influence

of the non-violence ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. The South Africans decided to go on the

strike against all discriminatory legislation on 1st May, which will be called as the ‘Freedom

Day' for them. On the ‘Freedom Day’, the thousands of the protesters came on the road and

challenged the segregated laws of the Malan government. In result of this, the Government

restricted townships and only Whites permit on Railways and Bus Stations. The police

arrested hundreds of the protestors and sending them to jail. The jails were overflowing,

where the ANC and Mandela walking on the path of non-violence to awaken the Africans

and Indians against the apartheid rule. Despite the Government's restrictions, on 1 st May,

two-third of the African workers has stayed at home, and thousands of the protesters gathered

in Orlando West of South Africa. The government's troop of the police galloped and fired the
 21

innocent people gathered in Orlando West. In the firing, “Eighteen Africans died and many

others were wounded in this discriminate and unprovoked attack” (134). The police action

condemned by the World and the UNO to stop the actions warned the Malan government.

The Freedom Day was successful, and alarmed the Apartheid Malan Government to

stop the unjust laws of exploiting the African Blacks. To condemn the eighteen deaths of the

innocent Africans, the organizations like SAIC, APO decided a National Day of Protest on

26th June against the Malan government. Nelson Mandela was coordinating the National Day

of Protest. The massive support of the people made the National Day of Protest, "… a

landmark day in the freedom struggle, and within the liberation movement, it is observed as

Freedom Day" (136). On 26th June, the police arrested Mandela. The arrest of Mandela

protested of the people by singing the South African national anthem, “Nkosi, Sikleli Africa

(God Bless Africa)” (151). The leaders like as Oliver Tambo, Yusuf Cachalia, N.B. Tansi and

Nana Sita arrested and sent to jail. The South African people have voluntarily involved

themselves in the freedom campaign of South Africa. As Mandela wrote,

It was an auspicious beginning. Our troops were orderly,

disciplined, and confident. Over the next five months, 8,500
people took part in the campaign. Doctors, factory workers,
lawyers, teachers, students, ministers, defied and went to jail.
They sang, ‘Hey, Malan! Open the jail doors. We want to
enter'. (151)

The campaign was the people's campaign, which boosted Mandela and the leaders of

the various anti-apartheid organizations of South Africa. Though the Defiance Campaign

failed to conceal the unjust laws, yet it had mobilized the African people to join the ANC and

the campaign. First time in the history of the ANC, one lakh people registered themselves as

the members of the organization. The Defiance Campaign days were the magical days where

"These activists lost their fear of jail and learned the practical lesson in organizing. ANC

growth was particularly rapid in the large Eastern Cape coastal cities of Port Elizabeth and

East London" (Limb 51) and the roots of the ANC rapidly spread in the African countryside.
 22

In October 1950, Mandela elected as the President of the Youth League. The Defiance

Campaign, the Day of Protest were popular in South Africa, but Nelson Mandela and the

leaders from other ANC, SAIC, YL and various Indian organizations arrested under the

Statutory Communism Act and sentenced for nine months imprisonment with hard labor. By

the end of the year, the Defiance Campaign lost its impression over the South Africans and

the people starts working normally under the unjust laws of the government. The leaders'

immaturity made the campaign unsuccessful but Mandela and his friends had learned the

lessons of the confidence and courage to fight with the power.

Nelson Mandela was inhibiting the strong spirit in the ANC because the strong vigor

can be higher than the intellect, which creates the existence through the strength and patience.

Now he elected as the Deputy President of the ANC and Chief Luthuli as the President.

Mandela banned, but substantially participating in the strategies of the ANC and the Youth

League. Being underground, Mandela was strategically operating the ANC with ‘Mandela

Plan' or ‘M-Plan'. He takes various secret cell meetings among his supporters and followers

to discuss the parameters of the current movements in the country. He traveled in the

countryside and spread the thoughts of freedom and apartheid oppressions by his meetings

and speeches. As,

Mandela rushed to support the residents, but the force was

overwhelming; police leveled machine guns. Huddleston
remonstrated with the police but to no avail as Mandela helped
calm the crowd. The apartheid government consummated its
victory by renaming the neighborhood Triomf. (Benson and
Nickson 58)

Though the government banned Mandela, yet he continued the work of reawakening the anti-

apartheids from the cities and the countryside of South Africa. On the other hand,

domestically Mandela and his wife were living frugal life. His partial income was not

sufficient for living a decent life of the family. In such meticulous economic conditions, he

passed LLB and started to work as a full-fledged attorney in the firm of Basner. However,
 23

Mandela's intelligence and debating skills with cool and logical argument style made him

popular amid the people. In this fertile situation, Mandela and Oliver Tambo started a

‘Mandela Tambo Firm' in Johannesburg. The ‘Mandela Tambo Firm' was the only African

lawyer's firm for the anti-apartheid in South Africa. Very soon, the ‘Mandela-Tambo Firm'

became famous in Johannesburg, where hundreds of Africans desperately needed them,

because the Africans brutally treated by the Whites in the court. No judge and the lawyer

were supporting the Blacks in the court. As Mandela expressed,

It was a crime to walk through a Whites Only door, a crime to

ride a Whites Only bus, a crime to use a Whites Only drinking
fountain, a crime to walk on a Whites the Only beach, a crime
to be on the streets past eleven, a crime not to have a passbook
and a crime to have the wrong signature in that book, a crime to
be unemployed and a crime to be employed in the wrong place,
a crime to live in certain places and a crime to have no place to
live. (172)

Such dreadful conditions made Mandela to work proactively for rejuvenating the life

of the Blacks. The Blacks stifled by the government laws, where Mandela was continuously

working to withdraw the blacks out from the dreadful conditions. At the same time, Oliver

Tambo had limitless compassion and energy to work in the firm. ‘The Mandela-Tambo Firm'

was the only helpful firm for the Africans. This holy practice made Mandela a public lawyer

with courtesy and respect. As an African lawyer, the Whites prejudicially behaved with

Mandela and Tambo and the White courtiers considered them as the ‘Kaffir' lawyers in the

court. The sabotaged experiences made Mandela to think and work for the changes in the

judicial system. In the court, he observed that the police fill many brutality cases against

Mandela, Oliver and many anti-apartheid activists. The police were badly assaulting the

Africans and destroying the shreds of evidences, and in the court, the justice denies by the

White magistrates. The Blacks were away from the efficiency, there were narrow colony

streets, dirt in the gutters, no roads in the lanes and fundamental facilities not provided to
 24

them. The countryside black Africans were living the filthy life and away from the progress

and advancement.

The Defiance Campaign disturbed the government and President Malan lifted the ban

and arrested Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Yusuf Cachalia, Robert Resha and Ahmad Katharda.

The sudden arrest outburst the Africans where number of people gathered to protest the arrest

of the leaders in front of Odin Cinema and start singing the songs ‘sophia town

likhyalamasihambi!' (Sophia town is my home. We are not moving). The Odin Cinema place

became a freedom square. The police circled the Odin Cinema with the guns and pencils. The

crowd was out of control. The leaders were frightened about the armed police action,

suddenly Mandela came forward and harshly condemned the government for its apartheid

laws. He crossed over his Gandhian ideals and spoke about the ‘tit for tat' treatment to the

Malan Government. He pointed out the armed police that ‘here are the enemies!' The crowd

aggressively cheered Mandela's speech. The police were helpless before the huge crowd and

suddenly message reached to the government and it resulted in the lifetime ban on Mandela

and other leaders. The Odin Cinema speech made Mandela the popular speaker among the

Africans. In September 1953, he banned and arrested. Before the arrest, he suggested to

Walter Sisulu to visit China for the supply of the weapons for an armed struggle with the

government. The ANC wanted to build their-own fighting battalion like Azad Hind Sena of

India, and troops like Fidel Castro. Sisulu visited China, but the China government

encouraged them without any armed support. During the banned period, he was writing

political articles for the ANC in Drum. In the article ‘Liberation and Fighting Talk', Mandela

expressed the agony of the Coloreds and reasons of the Defiance Campaign,

We are not in opposition to any government or class of people.

We are opposing a system, which has for years kept a vast
section of the non-European people in bondage. Though it takes
us years, we are prepared to continue the Campaign until the
six unjust laws we have chosen for the present phase are done
 25

away with. (“Speeches-Statement of Defiance of Unjust Laws

Campaign’s Aims by Nelson Mandela as Published in Drum”)

His writing was decent at the time, concerning the predicament of Africans in their

own country. In the article ‘People are destroyed', he focused on the worst lives of the

Africans. He condemned the Government for accepting ‘Bantustan Project', which divided

the Africans along ethnic lines and forced them into the dirt of poverty. As Mandela

expressed his views in his book No Easy Walk to Freedom,

All constitutional safeguards are being thrown overboard and

individual liberties are being ruthlessly suppressed. The specter
of Belsen and Buchenwald is haunting South Africa. It can only
be repelled by the united strength of the people of South Africa.
(42)

During the banned period, in his speeches, he gave the reference of the Indian first Prime

Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's speech ‘No Easy Walk to Freedom.' The total freedom

was the motif of Mandela. As Nehru wrote, "There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere and

many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow (of death) again and again

before we reach the mountain tops of our desires" (131). This speech staunchly reassured

Mandela to battle with the Apartheid Government and its laws. The public meetings, press

statements, and newspapers were also restricted for the Blacks by the Government. The

Africans kept away from the fundamental rights based on race, color, sex, and language.

