No Easy Walk to Freedom

“We must accept the fact that in our country we cannot win one single victory of political freedom without overcoming a desperate resistance on the part of the Government, and that victory will not come of itself but only as a result of a bitter struggle by the oppressed people for the overthrow of racial discrimination. This means that we are committed to struggle to mobilize from our ranks the forces capable of waging a determined and militant struggle against all forms of reaction.”

Mandela identifies defeating the apartheid regime as one of the primary aims of the movement and emphasizes the need for mass solidarity in pursuing that goal. It also identifies the main character of the mass mobilization strategy, which was militancy—i.e., direct action.

“We of the non-European liberation movement are not racialists. We are convinced that there are thousands of honest democrats among the White population who are prepared to take up a firm and courageous stand for unconditional equality for the complete renunciation of ‘White supremacy.’ To them we extend the hand of sincere friendship and brotherly alliance,”

This quote follows Mandela’s critique of the Liberal Party, which he describes as insincere in its claims regarding human rights, democracy, and constitutionalism. He identifies them as racialists with less forceful measures than the Nationalist Party. However, the welcoming of genuine white allies indicates that the resistance movement was not opposed to white people but rather to white supremacy and racial domination in all its iterations.

“The spectre of Belsen and Buchenwald is haunting South Africa. It can only be repelled by the united strength of the people of South Africa. Every situation must be used to raise the people’s level of understanding. If attacks on the people’s organizations, if all discriminatory measures, be they the Industrial Conciliation Amendment Act, Bantu Education, or the classification of the Coloured people, are used as a rallying point around which a united front will be built, the spectre of Belsen and Buchenwald will never descend upon us.”

Here, Mandela draws a parallel between Nazi Germany and the South African Nationalist Party government. The parallel is neither far-fetched nor sensationalist given that the NP leader and prime minister studied in German universities and vocally supported Hitler’s regime during World War II. Again, Mandela emphasizes the necessity for mass solidarity in defeating the South African apartheid regime; as he notes, multiple sectors of the South African population had a vested interest in eradicating apartheid.

“In point of fact, the real purpose of the scheme is to increase land hunger for the masses of the peasants in the reserves and to impoverish them. The main object is to create a huge army of migrant labourers, domiciled in rural locations in the reserves far away from the cities. Through the implementation of the scheme it is hoped that in course of time the inhabitants of reserves will be uprooted and completely severed from their land, cattle, and sheep, to depend for their livelihood entirely on wage earnings.”

After a discussion of the purported intentions of the government’s rehabilitation scheme, which confined the Black population to 13% of the South African land, Mandela articulates the actual intent and effect of the apartheid scheme. His explanation supports a point that regularly appears in his discussions—that apartheid policy aimed to keep the Black majority in perpetual servitude and inferiority to the white minority population.

“By enclosing them in compounds at the centres of work and housing them in rural locations when they return home, it is hoped to prevent the emergence of a closely knit, powerful, militant, and articulate African industrial proletariat who might acquire the rudiments of political agitation and struggle. What is wanted by the ruling circles is a docile, spineless, unorganized, and inarticulate army of workers.”

Again, Mandela articulates the intended effect of the rehabilitation scheme and other coercive government measures. Here, however, he emphasizes that the isolation of the Black population to the reserves and from each other through the imposition of tribal rule served to repress the resistance movement. This quote illustrates the interaction between white supremacy and capitalist class exploitation. 

“Fascism has become a living reality in our country and its defeat has become the principal task of the entire population of South Africa. But the fight against the fascist policies of the Government cannot be conducted on the basis of isolated struggles. It can only be conducted on the basis of the united fight of the entire people of South Africa against all attacks of the Nationalists on traditional rights whether these attacks are launched through Parliament and other State organs or whether through extra-parliamentary forms.”

Again, Mandela draws the parallel between Nazi Germany and Nationalist South Africa and emphasizes the need for mass solidarity in defeating the Nationalist government. This quote also points to Mandela’s view on the use of multiple tactics, which he expounds on in later writings. While Mandela advocated the use of extra-parliamentary means to exert pressure on the government, he was not opposed to parliamentary means, even though they had been closed to the Black population.

“The democratic struggle in South Africa is conducted by an alliance of various classes and political groupings amongst the non-European people supported by White democrats. African, Coloured, and Indian workers and peasants, traders and merchants, students and teachers, doctors and lawyers, and various other classes and groupings; all participate in the struggle against racial inequality and for full democratic rights.”

Mandela points out the unity among various sectors of the population in pursuit of democracy and the eradication of racialism. This quote alludes to the multiracial, multiclass, and multi-political cooperation that undergirded the mass mobilization strategy. It also indicates that various sectors of the population, regardless of their differences, desired a democratic state.

