In Johannesburg today the case is due to open of the State v. Mandela. Undoubtedly the court will be crowded out with supporters of the resistance movement, just as it was in 1952 when 13 African and Indian leaders, including Mandela, were tried for organising the great Defiance Campaign against unjust laws, and again in 1956 when 156 men and women, including Mandela, were accused of high treason. Others have written and will write more fully about Nelson Mandela╒s life. These are the personal impressions of one of his friends which may add something to the portrait of this remarkable African nationalist.
As I have grown to know Mandela, the qualities that have struck me most have been a combination of authority with gentleness, of militant dedication with gaiety, of generosity with daring. For some time after I first met him, about nine years ago, however, I saw him simply as a tall, handsome, rather ╥slick╙ young man, and even when I worked alongside the accused people during the first year of the treason trial, although I liked him, I still did not take him very seriously. It was when I started researching for my book on African leaders and sought opinions from people of all races throughout South Africa that I began to take notice, and my own increased knowledge of him confirmed what I was told.
Interesting and exciting
Several of the eminent lawyers involved in the treason trial defence gave me their impressions of the trial. Mandela╒s name recurs in my notes of those interviews:
╥If one had to pick someone who won the case, then I would say Nelson Mandela╔ He said we want to squeeze these people (the Government) until they give in. He was not afraid.╙
As for these men╒s individual opinions of Mandela, one said: ╥A most impressive man with real political intelligence╙; and another: ╥Articulate, a remarkable man.╙
Then over and over again, not only from them but from an uncommitted academic, from an ambivalent newspaper editor, from Indian leaders who had known Mandela since 1944, and from his own colleagues and followers, came a predominant impression of how over the years he has grown.
So many men understandably grow negative or shrivel up and retreat in face of the prolonged persecution and frequent setbacks as they pit their strength against the tyrannical might of the armed South African state. But Lutuli and Mandela are among the leaders who were undeterred, indeed stimulated, by such factors.
Nelson Mandela told me something about his home during the series of talks that we had ╤ it was in a Tembu kraal of thatched, white-faced huts by the Bashee River, a green-watered stream flowing through the lovely hills of the Transkei. He recalled a picture of ╥beautiful vegetation, fine stock, plenty to eat,╙ and he was delighted when I was able to drive through this valley, now bare but still beautiful. Considering the perilous life he was leading underground, it was comic to think that as a boy he had felt his life to be dull and circumscribed, and envied his more plebeian friends who boasted about their exploits, such as stealing a pig, and taking it to the forest to kill and roast and eat.
Another comic picture that he re-created was his arrival in the fabulous city of Johannesburg, where he ╤ an aristocrat, by the way ╤ briefly became a mine policeman, sitting at the gate of the compound, clutching his ╥badges╙ of office ╤ a whistle and a knobkerrie! And his ambition, at the time, was to become a clerk in the Native Affairs Department. We laughed a lot, too, at his first experience in human relations with Europeans ╤ when the lawyers to whom he was articled were not keen to use a new, inexperienced typist, so she asked Mandela for work and he would dictate to her, until one day while he was doing so a European client came in and she, clearly worried at being seen taking dictation from a native, pointedly asked, ╥Do me a favour, Nelson; go down to the chemist and buy me a shampoo,╙ thus re-establishing the ╥proper╙ master/servant relationship.
Mandela╒s greatness was apparent in things that he told me about his children, and also in his attitude to human beings and creatures in general; his generosity was apparent in his comments on the most virulent of the former-ANC╒s rivals; his authority is in his bearing and his dedication runs through his life.
His warmth and gaiety are delightful to experience and in the midst of tension he can be at once reassuring and fun. Though he never took risks needlessly, his daring filled one with trepidation.
He told me a story of one narrow escape some months ago: a friend was due to pick him up on a street corner when the split-second timing essential to secrecy broke down through friends being caught in a traffic jam. As Mandela stood there he suddenly felt someone watching him, turned, and to his utter dismay saw a non-white policeman staring at him with obvious recognition. He was waiting for the tap on the shoulder that preceded arrest when the policeman moved towards him, gave the illegal ANC thumbs-up sign, murdered ╥Afrika!╙ and strolled away!
Now that Mandela has been captured by the forces whom he brilliantly eluded for 15 months, of one thing we can be sure: he and his wife Winnie will show the same blazing courage and selflessness that have so moved all of us who are proud to be their friends.