The ban on Mandela and leaders resulted in various rallies, against the Apartheid

Government. The anti-removal campaign was electrifying the African youths and they

protested the government by the slogans ‘Over our Dead Bodies’ or

“Zemkinkomomagwaldini! (The enemy has captured the cattle, you cowards)” (192). The

pressure of the rallies resulted in the removal of the ban, but Chief Luthuli banned and sent to

Natal jail. This act made young Afrikaners outrageous and the young ANC leader Joe Modise

and other fiercely attacked the Government. This resulted in the arrest of the leaders of the

ANC and sent for the trial to Meadowland. The accused were shouting the dynamic slogan
 26

‘Over Our Dead Bodies' and capturing the people's attention, and in the result of this, many

people voluntarily moved towards Meadowland jail. However, the campaign has not made

any effect on the decisions of the Government. Therefore, the anti-apartheid leaders were

thinking to fight ‘fire with fire' with the Government. Apart from the unjust civil laws, the

government has closed the education system for the Africans. The Africans' mind and

knowledge were on the bet. “Education for ignorance and for inferiority in Verwoerd's

schools is worse than no education at all” (Matthews 196). Because of this, the thousands of

the African students walked on the roads against the Bantu Act. The ANC declared that the

Government should permanently close the school and asserted that the education must

equally give to every South African. However, the protest failed, where the Apartheid

Government has aggressively crushed the protest. Suddenly, the ANC organized the

conference to overcome the situation and decided to form ‘The Freedom Charter', as the

weapon for the Anti-apartheid Movement. All the Anti-apartheid organizations uniquely

decided to form ‘The Congress of the People' with the help of the Whites, Blacks, Indians,

and Coloreds to represent their problems. All the leaders were asked to participate in ‘The

National Action Council' and gave suggestions for ‘The Freedom Charter’. The circulars and

posters sent across the villages: “WE CALL THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH AFRICA BLACK

AND WHITE-LET US SPEAK TOGETHER OF FREEDOM! LET THE VOICES OF ALL

THE PEOPLE BE HEARD” (200-01). In the Charter, the Africans have made their intentions

clear about freedom. Mandela and leaders were working resolutely on their way and protest

was continuing for their rights and dignity. The Congress of the People was demanding ‘One

Man One Vote’. More than three thousand delegates assembled to approve the final

document and pasted the stickers “FREEDOM IN OUR LIFETIME, LONG LIVE THE

STRUGGLE” (202). South African stirred in the leadership of banned and underground

Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other anti-apartheids. In every rally, the crowd was
 27

walking with discipline by wearing the black, green and yellow armbands in protest of the

government. During the Charter days, the Africans decided to protest the government

continuously. On day one of the protests, the Charter was successfully loudly read and crowd

shouted its approval with ‘Afrika' and ‘Mayibuye'. On day two, the final adoption of the

Charter was going on; suddenly the police brigade arrived with guns and ordered in a gruff

African voice on the microphone that the treason suspected and started pushing people off

from the platform. Police were forfeiting the documents, posters, and banners. The crowd

was silently supporting the police with ‘Nkosi SikeleliAfrika’. Mandela and banned leaders

were aware of the Government's conspiracy, and fled away from the place. The Congress of

the People broken, but the Freedom Charter became a great lamp in the liberation struggle of

South Africa. The Freedom Charter was, “Like other enduring political documents, such as

the American Declaration of Independence, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and

the Communist Manifesto, the Freedom Charter is a mixture of practical goals and poetic

language” (203). The document would definitely destroy the racial discrimination in South

Africa. It would ignite the hope and future of the Africans. It was the true blueprint of the

African freedom. The Preamble of the Freedom Charter was:

We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and
the world to know: The People Shall Govern! All National
Groups Shall Have Equal Rights! The People Shall Share in the
Country's Wealth! The Land Shall Be Shared Among Those
Who Work on It! All Shall Be Equal Before the Law! All Shall
Enjoy Equal Human Rights! There Shall Be Work and
Security! The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall Be Opened!
There Shall Be Houses, Security, and Comfort! There Shall Be
Peace and Friendship! (Suttner 1)

It was the most important and valuable document in the history of South Africa. For

Mandela, “THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE, THROUGHOUT

OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR LIBERTY” (205). The Charter was

demanding the social justice to improvise the Black majority. A revolutionary document
 28

envisioned the radical changes in the economic and political situation of South Africa. Peter

Limb referred to the argument of Mandela about the Freedom Charter, “The Freedom Charter

would be transformed into a living instrument and we shall vanquish all opposition and win

the South Africa of our dreams during our lifetime” (59). The significance of the Charter was

enormously growing, and it became ‘The Bill of Rights' of the Anti-apartheids in South

Africa. Mandela has referred it as, “born of our struggle and rooted in South African realities;

received international acclaim as an outstanding human rights document” (Crwys-Williams

28). Mandela was vigilant about the rights of the Africans.

Though Mandela was living a banned life, but careful about the personality and

physique. He was enjoying his hobbies, like listening music, attending the cultural

programmes, and regularly went to the gym. After lifting the ban in 1955, Mandela was

ceaselessly traveling through the countryside to arouse the Africans for their rights. It was an

opportunity to work and to form the union of the friends from the countryside. He visited his

mother, sister and other relatives and enjoyed the pastoral taste of the countryside food.

Though he was away from his native, yet he was in touch with the relatives. As a black

lawyer with ethnic background, Mandela met many oppressed Africans who waiting for the

justice. He candidly dedicated to his lawyer's profession. He was sympathetic to the

difficulties of the Africans. Frequently, he was meeting to Chief Luthuli, Dr. Naiker and the

Executive Committee of the Natal Indian Congress and discussing the restrictions of the

government. His activities in the ANC and the countryside made the Government rethink the

arrest, but there was no reason to arrest him. After a long time, Mandela met his mother, his

imperative nature wanted to stay with her, but the public responsibilities made him to leave

her. As Mandela expressed, “Can there be anything more important than looking after one's

aging mother? Is politics merely a pretext for shirking one's responsibilities, an excuse for not

being able to provide in the way one wanted” (212)? It was the sacrifice of a son, for whom
 29

the motherland was more significant than the funeral of mother. The people of Qunu

yearningly welcomed him, where he spent a fortnight with his relatives. In such a cramped

situation, he stayed in touch with the roots. Instead of the family, he and Doliwonga visited

the countryside hospitals and political leaders. He prepared Doliwonga-as the leading

political person of Transkei. In his visit to the different places, he experienced that the South

African people wanted democracy. The agonizing experiences from the countryside were

awakened Mandela to fight ceaselessly for the rights of the Blacks. Most of the talented

Africans met him and requested him to finish the abusive rule from the country. He was

fighting against the discrimination in South Africa. He met Joe Matthews, Raymond Mhalba,

Frances Board and the scholars in the politics like Mr. Govan Mbeki, the editor of the weekly

New Age. The segregated South Africa was the great land of alluring beauty. “Such a

beautiful land, I thought, and all of it out of reach, owned by whites and untouchable for the

black man” (218). It was Mandela’s attachment to his motherland. He visited Cape Town,

where the poverty was everywhere; not only the Blacks but also the Whites were also

suffering from the laws of the Apartheid government. There was the discrimination in the

Blacks and the Whites about the poverty. The picture of the segregated countryside of South

Africa has encouraged him to do more work for the South Africans.

There was no peaceful atmosphere in South Africa, where the Bantu people attacked

the magistrate. The speeches of Mandela were responsible for the upheaval situation, and the

government arrested him. The police combed the house and office of Mandela, and he taken

to Marshall-Square, the rambling red brick Johannesburg prison, where many anti-apartheid

leaders charged with the high treason. The whole country turned into the barrack; the

apartheid leaders arrested and charged under the conspiracy against the rule. The leaders like

Chief Luthuli, Monty Naicker, Regie September, Lilian Ngoyi, Piet Beyleveld and Walter

Sisulu arrested and sent to the Treason Trial with Mandela. The police humiliated the leaders
 30

and kept them naked for hours in the prison. The accused were realized the real Apartheid

Government in the prison. Mandela wrote in his autobiography, “It is said that no one truly

knows a nation until one has inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its

highest citizens, but its lowest ones-and South Africa treated its imprisoned African citizens

like animals” (233). The Bantu Act had discriminated the Blacks in ethnic groups with the

separate homeland and had denied them the citizenship of the country. The Apartheid

government has forcibly removed the poverty-stricken women, children, and the sick and

senior people to the isolated and infertile Bantustan land. In this result, everybody became the

part of the protest; near about 20,000 women came together under the Federation of South

African Women with the ANC Women's League and marched on the Union Buildings of

Pretoria in the leadership of Lilian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph. Initially, the women leader

Lillian Ngoyi stated, We, “went around addressing meetings and rallies all over the country;

she called on women to be in the forefront of the struggle, in order to secure a better future

for [their] children” (Brooks 206). The woman’s anti-government march was the

brainstorming event for the South Africans. Everybody was participating in the movement

and contributing to it. The anti-apartheid’s Treason Trial was historical because the leaders

were from diverse fields and supported by the various organizations of South Africa. Without

any evidence, the government was arresting the men of the Congress of the People and the

Freedom Charter. The South Africans awakened regarding the democracy and wanted to

repudiate the Apartheid government forever. On the other hand, the brutal treatment to the

leaders in the Treason Trial has captivated the attention of the World to the biased apartheid

regime in South Africa. The Government had filed the hostile cases against the leaders for the

reason of the disturbance and endangered the independence of the country; and resulted in the

capital death punishment to them.