“The rise of the Congress movement and the powerful impact it exerts on the political scene in the country is due precisely to the fact that it has consistently followed and acted on the vital policy of democratic unity. It is precisely because of the same reason that the Congress movement is rapidly becoming the real voice of South Africa. If this united front is strengthened and developed the Freedom Charter will be transformed into a dynamic and living instrument and we shall vanquish all opposition and win the South Africa of our dreams during this lifetime.”

This quote implies the fruition of the “M” Plan, which had the aim of consolidating the Congress machinery. The successful establishment of the Congress of the People, constituted of various and diverse organizations committed to democracy, indicates that the majority of the population sought democracy in spite of the minority’s insistence on fascism and an unrepresentative state body.

“The leading organization of the African people is the African National Congress. Congress has repeatedly denounced apartheid. It has repeatedly endorsed the Freedom Charter, which claims South Africa ‘for all its people.’”

Here, Mandela succinctly states that the African people oppose apartheid and embrace democracy. This quote comes after a discussion of NP and LP spokespersons who claimed that the African people did not desire integration. Mandela wryly notes that if the government did not block African people from representation in government, it would not need to speculate on their desires. 

“The abolition of African representation in Parliament and the Cape Provincial Council shows that the real purpose of the scheme is not to concede autonomy to Africans but to deprive them of all say in the government of the country in exchange for a system of local government controlled by the minister who is not responsible to them but to a Parliament in which they have no voice. This is not autonomy but autocracy.”

Mandela exposes the true intentions of another of the government’s apartheid schemes. The discussion in this chapter on the Bantustan policy and the purported path to “self-government” for Black African people includes attention to the government’s use of misleading titles for its policies to obscure those policies’ true aims. Mandela’s analysis draws out the implications of policy that government officials obscured in their presentation to the parliament. 

“My Lord, up to 1949 the leaders of the ANC had always acted in the hope that by merely pleading their cause, placing it before the authorities, they, the authorities, would change their hearts and extend to them all the rights that they were demanding. But the forms of political action which are set out in the Programme of Action meant that the ANC was not going to rely on a change of heart. It was going to exert pressure to compel the authorities to grant its demands.”

This quote is from the Treason Trial transcript. It is one of the first times Mandela argues that the ANC was essentially forced to adopt alternative strategies since the government refused to acknowledge and respond to the ANC’s constitutional means of advocacy for the African people. In the face of the government’s refusal to acquiesce to the people’s demands, the ANC adopted the Programme of Action, in which it resolved to peacefully agitate through direct action.

“The theme of the conference was African unity and the calling, by the Government, of a national convention of elected representatives of all adult men and women, on an equal basis, irrespective of race, colour or creed, with full powers to determine a new democratic constitution for South Africa.”

Here, Mandela refers to the All-In African Conference held in March 1961, and he succinctly states its primary demand. The government’s failure to call the national convention resulted in the NAC launching the noncooperation/ non-collaboration campaign, beginning with the General Strike.

“Even up to the present day the question that is being asked with monotonous regularity up and down the country is this: Is it politically correct to continue preaching peace and non-violence when dealing with a Government whose barbaric practices have brought so much suffering and misery to Africans?”

In Mandela’s analysis of the General Strike, he addresses the concerns of the ANC regarding their nonviolent strategy. The question of nonviolence was a constant source of debate within the movement, particularly given that the government responded to the people’s nonviolent strike with much violence and force. This quote is an important antecedent to the establishment of Umkonto we Sizwe.

“We are the people of this country. We produce the wealth of the gold mines, of the farms, and of the industry. Non-collaboration is the weapon we must use to bring down the Government. We have decided to use it fully and without reservation.”

Mandela reiterates that the workers are the lifeblood of the South African economy. Thus, the General Strike specifically and the non-collaboration campaign generally constituted an effort to pressure the government to meet the people’s demands by demonstrating the masses’ power over the economy.

“Any serious politician will realize that under present-day conditions in this country, to seek for cheap martyrdom by handing myself to the police is naive and criminal. We have an important programme before us and it is important to carry it out very seriously and without delay.”

Mandela expresses his commitment to continue leading the non-collaboration from underground. By this time, the government had issued a warrant for his arrest, but he decided not to surrender himself on the advice of trusted friends and comrades. Mandela frames this decision as politically correct and vitally important to the continuation of the resistance movement.

“For my own part I have made my choice. I will not leave South Africa, nor will I surrender. Only through hardship, sacrifice, and militant action can freedom be won. The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.”

