MacFormat 1996 July/macformat-039.iso/DATABASE/SHARED.DIR/01281_116.cap.txt

Text File | 1996-03-14 | 3.7 KB | 239 lines

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Mandela belonged
to a generation of
activists forged in
the Forties. He was
one of the founders
of the radical Youth
League of the ANC
(African National
Congress). In the
apartheid system
Mandela found an
evil worthy of his
campaigning talents
and his towering
sense of justice
#
The election of
1948 brought the
Nationalist Party
to power. The
Nationalists were
to govern South
Africa for the next
four decades. They
were committed to
a policy of 'apart-
heid'. The word in
Afrikaans means
'being apart'. The
reality of it was
that the white
minority held all
power, while the
black majority
was discriminated
against and
disenfranchised
#
Apartheid depended
on the "Pass laws".
Every non-white
had to carry a pass
which entitled them
to live and work
only in specified
areas. To burn the
pass was a common
form of protest
against the laws.
Mandela burnt his
in his own backyard
#
In March 1960,
police fired on a
crowd protesting
against the pass
laws. The massacre
at Sharpeville left
67 dead and 186
wounded. The ANC
was already banned;
now Mandela went
underground to
form the armed
wing of the ANC,
Umkhonto we
Sizwe. Mandela
the activist was
now an outlaw
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Mandela was
arrested in 1962
and charged with
inciting strikes.
He was given a
five-year prison
sentence. In 1963
Walter Sisulu was
arrested. Together
with Mandela, they
faced charges of
treason for their
membership of the
ANC's armed wing
#
At his trial for
treason Mandela
praised "the ideal
of a democratic
and free society
in which all
live together in
harmony and
with equal
opportunities".
Mandela, Sisulu
and six other
defendants were
sentenced to
life imprisonment
and sent to
Robben Island, a
high-security
prison off South
Africa's coast
#
Although the ANC
leadership was in
prison, its armed
wing continued
operations, with
acts of sabotage
and harassment.
Popular protest
remained a
constant feature
of South African
politics, however,
sometimes (as
at Sharpeville
in 1960, and at
Soweto in 1976)
with tragic con-
sequences for
those involved
#
The ANC-in-exile
and numerous
anti-apartheid
movements abroad
lobbied for the
political, cultural
and (most impor-
tant) economic
isolation of South
Africa. The USA,
imposed tough
trade sanctions;
other countries
such as Britain
supported the UN
arms embargo
but were not
keen to apply
stronger pressure
to the South
African regime
#
In prison Nelson
Mandela became
an international
symbol of resis-
tance. President
Botha was aware
of the damage
which Mandela's
imprisonment was
doing to the repu-
tation of South
Africa, and in
1985 he made a
promise to free
Mandela if he
renounced the
armed struggle
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In 1989, FW de
Klerk became the
new president of
South Africa. He
made it clear that
he wished to see
an end to his
country's isolation,
and that he was
ready to embark
on a dramatic pro-
gram of political
reform. This was
to include the
legalisation of
the ANC and the
release of Mandela
#
Nelson Mandela
was released on
February 11, 1990.
He was 71 years
old, and he had
served more than
a quarter of a
century in prison.
The grey-haired
man who walked
out of the prison
seemed to be
somehow smaller
and more frail,
but also wiser
and more serene
than the man who
stood trial all
those years before
#
A year after
Mandela was freed
de Klerk announced
the scrapping of
the legislatiion
which had made
apartheid law. This
signalled the end
both of the exclus-
ively white areas
and of the 'black
homelands'. The
ANC's goal of a
united South
Africa was about
to be realised
#
The abolition of
apartheid naturally
led to free and
unbiased elections,
which led equally
naturally to the
inauguration of
Mandela as South
Africa's president
on May 10, 1994,
a day when the
ex-prisoner Nelson
Mandela danced
for sheer joy
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