 31

Nelson Mandela was fighting with the Apartheid government, but domestically not

supported by his wife Evelyn. The dispute has crossed the limit and his wife Evelyn gave an

ultimatum to Mandela; that he has to choose between Evelyn and the ANC. For Mandela, the

ANC and Evelyn was everything. Mandela believed in Evelyn but she continued to stick to

her decision to leave Mandela, whereas Mandela did not want to give up his wife, because,

“She was a very good woman, charming, strong, and faithful, and a fine mother. I never lost

my respect and admiration for her, but in the end, we could not make our marriage work”

(242). The dispute between husband and wife was beyond the compromise and “A man and

women who hold such different views of their respective in life cannot remain close” (240). It

was a traumatic situation in Mandela's life. There was no compromise and “Finally the

divorce followed in March 1958” (Meredith 147). The divorce has totally changed the life of

Mandela. At the same time, the accused leaders stamped with many allegations and sent for

seven months trial. It was the preparatory treason of thirteen months, but the Transvaal

Supreme Court had adjourned the decision. In such an annoying situation, Mandela was in

love with an active social worker Winnie Nomazamo. She was the active member of the

ANC Women's League. Mandela was a well-known agitator, but with the Treason Trial,

Winnie heard more about the acts and facts of his life. Before the marriage, Winnie met

Evelyn and the children Thembi, Makgatho, and Makaziwe. Soon after the divorce, Winnie

married Mandela. Before the marriage of Winnie and Mandela, Winnie's father told her, “But

you are marrying a jailbird!” (252). It was the future of the newly married couple, where

Mandela would be going to Treason Trial for the next few months. Mandela and Winnie

enjoyed the tree days of the newly married life and he seized for the Treson Trial. Mandela

says, “The wife of a freedom fighter is often like a widow, even her husband is not in prison”

(253). It was the truth of the life of a revolutionary. Immediately, the Treason Trial arrested

Mandela, with the permission to establish a new home for Winnie. After the arrest, Winnie
 32

was regularly attending the sessions of the Treason Trial as an active member of the ANC

Women's League. She developed herself as the independent political woman, inspired by the

legendary woman Lillian Ngoyi. During the first pregnancy, Winnie arrested and the brutal

behavior of the jail authorities resulted in abortion inside the jail. The experiences of the

Defiance Campaign, the Treason Trial, and the arrest have created the awareness in the life of

Winnie, where the poverty and despair threatened her. The situation made her belligerent

against the Apartheid government. As Winnie wrote,

I was bewildered like every woman who has had to leave her
little children clinging to her skirt. . . . I cannot, to this day,
describe that constricting pain in my throat as I turned my back
on my little ghetto home, leaving the sounds of those screaming
children as I was taken off to prison. As the years went on, that
pain was transformed into a kind of bitterness that I cannot put
into words. (Russell 103)

The incomprehensible views of a woman about the segregated life have shown the lesser

difference in life and death. Despite the politics, newly married life and deep mutual

attraction between the couple was restricted. During the Treason Trial days, Winnie

expressed about husband Mandela, “I have never had the opportunity to live with Mandela …

I have never really known what married life is. I have always known him as a prisoner”

(Russell 105). Mandela's first marriage spoiled by the cause of the freedom struggle and the

Treason Trial affected the second. It was painful for Mandela to live banned life, but he was

inertly strong and prepared himself to fight with the life. In the interview of Frontline,

Mandela had told to Richard Stengel, “That's what makes him a big man. Mandela regretted

the political events and his role in his family as a father, as a husband and as a son” ("The

Long Walk of Nelson Mandela-Husband & Lover: Interview with Richard Stengel

(excerpt)”). Though living with the bitter feelings, Mandela believed in the cumbersome life

of a freedom fighter. “I have always believed that to be freedom fighter one must surpass
 33

many of the personal feelings that make one feel like a separate individual rather than part of

the mass movement” (267). It was an exceptional identification of the freedom fighter.

In 1959, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) formed to challenge the pluralism of the

ANC, and to repudiate the white domination with the manifesto “Government of the Africans

by the Africans and for the Africans” (266). The officials and members of the PAC were the

ex-members of the ANC and the friends of Mandela. They wanted to discard the Apartheid

rule from the country. The Bantu Self Government Act made South Africa unrest, where

many people came on the road to protest the act. In result of the protest, “Scores of innocent

people were arrested, prosecuted, jailed, banished, beaten, tortured and murdered” (271) by

the Government. However, the protest has erupted everywhere in the country and thousands

of people were uniting against the actions of the Government. Though the ANC officials

were tortured, the ANC was cumulatively decided to protest ‘The Bantu Act'. But before the

action of the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress' immature authorities decided to defend ‘the

Act' without scheduled planning, where thousands of the people were on the road in support

of the PAC. The hundreds of men presented themselves for the arrest. The crowd of several

thousand people was collected on the football ground of the town Sharpeville, a small

township in the South of Johannesburg. The unarmed crowd was uncontrolled, where the

police opened the fire on the crowd. The police had fired more than seven hundred shots, an

account of which, “sixty-nine Africans were dead" and “wounding more than seven hundred

people, including dozens of woman and children” (281). After the firings, “Several witnesses

were convinced that the police were continuing to kill people, butchering wounded survivors

as they lay on the ground” (Lodge 13). The Sharpeville massacre was the barbarous crisis like

the Jallianwala Bag carnage of Amritsar in the Indian Freedom Struggle. The event evoked

the national turmoil in South Africa. It was outrageously condemned by the World, where

“UN Security Council also intervene in the South African affairs, blaming the government for
 34

the shooting and urging it to initiate measures to bring about racial equality” (281). The

country stirred up; thousands of the people collected on the roads in protest of the Sharpeville

atrocity. Immediately, the Malan government had declared the emergency in South Africa.

The country was under Marshall Law. The police were combing and arresting the anti-

apartheid leaders. Immediately, Mandela arrested and taken to Sophiatown, where the sky

was the roof. No blankets, no food, no mats and no toilet papers provided to the prisoners.

Deep in the countryside, the government has deployed the armored cars to suppress the

revolt. However, people were voluntarily involved in the acts of the ANC and PAC. The

government spread the armored forces, South Africa militarized. Nevertheless, accused

Mandela had perceived the discrimination in jail, “So color-conscious were the authorities

that even the type of sugar and bread supplied to whites and nonwhites differed: white

prisoners received white sugar and white bread, while Coloured and Indian prisoners were

given brown sugar and brown bread” (288). The segregation was infernal, and the police

were giving the brutal treatment to the Black Africans. On that premises, the national and the

international pressure made the Government to lift the emergency. Now, the Treason Trial

case started and lawyer Mandela defending himself in the court. Mandela cautioned Prime

Minister Verwoerd by writing a letter, “We have no illusions about the counter-measures

your government might take. During the last twelve months, we have gone through a period

of grim dictatorship” (306). He warned about the peaceful and non-violent ‘stay-at-home'

strike in the future. However, the government has not responded and in the result of this, on

29th March, the thousands of the supporters, press people, women and children made an

extraordinary appearance on the roads as well as in the court where the case of Mandela was

presented. But the judge did not find any direct evidences of violence against the leaders. The

panel of judges and justice Rumpff verified the evidences and declared that the accused not

found guilty and released. The people celebrated the judicial decision. The Treason Trial
 35

accused and the crowd began to sing a song ‘NkosiSikeleliAfrica (God Bless Africa).'

Morally the Government lost the Treason Trial case. Mandela had individually handled and

won it. It was the first moral victory of the South African Anti-apartheid Movement against

the unjust government.

After the free from the jail, Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Duma visited the office of

The Port Elizabeth Morning Post in Cape Town, where Mandela addressed the African

township ministers. During those days, Mandela was underground and controlling the public

actions of the ANC. He disguised and moving safely from one house to another where the

police persistently wanted to arrest him. He wrote, “I did not shave or cut my hair. My most

frequent disguise was as a Chauffeur, chef or a garden boy” (315). Mandela was the subject

of headlines of the contemporary media. The press dubbed Mandela as the “Black Pimpernel,

a somewhat derogatory adaptation of Baroness Orczy's fictional character, the Scarlet

Pimpernel, who daringly evaded capture during the French Revolution” (316). Like Harald

Edelstam-a Swedish ambassador in Chili, Mandela has sacrificed his paramount days for the

sake of the innocent Coloreds and anti-apartheids. His total commitment to saving the lives of

the Blacks was the impossible task for anyone else. He was living underground where, “At

night helicopters flew low over the townships, flashing searchlights down on the houses to

frighten the occupant, police announced they would force people to go to work and

employers threatened to sack those who responded to Mandela's call” (Benson 129). He was

fighting on the border of the life and death. The ceaseless Anti-apartheid movement in the

country has awakened the Government for using the law of detention. The armed forces of

the White civilians and the police deployed in townships, banned meetings, and arrested

10,000 activists. This was the repugnant act made Mandela call off the protest on the second

day of stay-at-home. The proclamation was found in his book The Struggle is My Life that,

“Terror and intimidation became widespread. Only by adopting these strong-arm measures
 36

could the govt. hope to break the stay-at-home” (Mandela 108). In result of the Government’s

brutal acts, Mandela announced to launch the countrywide campaign of non-cooperation. The

moral support of the literate Africans of the World has boosted the confidence of the

Africans. As Clark and Worger writes, “We ask our millions of our friends outside South

Africa to intensify the boycott and isolation of the government of this country,

diplomatically, economically, and in every other way” (216). Now, the non-cooperation

movement of Aouth Africa became the international movement. The ANC and Mandela have

formed the new armed wing named ‘Umkhonto-we-Sizwe’ (Spear of Nation or MK) to

protest the Government. The ANC has changed the ‘non-violence’ into the ‘tit for tat’

strategy to respond the brutal laws and attitudes of the Apartheid Government. Underground

Mandela was always in touch with the ANC for the experiments, strategy, planning. The

‘Umkhonto-we-Sizwe’ had the four violent tactics such as sabotage, guerrilla warfare,

terrorism and open revolution. These armed activities of the ANC have resulted in the

banning and the Government had sent the top leaders for exile. However, the activities not

stopped; Umkhonto-we-Sizwe (MK) had carried out the explosions in major cities against,

“Government installations, particularly those connected with the policy of apartheid and race

discrimination” (338). The Government surprised by the explosions and started the combing

operation to arrest the MK leaders. Nelson Mandela was non-violently working and his

ceaseless efforts made ground in the underground, where the houses and the hearts were

continually open for him.