Mandela reiterates his commitment to continuing the liberation struggle from underground. It is important to note that while Mandela here stated he would not leave South Africa, the ANC later came to the decision that he should appear at the PAFMECA conference in Addis Ababa as the ANC delegate and thereafter embark on an African tour to amass international support for the South African movement. The creation of Umkonto was a significant development towards the decision that he should indeed leave South Africa.

“South Africa is known throughout the world as a country where the most fierce forms of colour discrimination are practised, and where the peaceful struggles of the African people for freedom are violently suppressed. It is a country torn from top to bottom by fierce racial strife and conflict and where the blood of African patriots frequently flows.”

Mandela made this statement in his address to the PAFMECA assembly. In the address, titled “A Land Ruled by the Gun,” he articulates the dire situation in South Africa to plead the case for continued international support of the movement. The note regarding South Africa’s reputation around the world alludes to the impact of the NAC’s call for international solidarity through diplomatic and economic sanctions. While the UN had not by this time imposed sanctions on South Africa, this quote implies that awareness of the South African situation had, at the very least, become international.

“The struggle in the areas still subject to imperialist rule can be delayed and even defeated if is uncoordinated. Only by our combined efforts and united action can we repulse the multiple onslaughts of the imperialists and fight our way to victory. Our enemies fight collectively and combine to exploit our people.”

Here, Mandela expresses the importance of support from nations that have gained independence and been successful in the struggle against imperialism. He goes on to call out the governments of South Africa, Portugal, the Central African Federation, Southern Rhodesia, and Katanga for supporting one another’s imperialist regimes. This quote points to Mandela’s complex analyses of the political situation and the concrete conditions to which leaders in the resistance struggle needed to respond.

“In such a grave situation it is fit and proper that this conference of PAFMECA should sound a clarion call to the struggling peoples of South Africa and other dependent areas, to close ranks, to stand firm as a rock and not allow themselves to be divided by petty political rivalries whilst their countries burn. At this critical moment in the history of struggle, unity amongst our people in South Africa and in the other territories has become as vital as the air we breathe and it should be preserved at all costs.”

Mandela underscores his point about the need for internal and international solidarity. After posing the question of what role PAFMECA should play in the South African struggle, this quote answers the question—that it should encourage solidarity amongst the South African people.

“The law as it is applied, the law as it has been developed over a long period of history, and especially the law as it is written and designed by the Nationalist Government, is a law which, in our view, is immoral, unjust, and intolerable. Our consciences dictate that we must protest against it, that we must oppose it, and that we must attempt to alter it.”

Here, Mandela answers the question of why he (a lawyer), other political leaders, and the masses defied the laws of South Africa. Earlier in this defense argument, he argued that he was neither morally nor legally obligated to follow the laws of South Africa, given that the authority of government derives from the will of the people and that most of the South African population had no parliamentary representation. Mandela therefore maintains that he and his fellow resisters are not legally implicated in their defiance.

“For to men, freedom in their own land is the pinnacle of their ambitions, from which nothing can turn men of conviction aside. More powerful than my fear of the dreadful conditions to which I might be subjected is my hatred for the dreadful conditions to which my people are subjected outside prison throughout this country.”

Throughout his writings, Mandela emphasizes the ineffectiveness of government in deterring the resistance movement. He continues this point here in his defense argument, telling the court that there is no penalty it could impose on him that would diminish his commitment to continuing the liberation struggle.

“The avoidance of civil war had dominated our thinking for many years, but when we decided to adopt violence as part of our policy, we realized that we might one day have to face the prospect of a such a war. This had to be taken into account in formulating our plans. We required a plan which was flexible and which permitted us to act in accordance with the needs of the times; above all, the plan had to be one which recognized civil war as the last resort, and left the decision on this question to the future. We did not want to be committed to civil war, but we wanted to be ready if it became inevitable.”

This quote demonstrates the foresightedness and responsiveness of the ANC with regards to Umkonto and the adoption of violent resistance tactics. It justifies the military training that Mandela both underwent and organized for Umkonto members. Although the initial strategy involved planned acts of sabotage on government buildings without loss of life, the ANC’s awareness of the atmosphere of civil war (created by the government’s violent tactics) and the compulsory military training of white South Africans necessitated the training of Umkonto members should civil war become the reality.

“Above all, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the Whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the White man fear democracy.”

Mandela succinctly expresses why white South Africans, specifically those who supported white domination, opposed a democratic structure. They were the minority population and could only maintain their dominance by denying equal representation to the non-white population. The quote also implies the non-white population’s awareness that a democratic structure would eradicate white dominance and allow them to improve their situations.