Long
Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela's
autobiography, is a wonderful read
in many ways. The version I read had a
warm 2013 preface by William Jefferson
(Bill) Clinton. Among its remarkable
accomplishments was that it held this
reader's riveted attention throughout.
It holds one to find out what comes next
like a murder mystery. It is amazing
that the major fraction of the book was
written in secret towards the end of
Mandela's more than two decades jailed
on Robbin Island. The social change in
South Africa into an inclusive
multiracial society in which he was
pivotal is one of the miracles of the
20th century.
A special fascination of the book for
me was to read the other side of the
anti-apartheid struggle in Canada in
which several of us participated in our
younger years. It brought back the
struggle for sanctions in the face of
glossy advertisements by the oil
companies. There was the stand taken by
several Canadian national churches and
the days when Anglican primate
Archbishop Ted Scott held firm in
solidarity with the churches there. We
still bank with Toronto Dominion (Canada
Trust) now because one of its
predecessor banks, Canada Permanent
Trust did not have dealings with South
Africa in the 1970s. Our bank at the
time, Royal Bank, did. We were told
those on the ground wanted sanctions
even though it would cost them. We
changed banks as a small gesture. Now I
have Mandela's side of that story. What
a price he paid for his justice work
through the African National Congress -
jail terms and the destruction of family
life. It is one of the magnificent
stories of my era well worth my own
brief retelling.
Mandela begins his book with his
childhood in the rural Transkei. He was
born to a local chieftain and could
expect a life linked to leadership as an
adviser. There are insights into rural
life with the Xhosa people and their
customs, but under the white government
of the day. With the death of his father
he was taken under the wing of the royal
house by the King who became his
"regent" and he gained a "brother" by
this adoption - Justice. Mandela was
given a good education. He relates some
experiences of high school where he
learned to feel proud to be a Xhosa.
Then he gives an account of his time at
university, which contains allusions to
the politics of South Africa as WW2
began. When the regent tried to set up
marriages for him and Justice, the two
ran away to Johannesburg.
The Mandela we know emerged in
Johannesburg. Mandela seems
uncomfortable with the way he and
Justice used their family connections to
get work. Despite untruths which come
unstuck to his shame and embarrassment,
Mandela eventually finds lodging via a
cousin and is helped to get a clerk's
job in a law office. There he must study
law, take exams and article. The people
in and around the law office make a big
impact on him. He is exposed to
multi-colour gatherings and the
communist party - which he is reluctant
to join in part because it disavows
religion. The book says little about the
role of the Methodist church he joined
at high school. He comes to know people
in the Asian community and some whites.
This multicultural mix was his
inspiration when he became involved in
the ANC. He saw himself as an African
but he also saw the Whites and Asians as
fellow South Africans.
The thousands of indignities and slights
against him as an African caused anger
and a desire for justice. Without any
formal decision he found himself working
for the liberation of his people and he
couldn't help himself. Through Walter
Sisulu he became involved with the ANC.
With a group of young peers, he was part
of the forming of a Youth League, to
push for a more active ANC. The League
had a credo of one nation out of many
tribes and the liberation of Africans by
Africans. He met his first wife at the
Sisulus. A few months later he married
Evelyn and later rented a home and
began a family. The miners’ strike in
1946 and the union organization of it
impressed him as models. The Ghetto Act
of the same year provoked a two year
passive resistance action by the Indian
community. Mandela noticed the ANC made
no such responses. In 1947 he was
elected to the ANC executive in
Transvaal. In that year the "Doctor's
Pact" was made, linking the ANC and the
Indian Congresses against a common
enemy. Mandela worked to ensure the ANC
would lead any ANC action.
In the 1948 white election the
Nationalist party with its apartheid
policy won and began introducing racist
and anti union legislation. The Youth
League in which Mandela participated
proposed a Program of Action – boycotts,
strikes, civil disobedience,
noncooperation - which the ANC adopted
after dropping their President who
opposed it. Mandela was co-opted onto
the ANC executive. More restrictive laws
were passed and Mandela was heavily
involved in organizing the national Day
of Protest. The work became
all-consuming. Mandela as President of
the Youth League learned to support the
majority agreed position. He learned to
back down if the people backed a local
leader who was acting against an
executive decision. The government
responded to the actions by making them
illegal. An ANC letter to the Minister
asking for repeal of unjust laws got a
curt reply, paving the way to mass
action - which involved recruiting and
training volunteers.
Throughout, Mandela has positions and
principles, but he considers actions and
strategies from a pragmatic point of
view. Nonviolence was adopted initially
as a tactic because the ANC was not
capable of doing more at the time. The
Defiance Campaign was a success despite
mistakes, and it marked a new chapter
for the ANC and for Mandela. In 1952 the
ANC elected a new President and Mandela
became one of four deputy Presidents.
Banning began and Mandela was banned
from attending all meetings - including
his son's birthday party. Mandela
describes some cases he led in the
courts for a range of clients. It seems
he was a useful lawyer in the township
and enjoyed doing it.. His use of the
law and courts runs through later
periods when he describes his own trials
and his years in prison. In between bans
he could give public speeches, and he
recalls one in the township when he said
non-violence had not worked and it was
time for violence - his pragmatic
approach to strategies. He would go on
to get the ANC to recognize a violent
wing, which he would lead. One of his
ANC colleagues went overseas and
explored potential for violent protest
in Bucharest and in China.
A seminal initiative took place as laws
tightened. Prof Matthews returned from a
visit to the USA with the idea, that
became a multi-organizational initiative
led by the ANC, for a freedom charter
adopted by a Congress of the People:
what would a South Africa for all
the people who live there look
like? People responded
enthusiastically. Regions participated.
Three thousand delegates braved police
intimidation to Kliptown, June 1955.