The Umkhonto-we-Sizwe got the international support for the military resistance,

ammunitions, and the training. Mandela had traveled to Bechuanaland, Tanganyika

(Tanzania) Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and England for the political and financial support.

About his diplomacy, Resha wrote, “He worked hard to build support among African leaders,

some of whom would become his strongest allies. In Africa, he received strong political and
 37

sometimes financial support, but the focus of his work soon turned squarely to military

affairs” (241). Mandela became the iconic figure among the Anti-apartheid movements in the

world. His endless efforts continuously uplifted the Africans in South Africa. Working many

days in underground, finally he arrested in August 1962 and forced to Johannesburg's Old

Fort jail under the charge of incitement of strikes and illegally leaving the country. In front of

the discriminated White judiciary, he was pluckily arguing about the impartiality, immorality,

and illegality of the Apartheid rule, “The white man makes all the laws, he drags us before

his courts and accuses us, and he sits in judgment over us” (278). He strongly protected the

Africans and scolded the unjust, segregated laws of the Government. Mandela was also

fighting with the discriminated jail authorities, he wrote in his autobiography-

I was the symbol of justice in the court of the oppressor, the

representative of the great ideals of freedom, fairness, and
democracy in a society that dishonored these that I could carry
on the fight even within the fortress of the enemy. (Leigh 248)

The aggressiveness moved Mandela to Robben Island, an isolated prison-isle, like

Alcatraz. He sent for the Rivonia Trial for one year, charged with the conspiring to overthrow

the apartheid regime. In defense, he expressed his substantial views in the Old Synagogue

court, “Your worship, I hate racial discrimination most intensely and in all its manifestation. I

have fought it all my life. I fight it now and I will do so until the end of my days” (386). The

harsh speech practically focused on the social and racial discrimination, which alarmed the

social and political system of the country. Defense Attorney Joel Joffe later told about

Mandela's speech, “…Lasting one and half hours, delivered in calm but resolute voice and

unflinching-may well have made the difference between life and death” (Bernstein 285). He

asserted about the equal political rights and classless society for the Africans. The closing

words of the speech “I Am Prepared to Die” from the dock immortalized his resistance to the

apartheid,
 38

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in

which all persons live together in harmony and with equal
opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to
achieve. But if needs are, it is an ideal for which I am prepared
to die. (“I Am Prepared to Die?? Nelson Mandela
Foundation.”)

The whole speech of Mandela emasculated judge and moved to conceal Mandela not to the

death penalty, but to life imprisonment in the Rivonia treason. The Africans expressed the

sigh of relief in the packed courtroom. All the accused were happy because they had ‘the life

to live'. Outside the court, the people were cheering with ‘Amandla' and song ‘Nkosisikelel

iAfrika'. The accused take from the Rivonia to Robben Island. The Robben Island was the

Alcatraz-known as Devil's Island. In it, “Some had tried to escape but very few survived the

chilly, shark-infested waters” (Limb 79). However, Mandela was the hope, future and

everything for the Africans. The Africans perceived Mandela as their futuristic visionary. The

handcuffed prisoners take to the Robben Island. The Robben Island's atrocious discipline

maltreated the prisoners like the ‘Kaffirs'. One of the accused Ahmad Katharda wrote,

“Humiliations heaped upon humiliations: warders buried some prisoners up to their faces in

the sand and urinated on them, or forced them to strip and jump around” (Kathrada 65).

Every accused kept in a small cell without mats and long pants. Mandela closed in a cramped

cell of six feet square room without window and ventilators. The prisoners had forced to do

hard work with picks and shovels in the lime quarry. Mandela wrote,

Our job was to crush the stones into gravel. We were divided
into four rows, about a yard-and-a-half apart, and sat cross-
legged on the ground. We were each given a thick rubber ring,
made from tires, in which to place the stones. We wore
makeshift wire masks to protect our eyes. (458)

The prisoners we forced to hard labor, where the sun reflection on the limestone had

permanently damaged their eyes. The treatment in the prison was so brutal where all the

prisoners thought that they would die behind the bars. The hard labor lasted for thirteen years,

which made the prisoners toughened to fight with the government. Mandela had proved his
 39

resistance in uniting, inspiring and acting as the leader of the accused in the jail. The

prisoners were restricted and absolutely detached from their families. The received letters

give to the prisoners with the microscopic censorship. It was brutal, where they had many

complaints against the jail authorities. To be aware of the conditions, Mandela wrote a letter

to Helen Suzman, a member of the African Parliament for visit to the jail. During the visit to

the Robben Island, Suzman shocked the poor food and clothing, light, newspapers and

complained the government to change the conditions of the accused. Even form the prison,

Mandela boosted the youths for the Soweto Revolt to improve the educational standards.

However, the Government crushed the revolt. Apart from the above activities, the accused

were continuously studying, “…in which Mandela was prominent as a teacher, writing

messages in the white sand of the island and leading discussions” (Buntman 398). Mandela

was fighting the fire to fire with the terrible authorities of the Robben Island Prison (RIP).

Now, his endeavor had spread throughout the world, where the Red Cross Society and United

Nations sent the letters to the South African Government to stop the brutal treatment in

Robben Island. It generated the fear and respect for Mandela in the minds of the jail

authorities and he called to the head office to meet the International Red Cross

Representative. The meeting with the authorities was fruitful and resulted in improving the

prison facilities. Mandela and comrades have received the respect from the jail authorities.

On the contrary, the whole atmosphere in South Africa had stirred up due to the

bloodthirsty treatment to the accused in the trial. It was the fruitful ground for Mandela to

strengthen the various organizations in South Africa. The authorities kept him in an isolated

room, which deprived him, but he was mentally prepared to fight with the obstacles of the

mission. As he writes in his autobiography,

I have found that one can bear the unbearable if one can keep
one's spirits strong even when one's body is being tested.
Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation; your
spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty. (494)
 40

It was his solution to face the impoverished situation during the trial days. On the Robben

Island, Mandela was not satisfied with the treatment to his colleagues in the jail and he

decided to go on hunger strike. The strike had changed the heart of the prison authorities and

the administration made significant changes in the facilities given to the accused. Mandela

was fighting with the jail authorities but his wife Winnie was harassed by the jail system and

in the school, the Principal harassed his daughters on the ground of the violation of the law of

the school. Finally, Winnie decided to send the girls to the boarding school in Switzerland.

The provocation was continuous where Winnie arrested and sentenced to a year's

imprisonment, but it was suspended within four days and she was released. On Robben

Island, Mandela's integrity, foresight, compassion, tolerance, and leadership made him the

prisoner's genuine friend. As a leader, Mandela ignored the past incidents of the political

organizations. Now, he had to build the non-racial and family-like culture and amalgamated

all the accused with their political differences. As Eddie Daniels says, “Mandela was a great

unifier, he was never boastful, never threw his weight around” (Limb 83). However, the

accidental death of Chief Luthuli in 1967 has created the big vacuum in the ANC, where

Oliver Tambo forced to accept the responsibility of the ANC. In 1968, Mandela's mother

died, where Mandela requested the prison authorities for the permission to attend the funeral,

but permission denied. It was a dismal moment in Mandela's life, as he asserted, “It added to

my grief that I was not able to bury my mother, which was my responsibility as her eldest

child and only son” (529). He was unable to attend his mother's funeral. Disastrously, the

Mandela family was going through the crisis where Winnie detained and kept in solitary

confinement in Pretoria for seventeen months. The previously mentioned circumstances have

disturbed Nelson Mandela. He was very much worried about his family and wife. As he

wrote in his autobiography,

 41

I had many sleepless nights. What were the authorities doing to

my wife? How would she bear up? Who was looking after our
daughters? Who would pay the bills? It is a form of mental
torture to be constantly plagued by such questions and not have
the means to answer them. (530)

In this dreadful situation, Brigadier Aucamp allowed Mandela to send letters to Winnie for

getting some information about the family. However, the adversities not stopped, where he

received a telegram about the accidental death of his elder son Thembi (Madiba Thembekile)

in Transkei. It was the most tragic moment in Mandela's life. He was already overwrought

about Winnie and was grieving over the death of his mother and now facing the death of his

elder son. Mandela wrote, “I do not have words to express the sorrow or the loss I felt. It left

a hole in my heart that can never be filled” (531). He cried throughout the night without

dinner. Walter Sisulu consoled him. He requested the permission to attend his son's funeral

but denied. So, he wrote a letter to Evelyn, mother of Thembi in the consolation of the death

of their son. It found that, the Robben Island days were the toughest days in his life. He was

fighting on various forefronts of his life and had collapsed by the calamities one after another.

It was a testing period in his life. He was going to be mad to think about his disturbed family

as well as the Anti-apartheid conditions in South Africa.

After a long protest with the administration, the prisoners were getting long trousers

and individual uniforms in the jail. The food did not improved but they permitted to meet

each other on Saturdays or Sundays. The books were provided to them, where they could

read the great books and learn to fight against the government. The Robben Island turned into

the university. The prisoners were learning and studying English, African, Art, Geography,

and Mathematics. They were their own faculties and professors where Ahmad Katharda,

Billy Nair, Mike Dingake and Eddie Daniels earned degrees during the trial. All were

studying and learning, but Mandela was deeply worried about Winnie and the daughters. But,

“Winnie never gave up, and went on fighting to keep her husband's name alive . . . with a
 42

personal passion, standing up to the Security Police to show her contempt for them and the

system they enforced” (Pogrund and Evans 318). Her adventurous character has strengthened

Mandela and the family. She was always ready to fight for her husband and the rights of the

Africans. Her acts and support prompted and motivated Mandela to fight with the authorities.

