Freedom for Nelson Mandela, February 11 1990
With the fall of the Berlin Wall the previous year, the nineties opened with another event I had never expected to see in my lifetime, as former leader of the Africa National Congress (ANC) and political prisoner Nelson Mandela finally walked free from prison after twenty-five years of incarceration for his beliefs. Ostensibly, Mandela had been jailed for his activities with the ANC, which included a bombing campaign against the then-ruling white majority government of P.W. Botha and the Afrikans Party, but in reality he was just too powerful a symbol and too dangerous an opponent to the government of South Africa to be left free.
Mandela's campaign against the government was a direct reaction to the then policy of apartheid, under which blacks had virtually no rights, or as many or few as the white-led government chose to give them. They had no vote, no say in politics and could hold no decent jobs. They were allowed minimal education, and could be arrested at a moment's notice and held without charge almost indefinitely.
When Mandela turned, reluctantly, to violent methods in his attempt to overthrow the government and attain equal rights for black South Africans, he was accused of sedition, sabotage and attempted revolution through arms (all of which were true) and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964. His time in prison was not easy: the government believed implicity in the term "hard labour", and Mandela's cell was in a very poor state. As well as this, the warders were of course all white, which added to his discomfort. He was so despised (or feared) that he was not even allowed out of prison on compassionate grounds to be able to attend the funerals of his mother or his son, the latter killed in a car accident.
As time went on though and the world began to change, calls were heard more and more for Mandela's release, though it's telling to note that neither US president Ronald Reagan nor UK Prime Minister the late Margaret Thatcher were among them, both firmly believing Mandela, as a "communist and terrorist", should remain behind bars. However, they were in the minority and the world was getting sick of apartheid, with more and more voices raised in support of freeing Nelson Mandela. In 1985 the South African President, P.W. Botha, offered him a conditional release, but he refused, as part of the conditions were essentially denouncing the ANC. Unrest grew over the following years as Botha cracked down on dissent and instigated a state of emergency, with the ANC stepping up their campaign of resistance. Even Thatcher added her voice to those demanding Mandela's release, but more because of the situation caused by the cessation of investment in South African banks due to a backlash and protest against apartheid than out of any suddenly discovered sense of morality. In Thatcher's world, one word ruled and that was money: put that under threat and everything else became secondary, even her own personal beliefs and opinions. If getting Mandela out of prison was good for business, good for international commerce, then he should be out. Never mind the fact that he had spent over twenty years behind bars in terrible conditions for the crime of trying to achieve a better life for his people and a better future!
As Mandela's seventieth birthday dawned, news was brought to him that his wife, Winnie, had been indicted on charges relating to her operating a criminal gang which used terror and intimidation, including against children, torturing and killing her opponents. He remained however faithful to her until she stood trial and was sentenced to six years, after which he separated from her. In 1989 Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced by F.W de Klerk, who could see that the idea of apartheid had had its day and had no place in the modern world. With the fall of communism South Africa was becoming increasingly politically isolated due to its repressionist policies against blacks, and de Klerk arranged the release of all ANC prisoners, bar Mandela, that year, with the man himself finally walking to freedom a few months later.
Although apartheid did not disappear overnight, strenuous negotiations were entered into and eventually not only did the outdated, outmoded and evil system disappear completely, with South Africa holding its first general election in which blacks could vote, but in 1994 Nelson Mandela was elected the first black president of South Africa.