Miraculously each section of the
proposed charter had been approved
before the police moved in to close the
gathering just before final overall
adoption. "... the charter became a
great beacon for the freedom struggle."
The reader is given sections of it.
Travelling out to Transkei, then to
other areas resisting Bantu formation,
Mendela concluded ANC did not have
enough organization on the ground in
rural areas to resist. Ever pragmatic,
he suggested that ANC should make links
with the resented Bantu so as to keep in
touch with the people and their needs.
The last two thirds of the book I will
summarise more quickly. There is the
first treason trial, which the
government lost. The first marriage ends
- Mandela is committed to justice and
Evelyn to Seventh Day Adventism. She
leaves him. Mandela falls fin love with
Winnie, marries her and has a child. In
a section "The Black Pimpernel," Mandela
describes a life working for the ANC
underground, traveling the country -
organizing a "stay at home." It is 1961.
Then come the difficult and tumultuous
meetings leading to ANC agreement to
form the distinct violent wing, MK, that
Mandela would form and lead. Pragmatism
led to a focus on sabotage "it offered
the best hope for reconciliation among
the races afterwards." The structure
paralleled the ANC, and regional
secretaries were aware of their MK
members. In December 1961 bombs go off
at government offices and power
stations. MK has arrived.
In early1962 Mandela led the ANC
delegation to the Pan African Freedom
Movement. He met African leaders and
traveled to African countries and even
to London, before driving back into
South Africa. Some short time after
returning, he was stopped by police and
arrested. Mandela used his trial to
promote ANC arguments about the
conditions of Africans and the
appropriateness of resorting to violence
as last resort. After early detention,
he was sent to Robbin Island. Mandela
describes life on the Island. Even there
he found ways to organize for ANC and
protest conditions for prisoners. He was
also able to find decency in some
wardens and work with some people and
fight against others.
Most of the book was written illicitly
towards the end of the years on Robbin
Island. A copy was smuggled out, but the
original was discovered. In 1982 he was
moved to Pollsmore, South of Capetown.
Prison conditions were better. He
gardened, growing vegetables. The ANC
had been helped by the mystique of
Robbin Island. MKs first car bomb was
1983. A United Democratic Front (against
apartheid) grew. The ANC had a new burst
of popularity. There were government
feelers, visits by the UK Lord Bethel,
surgery and then a short isolated prison
giving Mandela time for a brainwave --
and to begin his great initiative. He
deemed the time ripe to explore
negotiation, got ANC to agree, and knew
the person in the government he should
try to negotiate with. At first nothing
happened. Then in 1986 came an
unexpected chance to meet with the
Commonwealth Eminent Person's Group whom
he told about the Freedom Charter and
the willingness to talk.
The persistence and ingenuity of
Mandela along the path of the last
sprint to negotiations are remarkable.
He needed every last skill he had
developed. First he fought to meet the
Minister of Justice he knew he could
deal with. Then he pushed to meet
the Prime Minster and Foreign Minister.
After weeks he was offered the Justice
Minister plus an approved committee of
senior officials. He had to fight to be
allowed to meet his own colleagues.
Somehow he got his ANC colleagues on
board. Weeks of discussions followed.
Then a trip to hospital for water on the
lung and treatment of TB, then into a
halfway house with pool and barbed wire
wall. Meetings continued. He pressed to
meet the Prime Minister and produced a
letter in which he set out a framework
for discussions. He got his meeting with
then President Botha - the government
was meeting!
Then De Klerk took over - and the
committee kept meeting. Prisoners were
released. Some apartheid laws were
changed. He wrote to De Klerk as he had
to Botha and met De Klerk. He urged an
end to State of Emergency, end of exile
and prison and the banning of the ANC.
In 1990, De Klerk ended exile and prison
and the banning of ANC. Mandela
negotiated terms of his own release.
Then he had to rapidly learn to deal
with press conferences and a Freedom
Parade. He attempted to meet Zulu
leaders to address violence in Natal.
The ANC and Government met and Mandela
proposed an elected assembly to draw up
a new constitution. On August 6 1990 the
ANC and government signed the Pretoria
Minute in which the ANC suspended
violent action. There was an escalation
of violence and Mandela was active and
became convinced the government was
implicated with a "third force." De
Klerk would not intervene. Agreements
Mandela made with Chief Buthelezi
concerning Inkatha were breached. In May
1991 the ANC suspended talks. In July
Mandela was elected President of the
ANC.
The transitional government part of the
scheme became a priority. December 1991
real talks began. All parties agreed to
an undivided South Africa! There was to
be a bill of rights and 5 working groups
were set up. There followed a roller
coaster of events, stalled negotiations,
violent attacks on ANC members,
accusation of government collusion, a
massive national ANC strike and another
attack on ANC members. Finally De Klerk
and Mandela met for a summit and signed
a Record of Understanding. The
breakthrough was acceptance of a single
elected constitutional assembly. This
met some violent disapproval. A proposal
for an interim government of national
unity with a sunset clause was floated.
Further talks developed this concept to
include a multi-party cabinet. A few
more ups and downs to get a framework
consitution, and in 1994 elections were
held and a new game began. Mandela says
at the end that he became concerned for
freedom of whites as well as blacks
through his experiences.
Visiting Cape Town in 2014 I found
statues of Nobel laureates set out in
the new ocean-front development. I
recognized De Klerk, Mandela and
Anglican Archbishop Tutu --all critical
players in the social transformation
making the new South Africa. Tutu
reminded me of the international church
role which reached me in the 1970s about
boycotting of investment in South Africa
and my tiny part in the story. After
reading the book, there is little doubt
that the modest Mandela played a pivotal
role and his book is both an
autobiography and an account of the
story of South Africa's
transformation.