After release from the prison in 1975, Winnie came to Robben Island to meet Mandela. She

was happy to meet Mandela after many troublesome years. During those days, not only the

relatives but also the political supporters, the international journalists were frequently visited

him and publishing the live interviews about the Anti-apartheid Movement and the brutal

treatment in the jail. Sisulu and Katharda wanted to celebrate Mandela's fiftieth birthday, but

the prison authorities banned the celebrations. Instead of celebrating the birthday, they

decided to write the staggering memories of Nelson Mandela in form of an autobiography

and published on his sixtieth birthday. Walter Sisulu said that such a story is told truly and

fairly, would serve to remind the world of what they had fought and been still fighting for the

liberation. He added that it could become a source of inspiration for young freedom fighters

of the world. “The idea appealed to me, and during a subsequent discussion, I agreed to go

ahead” (567). It was the provenance of Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson

Mandela where Mandela conceded and decided to write an autobiography about his dolorous

experiences from the birth to the Robben Island days. Accused Mandela had written his

autobiography Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela in the

different situation, where he slept during the daytime and wrote in the night. In jail, Ahmad

Katharda was the proofreader of the book. The first draft of the book completed in four

months; which was of five hundred pages. Eddie Daniels and Mac Maharaj were encouraging

them to keep safe the manuscript. So, it buried in Robbin Island’s courtyard garden to save

from the cruel eyes of the jail authorities. After painstaking efforts, in December 1975, the

book was completed and sent as the manuscript to England for publication. Mac Maharaj
 43

went to England, stayed there for six months with a typist, and reconstructed the events

together, but because of the many hindrances, it not officially published. In 1976, there was

the meeting of accused and the minister of prison Jimmy Kruger; in meeting, Mandela urged

to treat them properly because they were political prisoners, not criminals. In the meeting, the

minister requested Mandela to move Transkei and accept the Bantustan policy, but he

rejected the offer. Now the struggle of Mandela reached in every corner of the World.

Mandela and his protest were the headlines of the newspapers and TV channels of the World.

The brutal treatment of the accused and the Bantustan policy roused a great uprising in

Africa, where the youths of Soweto had overthrown themselves in the struggle. In such a

furious situation, the military had dropped their guns and fled from the place. Thousands of

the schoolchildren and teachers came on the road in protest of Soweto. However, military

opened the fire on them, in which a thirteen-year-old child killed. This murder made crowd

violent and the whole of South Africa turned into the zone of riots and violence. The students

and teachers boycotted from the schools. Thousands of the youngsters had joined the ANC.

First time in the history of the South African protest, Black Consciousness Movement, the

ANC, and PAC collectively has filled the vacuum of movement and hurled to liberate

themselves from the unjust laws of the Apartheid government. As the head of the High

Organ, Mandela was leading South Africa from Robben Island. The Government was

frightened by the uprising and in 1977, the government declared ‘the end of the manual

labor’. It was the second moral victory of the Anti-apartheid Movement of South Africa.

Mandela explained the impact of the mass uprising that, “The end of manual labor was

liberating. I could now spend the day reading, writing letters, discussing issues with my

comrades, or formulating legal briefs” (581). Every part of the country was on fire. All over

the nation, the various organizations were openly supporting the ANC to exemplify the

Freedom Charter and demanding the release of Mandela and the prisoners.
 44

As the ANC leader, Mandela was controlling the various organizations from Robben

Island. His revolutionary thoughts and fitness were inspiring the youngsters of the country. In

the eighties, the South African protest became the center of the discussion of the world

politics. Mandela became the figure of hope and courage for the freedom fighters and leaders

of the World. As Indres Naidoo wrote, “Inspiration and hope also came to Mandela from

overseas. The ANC saw four pillars to its struggle: mass-scale political action, the armed

struggle, underground organization, and international solidarity” (Naidoo and Sachs 189).

Under the guidance of Mandela, the ANC and the youngsters were dreaming the complete

freedom of South Africa. In 1980, the prisoners granted to read newspapers, where most of

the newspapers were focusing on the life and the struggle of Mandela. ‘The Free Mandela'

campaign has started in the World. Mandela's struggle against the Apartheid was the subject

of discussion of the World, even the posters ‘Free Mandela', where the people considered

‘free' to be the name of Mandela. The outcome of Mandela's peaceful struggle made him get

the Jawaharlal Nehru Human Rights Award in 1979.

In result of the above actions, and due to the international pressure, the South African

government has transferred Mandela from the Robben Island to Pollsmoor prison. It shocked

Mandela because for eighteen years the Robben Island prison was the home for Mandela. He

has expressed about the transfer, “It had become the place, where I felt comfortable” (608).

All the accused requested to leave with Mandela, and finally, all accused were transferred to

Pollsmoor prison. It had opened the new horizons for the prisoners. The Pollsmoor prison

was the most secure with beautiful surroundings. The rooms were spacious, clean with

modern luxurious facilities. They also provided with the radio on which they could hear the

news. In May 1984, the jail authorities permitted the constant visits of the families. Mandela

and Winnie permitted to speak to each other in private. The couple could not control and

embraced each other in front of their daughters. After many years, Mandela kissed and held
 45

Winnie in his arms. He did not want to leave her from his arms, but the grandchildren ran into

his lap to break his embracing situation. Mandela expressed, “It had been twenty-one years

since I had even touched my wife's hand” (616). It was the unforgettable moment in the lives

of both Mandela and Winnie. They faced many calamities for the future of South Africa. It

was the uncountable sacrifice of the couple. Again, the South African government has started

attacking the ANC leaders in which the thirteen innocent women and children killed. The

attack had changed the mentality of MK (Umkhanto-we-Sizwe) and MK had set the bomb

outside Cape Town and in the various military places. Because of this, the South African

military attacked the ANC outpost where forty-two women and children badly wounded. In

1983, P.W. Botha planned to take trilateral elections to form the parliament with the Indians

and Coloreds with the White, but eighty percent Indians and Colored voters boycotted the

1984 election and more than six hundred Anti-apartheid organizations, trade unions,

community groups, church groups and students' organizations, as well as the Whites, were

unanimously supported the ANC and MK. The Anti-apartheid Movement became the global

movement that united the students, churches, labors and various Anti-apartheid political

organizations from the World. “The anti-apartheid struggle as a whole had captured the

attention of the world” (618). Under the international pressure, the government had started

the dialogue with Nelson Mandela. Kobie Coetzee- the minister of justice visited Mandela to

discuss the solutions in the current situation of South Africa. First time, in 1985, the

government was thinking about the release of Mandela and prisoners.

Mandela was not combating for South Africa, but for the global anti-apartheids, to

release them from the unjust apartheid rules. The international community has counted the

efforts of Mandela, where the Eminent Persons' Group from Britain came to meet Mandela in

the leadership of former Prime Ministers Malcolm Frazer of Australia and Olusegun

Obasanjo from Nigeria. The ‘Group' discussed the Anti-apartheid Movement and the
 46

treatment in the prison. The members of the group were shocked to hear the various policies

of the government. The group harshly criticized the policies of the Apartheid government.

The news of the visit of the Eminent Persons' Group from Britain spread all over the World.

The Anti-apartheid Movement made Mandela the global icon to fight for the rights of the

Blacks. The international pressure made the government to think about the release of

Mandela on certain conditions, but Mandela “unconditionally rejected” (620) the conditions

of the Apartheid government. In response to the government, Mandela prepared the speech

for the UDF rally, which read by his daughter Zindzi in the rally,

I cannot sell my birthright, nor am I prepared to sell the

birthright of the people to be free. … What freedom am I being
offered while the organization of the people remains banned? ...
What freedom am I being offered to live my life . . . with my
dear wife who remains in banishment? ... I cannot and will not
give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people, are
not free. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. … Only
free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot. … I will return.
(Mandela 196)

The speech has electrified the anti-apartheids in the rally. Now, the Africans were

realizing the dawn of the freedom. Everybody was ready to fight, where Mandela was the

source of inspiration. The ceaseless work and sacrifice of Mandela was the subject of

discussion for the World. The blustering non-violent efforts for the freedom have bestowed

awards and honors on Nelson Mandela. For the first time, the Student’s Union of the

University College London honored Mandela, as the Honorary President. He was the icon for

the researchers, where the scientists discovered new particles at the University of Leeds and

named ‘The Mandela Particles'. Apart from the international awards and rewards, the World

awakened for the release of Mandela. In 1982, more than 200 Mayors from 54 countries had

signed a petition for the release of Mandela and published newspapers of the World. In 1984,

the US Senate approved a resolution to free Mandela. Archbishop Huddleston and a leader of

the British Anti-apartheid Movement from Sophiatown presented an international petition of

 47

50,000 signatures to the UN for the release of Mandela. Every anti-apartheid organization in

the World was supporting Mandela and the movement.

Because of the international pressure, the South African government came forward to

discuss with the ANC and Umkhanto-we-Sizwe (MK) troops. In 1985, Kobie Coetzee, the

minister of justice had visited Mandela in hospital. In England, Prime Minister Margaret

Thatcher had declared the end of apartheid by sending the delegation of Eminent Persons

Group to South Africa. The group discussed the negotiations and international happenings in

the World about the upheavals in South Africa. In the visit, Mandela gave the reference of

Oliver Tambo as the head of the movement and firmly asserted,

I was a South African nationalist, not a Communist, that

nationalists came in every hue and color, and that I was firmly
committed to a nonracial society. I told them I believed in the
Freedom Charter, that the charter embodied principles of
democracy and human rights, and that it was not a blueprint for
socialism. (629)

The explanation had clarified the role of the ANC and Mandela. The group realized

the view of Mandela for the anti-apartheids. However, in South Africa, the political violence

was on its heights. Therefore, in June 1986, the government has declared the State of

Emergency to keep under control the protests. There was one more meeting of the jail

authorities, Mandela and Coetzee on the solution to the upheaval in South Africa. Mandela

has positively responded to the minister and urged the government to lift the state of

emergency from South Africa. All accused were thinking about the negotiations with the

government. The same issues discussed with Oliver Tambo and P.W. Botha in the National

Executive Meeting of the ANC. In May 1988, there was the secret meeting of the working

group of the ANC about the armed struggle and the ANC's alliance with the Communist

Party for future planning. The most important issue of the ANC was the armed struggle of

MK by which the government wanted to give up and negotiations started with President

Botha. Hence, Mandela decided to use peaceful methods, “It is up to you,” I said, “not us, to
 48

renounce violence” (641) because the ANC did not like the violence in the country. It was the

beginning of the dialogue between the ANC and the Apartheid government. The ANC was

continuously following the ‘Freedom Charter'. The ANC was expecting the majority rule as

well as the protection of the rights of the Whites in democratic South Africa. As per the

Preamble of the Freedom Charter, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and

white” (643). The international pressure has changed the mind of President Botha and in

1988; he wanted to meet Mandela in Polsmoor prison. The seventy-five-year-old ANC that

had spread in fifty nations was demanding the freedom in South Africa. In Tanzania

Conference, Oliver Tambo declared that the armed struggle would continue until the

Government has to prepare for negotiations and stop the apartheid rule in South Africa. The

National Executive Committee declared that there would be no meeting with the Government

until the leaders released from the prison. It was the difficult situation for President Botha to

handle the law and order in the country.

The Anti-apartheid Movement became the part of media, newsletters, cartoons, and

posters. In 1988, many events happened about the release of Mandela. On the 70 th birthday of

Mandela, a massive crowd of 72,000 people packed the Wimberley Stadium in London for

rock concert of the galaxy of the World artists who were singing and chanting the song ‘Free

Nelson Mandela'. A letter of Ahmad Katharda found in Free Nelson Mandela: Festival

Concert Book,

Star performers, massive rock concerts, and public debate

helped sway the global mass media, which almost nightly
featured TV pictures of police dogs and sjambok whips tearing
into defenseless people in South African streets, finally
destroying the apartheid regime's last shreds of credibility.
(Benson and Nickson 9)

These were the last days of the Apartheid regime. Everybody wanted to free from it.

In these critical conditions, the Nationalist Party had won 1987 elections with the

overwhelming majority. However, those were the only White elections. The health of
 49

Mandela was deteriorating, so the Government had provided high-quality facilities to him.

Now he moved to Victor Verster, because Kobee Coetzee could manage and organize the

private meetings with Mandela. Mandela was seeing the dawn of the freedom because,

Simply to be able to go outside during the day and take a walk

when I desired was a moment of private glory. There were no
bars on the windows, no jangling keys, no doors to lock or
unlock. It was altogether pleasant, but I never forgot that it was
a gilded cage. (650)

The views of Mandela about the temporary luxurious facilities that have many

dimensions for free South Africa. There were several meetings held between Mandela and the

Government, but Mandela was forcing Coetzee for a meeting with the President Botha. In

January 1989, Mandela and comrades were meeting for the future planning and talks with

President Botha. Finally, he wrote a letter to President Botha, “I am disturbed, as many other

South Africans no doubt are, by the specter of a South Africa split into two hostile camps -

blacks on one side . . . and whites on the other, slaughtering one another” (653). It opened the

eyes of the Apartheid Government. Mandela's enforcement for the majority rule and internal

peace in South Africa was like the two sides of a coin. White South Africa simply had to

accept that there would be never stability until the principles of equal rights not fully applied

in the country. He mentioned that the majority rule meant not the domination of the Blacks

over the White minorities, but the government did not come forward for the negotiations.

Now, the conditions were going out of control, the political violence made South

Africa unstable. The various organizations made ‘Defiance Campaign' against the

Government's unjust rules. Oliver Tambo talked with the governments of Great Britain, the

Soviet Union, and the US for help to the Anti-apartheid Movement in South Africa. On his

71st birthday, Mandela permitted to meet his wife and family at Victor Verster. It was the

greatest pleasure for Mandela to have his whole family around him to celebrate. However, it

was more painful for Mandela because he had missed many cheerful moments from his past.
 50

In July 1989, Mandela informed that he would take to President for the discussions. For the

meeting, he received the new suite, tie, shirt, and shoes. He had prepared himself by drawing

the notes and read the current newspapers and magazines for the discussion. During the very

first visit, Botha observed Mandela as the very modern man and stubborn Afrikaner black

leader. During the meeting, President Botha shook hands with Mandela and was unfailingly

courteous, and friendly with Mandela. They were friendly discussing and argumenting on the

present situation for half an hour. Mandela raised the crucial issue about the unconditional

release of the political prisoners. President Botha was somewhat positive for the release. It

was the crucial breakthrough for the future negotiations, but unfortunately, in August 1989,

Botha had resigned as the state president and F.W. de Klerk sworn in as the acting President

of South Africa. In his inaugural address, Klerk had declared about the peaceful negotiations

with the activists. Mandela was again arguing to the Government for the release of the

political prisoners from Pollsmoore and Robben Island. He was the great envoy who acquired

the skills to frame the future of South Africa. The October 10, 1989 was the glorious day in

the life of Mandela and the Anti-apartheid Movement of South Africa when the President De

Klerk announced the release of Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhalba, Ahmad Katharda, Andrew

Mlagni, Elias Motsooledi, Jeff Masemola, Wilton Mkways and Oscar Mpetha from prison.

The President also opened the South African beaches for all. The segregation in the parks,

theatres, restaurants, buses, libraries, toilets and other public places ended and the places

made open for all. In November, D’ Klerk announced to dissolve the National Security

Management System and suspended the armed struggle. It was the new birth of South Africa.

Now, the ANC had expected to release the political prisoners, lifting the bans from the

organizations, ending of the state of emergency and removal of the troops from the

townships. However, Mandela wanted the complete ceasefire in South Africa. He warned the
 51

Government that; if the Government banned the ANC and all political organizations, he

would walk out through the gates of prison.

Because of these meetings, on February 2, 1990, President De Klerk declared in the

Parliament about the lifting of the bans on the ANC, the PAC, the SACP and thirty-one

illegal organizations and freeing of the political prisoners and lifting the state of emergency

and negotiations would be shortly arriving with the leaders. After 40 year struggle, the

dreams of Mandela were came to fulfilled. The decisions of De Klerk appreciated and

applauded by the international authorities.

On 9th February, President De Klerk met Nelson Mandela and told the good news to

him that on next day; the Government was going to release him. Mandela did not believe this

news, because after twenty-seven years, he would be able to breathe openly in his own

country. ‘The Release of Nelson Mandela' was the breaking news for the World media. All

over the World, the scholars, critics, writers, politicians, news editors and freedom fighters

were appreciating the struggle, fight and contribution of Nelson Mandela for equal rights in

South Africa and the Anti-apartheid Movement in the world. All the ANC leaders and

members were very happy to know the news of Mandela's release. Mandela could not sleep

throughout the night. For the sacrifice of Nelson Mandela, Elias Maluleke writes,

Despite the traumas of 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela

maintained his commitment to principle; he refused freedom if
other political prisoners remained in jail, or if the ANC and its
allies remained banned; democracy had to come. (Limb 95)

It was the outcome of the long sustaining sacrifice of Nelson Mandela. He was not

tired in his eighties, because he was successful in his goal. Not only the ANC supported but

also the Mandela family had sacrificed a lot for the freedom of the Blacks and anti-apartheids

of South Africa.

On 11 February 1990, South Africa was celebrating the release of Mandela. Mandela

awakened at 4.30 am and prepared his speech. He was being released after his ‘ten thousand
 52

days of imprisonment’. In front of the gate of the jail, the huge crowd was shouting ‘Madiba’

‘Mandela’. He was surprised to see the hundreds of photographers and television cameras

holding to capture ‘the release moment’. He wrote about the moment, “I felt-even at the age

of seventy-one-that my life was beginning anew” (673). However, the days not wasted,

because he was successful to achieve his goal. The international reaction to the release of

Mandela had acknowledged his sacrifice. On 12 February, the world newspapers headlined

‘Mandela Release'. Many stalwarts had expressed different opinions for the release and

sacrifice. As American President Bush had expressed, “I stated to him I desire to see a

peaceful evolution towards a totally racially free South Africa, a society without prejudice, a

society of total freedom” as well as the Indian Prime Minister V. P. Singh called Mandela,

“Valiant soldier of independence, justice, and equality” (Archieves of the University of Notre

Dame). The release was the subject of the debate and discussion of the World. On the next

day, Mandela had given his first speech in Cape Town, Grand Parade. Thousands of the

people were cheering from the galleries with the flags and banners ‘Amandala!' ‘Ngawethu’

‘Africa' and ‘Mayibuye!’ In the first speech after release, he expressed,

Friends, comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in

the name of peace, democracy, and freedom for all! I stand here
before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the
people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it
possible for me to be here today. I, therefore, place the
remaining years of my life in your hands. (676)

He asserted that he was not Messiah, but an agitator who sprouted himself in the

extraordinary circumstances. He thanked the supporters and the ANC, Umkhonto-we-Sizwe

(MK), the SACP, the UDF, the SAYC, COSATU, the MDM, the NUSAS, the Black Sash-a-

Group of the women. He expressed his gratitude to Winnie and his family by saying that their

pain and sufferings were greater than his efforts.

Throughout the fighting years, Mandela transformed the impossible stuff into the

possible. He was successful to finish the apartheid regime and brought peace into the chaos.
 53

He was the sole messenger of democracy, freedom, and peace to the World. In the next four

years, he visited many countries and sprigged the Anti-apartheid Movement in the world. He

had bestrewn the roots of democracy, freedom, and equality in the apartheid World. By his

diplomacy and skills, he opened the new horizons for South Africa and the Blacks. He was

ready to sacrifice his life to disburse the discrimination. As anti-apartheid, he stated his

standpoint in his ‘I am Prepared to Die’ speech,

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of

the African people. … I have cherished the ideal of a
democratic and free society in which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I
hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs are, it is an ideal
for which ‘I am prepared to die’. (“I Am Prepared to Die?
Nelson Mandela Foundation”)

It was his views before to fight with the brutal apartheid system and continued until

the end of the hazardous journey. In the Orlando Football Stadium rally, Mandela urged

about the improvement in the schooling of the Blacks, the shortage of the houses,

unemployment and decreases the crime rate of the Blacks. He concluded the speech, “No

man or woman who has abandoned apartheid will be excluded from our movement toward a

nonracial, united and democratic South Africa based on one-person-one-vote on a common

voters' roll” (682). He was firm on the ANC mission with the equal opportunity to everybody.

It was his dream at forty-five when he entered in the prison and at the seventy-one; he

released and he spoke in the same vein. He traveled to meet the ANC's members and

President Oliver Tambo. Tambo had declared that; after the internal elections of the ANC,

Mandela would be the next President. He met Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Kenneth Kaunda

(Zambia), Quett Masire (Botswana), Joaquin Chissano (Mozambique), Jose Eduardo Dos

Santos (Angola) and Yoweri Museveni (Uganda) for raising funds for the ANC and for South

Africa. He went to Dar-es-Salaam for the private meeting with Hosni Mubarak, the President

of Egypt.
 54

The Government and the ANC discussed the diversified arduous circumstances in

South Africa. Mandela was always in pressure by both the sides because the Whites wanted

the assurance about their wealth; usually, the Blacks were in demand of the redistribution of

the national wealth. Fortunately, Mandela got the moral support of the visionaries of the

country for the negotiations. The tactics and strategies prepared by the colleagues of

Mandela, which were fruitful for the Anti-apartheid Movement. After two months of the

release, he experienced the UDF team joined the negotiations with the Nationalist Party to

reduce the tension.

During those days, Mandela went to Qunu and bowed to his mother's grave. There he

was very passionate, he wrote in Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson

Mandela,

I felt regret that I had been unable to be with her when she died,
remorse that I had not been able to look after her properly
during her life, and a longing for what might have been had I
chosen to live my life differently. (695)

It was the sacrifice of a son for the motherland, where he was unable to join the

funeral of his mother. He observed that the villages were the same, where they were living in

huts with dirt floors, no light, no water and no schools for them. Now Mandela was thinking

to do work for the enhancement of the life of the natives. Mandela visited North America,

Paris, Switzerland, Italy, Netherland and England. He went to Harlem, New York and spoke

to a great crowd at Yankee Stadium, greeted by the black South Africans and Americans for

his fight against the racism, discrimination, and poverty. He was shocked to read quotes on

the T-shirts of the people, ‘BLACK BY NATURE, PROUD BY CHOICE’. It was the

awakening of the Blacks, where he was the source of inspiration.

In August 1990, the ANC and the Government made an agreement ‘Pretoria Minute’

for the release of the political prisoners. Unfortunately, Buthelezi has suspended the bilateral

meeting with Mandela and the Government. Therefore, again there was the political violence
 55

in South Africa. In such hysterical conditions, the ANC was successful to form peace and

concluded to form an ‘Interim Government’ with the Nationalist Party. In the tumultuous

conditions, Mandela initiatively urged for the peace through a big rally in Natal. He was

cooling down his supporters by urging them to abandon violence. In December 1991, the

Government invited all parties for negotiations and formed the Convention of a Democratic

South Africa (CODESA), a forum to form the new constitution. In the first meeting,

CODESA accepted the ‘Declaration of Intent' which was signed by all parties of South Africa

except by Inkatha Freedom Party and Bophuthatswana. Finally, the acting President F.W. De

Klerk apologized for the apartheid policy but continued to mislead the organizations ‘to one

person one vote' policy and firm on the special minority rights for the Whites. This behavior

of De Klerk had made Mandela lose his temper and he openly condemned the policy and he

declared that; if there would be no ‘Interim Government', then there would be political

violence in South Africa. It was the critical chapter in South African history, where many

leaders were opposed to De Klerk's views about the partial democracy in South Africa. In this

situation, Mandela strengthened the MK from Robben Island for violent actions under the

title of ‘Operation Vula'. So the (Umkhanto-we-Sizwe) MK had strengthened its arms against

the Government. The MK action continued as well as the negotiations with the government

was on its way. Mandela was playing the vital role to moderate the ANC and forcing the

government to accept the changes. Finally, in February 1992, De Klerk accepted the demand

of ‘Interim Government'; but sticking to the general constitutional principles. The negotiation

meetings came to the agreement for an interim government and constituent assembly, but the

Pro-Inkatha armed group opposed the same by the terrible massacre in the country. As a

result, the Government had stopped the negotiations and accused many people. In the unrest

conditions, still, President De Klerk was not agreeing to the simple majority rule. Mandela

and the ANC were going with its allies such as COSATU labor federation and the South
 56

Africa Communist Party (SACP) for future planning. These three parties formed ‘Tri-Party

Alliance’ to launch a campaign against the government. This alliance resulted in coming

together of all parties and agreed on ‘Record of Understanding’ for the constitutional change,

free political prisoners as well as to cancel the brutal resolutions. However, the police had

opened the fire on protesters in Bishop. This act has stopped the negotiations with the

organizations.

Again all the parties came together and formed ‘Multi-Party Negotiating Forum’ for

the transition of the democratic ideas in the country. Apart from the different obstacles in the

democratic system, Mandela was constantly working for the interim government and majority

rule in South Africa. Again, the ANC condemned the Nationalist Party Government and

launched the nationwide defiance campaign under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. There

was the rally with the banners ‘Mandela, give us guns’ and ‘VICTORY through Battle, Not

Talk!’ The ANC's National Executive Committee wanted to start the violent armed struggle.

As a result, De Klerk invited Mandela for face-to-face meeting. However, the ANC did not

agree and called the ‘stay at home strike'. “More than four million workers stayed at home in

what was the largest political strike in South African history” (725). This resulted in the

emergency against the ANC for sponsoring terrorism in the country. However, thousands of

the Africans were opposed the emergency. The public protest was resulted in Mandela-Klerk

summit and they signed the ‘Record of Understanding' agreement. In this result, Mandela

wrote, “The government finally agreed to accept a single, elected constitutional assembly

which would adopt a new constitution and serve as a transitional legislature for the new

government” (726). It was the first fruitful meeting to build the democratic framework in

South Africa. In February, the ANC and De Klerk signed the agreement of ‘five-year

government of national unity' and multi-party cabinet with the formation of Transitional

Executive Council.
 57

Uniquely, the multi-party forum agreed in the World Trade Centre that “the country's

first national, non-racial, ‘one person-one vote elections’ will be held on 27th April 1993”

(732). All 26 parties with Inkatha, PAC and Conservative Party voted for the agreement. The

multi-party forum also agreed on the first draft of an interim constitution. The Transitional

Executive Council (TEC) of all party members formed to take decisions over the general

elections. It was an Independent Electoral Commission with the executive powers and

responsibilities for administrations of the elections. It was the compelling state in the history

of South Africa.

The actions and decisions taken by Nelson Mandela and De Klerk resulted in the

getting Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. The February 1994 was historical; where for the first time

the ‘one-man-one-vote' general elections would be held in South Africa. The National Party

was well aware of the country and ahead in it. However, the ANC started its campaign in the

leadership of the veteran UDF activists Popo Molefe, Terror Lekota and Ketso Gardhan. For

the first time, the illiterate South Africans were voting without any information. However, the

ANC was cognizant about the illiteracy, so it was delivering the instructions to the voters for

the new, free, equal civil rights and voting process. The ANC's 150 pages ‘The

Reconstruction and Development Programme' document was the outlined the future plans

about how to create jobs, to build houses, to spread electricity, to build toilets, to extend

primary health care, to provide free education, to redistribute lands and to end basic value-

added tax in the country. For this, Mandela was an exclusive source of the campaign who

electrified the country with his impetus speeches. Such as, “Life will not change dramatically,

except that you will have increased your self-esteem and become a citizen in your own land.

You must have patience. You might have to wait for five years for results” (736). He has

given confidence to the Whites that they should forget the past and be ready to build a new,

better and equality for all in South Africa.

 58

On 27 April, so the first time Mandela and all the Blacks had cast the votes for the

democracy. He was fighting for the last four decades to see this golden day in the history of

South Africa. On the voting day, no violence, no bombing, and people were going in long

queues to vote and voted for the dawn of the new equalized South Africa. As the newspaper,

The Star had printed the headline for the next day ‘one long line to freedom.' It was the

biggest victory of the democratic thoughts and ideology in the World.

In the first general elections, the ANC had received 62.60 percentages of the national

votes and 252 seats were qualified among 400 seats in the National Assembly. It was the

overwhelming victory of the ANC to build the new South Africa and government. After the

results of the general elections, De Klerk congratulated upon the victory of the ANC and

more than three-century white rule had ended. The power of the country has turned to the

Black majority. The ANC had happily celebrated the victory, where Mandela had

congratulated De Klerk and expected his support for building the democratic country. In the

victorious speech, he paid his homage to the South African people,

Free at last! Free at last! I stand before you humbled by your

courage, with a heart full of love for all of you. I regard it as the
highest honor to lead the ANC at this moment in our history. I
am your servant. . . . It is not the individuals that matter, but the
collective. . . . This is a time to heal the old wounds and build a
new South Africa. (744)

He was overjoyed in the speech, the tears were coming out and all people were emotional

with him. He had promised South Africa about the justice, safe and equal South Africa.

Forming the democratic Government fulfilled Mandela's dream by terminating the segregated

laws and policies in South Africa. The party had proved the trust and confidence of the

Blacks, Whites, Coloreds, and Indians by assuring that the battle with the Government was

against the repression policies, not against any group or class. As an agitator, Mandela was

able to unite the discontented citizens as one country, one nation to the victorious moment.
 59

Finally, the moment came, which had changed the path of the discriminated South

Africa to the democratic country. The new elected ANC members were sworn in the presence

of huge gathering of the World leaders at the Union Buildings of Pretoria. The Pretoria Union

Building was shining with varied colors for the formation of the first democratic and non-

racial Government. Nelson Mandela was present there with his whole family. In the sworn in

ceremony, Mr. De Klerk sworn in as the Deputy President, then Thabo Mbeki sworn in as the

Black Deputy President and finally, Nelson Mandela sworn in as the first Black President of

South Africa. Mandela had pledged to obey and uphold the constitution and work himself for

the welfare of the Republic and its people. In his Presidential speech,

We, who were outlaws, not so long ago, have today been given
the rare privilege to be host to the nations of the world on our
own soil. We thank all of our distinguished international guests
for having come to take possession with the people of our
country of what is, after all, a common victory for justice, for
peace, for human dignity. We have, at last, achieved our
political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our
people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation,
suffering, gender, and other discrimination. Never, never, and
never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again
experience the oppression of one by another. . . . The sun shall
never set on so glorious a human achievement. Let freedom
reign. God bless Africa! (745)

The Mandela speech had camouflaged many aspects of the last ten thousand days

struggle with the system and the adversities. The crowd had cheered Mandela and the ANC

for its ceaseless efforts. About the Day, Adam Boult wrote in The Telegraph that the

Freedom Day was significant because it "marks the end of over three hundred years of

colonialism, segregation and white minority rule and the establishment of a new democratic

government led by Nelson Mandela and a new state subject to a new constitution" (Boult 1).

After the formation of the democratic Government, Mandela thought that; what he

was and he became what he might be. When he let go of what he had, finally he received

what he had expected. It was the sweet fruit of an incomprehensible sacrifice of Mandela, his
 60

family and thousands of the Blacks. Everybody from the ANC had shown an extraordinary

courage, wisdom, and integrity for fighting with the unjust laws of the apartheid government.

The pangs and tears of Nelson Mandela portrayed an unimaginable plight of the people. The

apartheid policy had severely bruised the country. The Government brutally killed the

innocents. Every South African was fearless to conquer the freedom, because, "The brave

man is not he who does not feel afraid that he who conquers that fear" (746). Such

inspirational words had encouraged the South Africans for the combat with the apartheid

Government. The generosity, mercy, and love were floating through the spirited heart of

Mandela. The final pages of the Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson

Mandela are replete with the humble perspectives of President Mandela (Madiba-Father of

South Africa). His commitment to his work was more than his life, where his astounding

dedication to the motherland is the great example for the World. His every moment dedicated

to the freedom and democracy of South Africa. His every spirited word has wonderfully

animated the South Africa for the ceaseless combat with the apartheid Government. In his

every effort, he realized the complete freedom and unity of South Africa, and to combine its

leaders and their efforts to solve the fundamental problems of the vast deserts, forests, and

their extreme wildernesses. As he concluded his ‘mission-freedom' in Long Walk to

Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela,

It was this desire for the freedom of my people to live their

lives with dignity and self-respect that animated my life, that
transformed a frightened young man into a bold one, that drove
a law-abiding attorney to become a criminal, that turned a
family-loving husband into a man without a home, that forced a
life-loving man to live like a monk. I am no more virtuous or
self-sacrificing than the next man, but I found that I could not
even enjoy the poor and limited freedoms I was allowed when I
knew my people were not free. Freedom is indivisible; the
chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them,
the chains on all of my people were the chains on me. (750-51)
 61

It was nothing but an oath taken by Santiago to fight until the last breath of the life.

These were the feelings of Mandela, who has started the journey from the darkness of the

apartheid rule and successfully finished to the new horizons of the democratic South Africa.

Mandela was continuously fighting not for the individual, but for the rights of the Blacks. He

was uniquely successful because his alms were uncountable for the goals and the life of the

South Africans. Finally, he had successfully proved his strength as an agitator for his

country/men to form the newly democratic nation South Africa.

After the formation of democratic Government, the real journey of Nelson Mandela

had started, because he could truly work for the welfare of the democratic South Africa. The

closing part of the autobiography is full of the prudence and philanthropy of the

autobiographer. It was his second beginning of another walk to ‘the complete freedom'. He

sums up the Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela,

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to

falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have
discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only
finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a
moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that
surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I
can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come
responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not
yet ended. (751)

It was Mandela's attitude to do work for the free and democratic South Africa. He was

ceaselessly working for the welfare of the country. His every act after the freedom had

invigorated the nation to the new horizons of the advancement and progress. However, the

autobiography not completed because the incompleteness is the greatest flow of it. Unlikely,

Mandela had narrated the life until the Presidency, but his two terms as the President of South

Africa made him the global personality are not included in the book Long Walk to Freedom:

The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Mandela had stated his futuristic vision at his
 62

‘Inauguration Speech’ as the President of the Democratic Republic of South Africa on 10 th

May 1994,

Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there
be work, bread, water and salt for all… Never, never and never
again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience
the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of
being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign. ("Inaugural
Speech, Pretoria [Mandela] - 5/10/94.")

The speech interpreted the perception of Mandela and his endeavor for South Africa.

He was not the President of any class, but of the whole South Africa. So his speeches before

and after the ‘freedom' were inspired the readers and listeners and to examine the life of the

revolutionary, who constantly combated and ready to fight with the obstacles. Mandela's first

exciting Presidential term has been successful in establishing the democracy by providing

cheap housing, electricity and clean water to the fellow citizens. His powerful visionary

Presidency was competent to ‘bring practical relief to the millions’ of South African by unity,

peace, and stability. It was his delusion to see constitutional South Africa. The second term of

the Mandela Government established the new constitution with equality, democracy,

freedom, reconciliation, diversity with the Bill of Rights. It had proved the dream of

Mandela, which has focused on the guarantee of the right to education, housing, right to work

and strike, right of access to information, gender and sexual persuasion rights and the

protection of children. Everybody was equally justified, where it was the most gender-

sensitive constitution in the world. The government had also worked on the issues like the

right to land, free health care of pregnant women and security of labor to the poor. The

government has implemented the non-racial bureaucracy based on the merit rather than color

and race. Mandela has replaced RDP to Growth, employment, and redistribution (GEAR)

strategy. In every field, the Mandela government has deep effects on the life of the common

person. He has taken the country from the cycle of violence to the democratic nation. As Gish

wrote, “A good measure of social reconciliation ensued and contributed to social peace and
 63

stability; the lessons to the world for conflict resolution were profound. Again, Mandela had

achieved the seemingly impossible” (Gish 34). Nelson Mandela worked as the natural

democrat, and humanized the Government by his attitudes. Nonetheless, under the Presidency

of Nelson Mandela, the country strongly negotiated the human rights and ethics at the

international levels.

Conclusion:

It was the long walk of Nelson Mandela towards the dawn of the rejuvenated South

Africa. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela is the journey of the

Xhosa boy to the highest seat of the President. It is a confession of the visionary with the

absolute self. He penned his struggle, which was true to the subject and title of the

autobiography. The entire life was an example of the painstaking efforts, to confront against

the racism, poverty, apartheid, imprisonment, injustice, and adversity. The name Mandela is

comparing with the endurance of human spirit and the victory on the evil. Though the book

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela and life have ended, but

Mandela’s ‘walk to freedom' is immortal, very long which has no end. Mandela was the

person who created the black renaissance for the democracy and rights of the South Africans.

So, he concluded his speech, ‘No Easy Walk to Freedom' that his ‘long walk to freedom’ will

continued till the end of the poverty and segregation of the World. His life is the vehicle to

spread the message of sacrifice and struggle. As Peter Limb wrote, "His determination,

brilliance, energy, and endurance, and above all his character, were the major factors in

securing the end of apartheid and the gains of the New South Africa" (128). The life of

Nelson Mandela and the autobiography Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of

Nelson Mandela are the unending sources of an inspiration for readers and fighters in the

New World. Nelson Mandela is the token of struggle, endurance, patience, sacrifice, hope

and endeavor for everybody. His comrade-friend Oliver Tambo wrote in the preface of
 64

Mandela’s book No Easy Walk to Freedom, “As a man Nelson is passionate, emotional, and

sensitive, quickly stung to bitterness and retaliates against insult and patronage. He has a

natural air of authority. He was the dedicated and fearless”- (Mandela xiii). The figure Nelson

Mandela is the beginning of another epoch-making temperament with the legitimacy and

painstaking sacrifice for the welfare of the people and the World.

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