Long Walk to Freedom

At a press conference the next day, Mandela repeatedly stresses his unfailing loyalty to the ANC, that armed struggle would continue until the government negotiated, and that international sanctions on South Africa should not be lifted. He also reiterates the policy of the ANC, which he supported, that white South Africans are still South African and have a place as equal citizens in a post-apartheid system.

Mandela addresses a crowd of 120,000 people at a stadium in Soweto the next night. As he and Winnie return to their old home, it sinks in that he is a national icon, a father of the country, and will never have a normal life after this.

On February 27, Mandela flies to Lusaka to meet with the ANC’s National Executive Committee. After his transfer to Pollsmoor, he was unable to receive news of conditions for the ANC. Now, he knows he must put to rest persistent rumors that he was compromised in his final years in prison.

After dealing with ANC business, Mandela tours Africa for the next six months, a situation with which Winnie was unhappy. He also travels to Stockholm to visit Oliver Tambo, who was recovering from a stroke, and London for a concert in his honor.

Besides the Nationalist government, the ANC must also contend with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a Zulu nationalist party led by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Buthelezi, prime minster to the Zulu king, is a long-time critic of ANC resistance efforts but, nevertheless, an unwavering supporter of Mandela’s release. Mandela hopes to mend relations between the ANC and IFP, but the two organizations are unable to come to an accord. Still, Mandela hopes to reach the Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, and separate him from Buthelezi.

Meanwhile, in Natal, Inkatha partisans are killing ANC supporters, and the situation risks devolving into an intra-African civil war.

The first negotiations between the apartheid government and the ANC are set for April 1990, but a police massacre in Sebokeng Township on March 26 so enrages Mandela that he announces the suspension of talks.

Mandela returns to his hometown Qunu in April to visit his mother’s grave. The locals are much more politically aware than when he was a child, but he is distraught to see the villagers are even poorer than they had been 60 years ago. In the same month, Mandela persuades 25 political prisoners on Robben Island to accept an offer of amnesty.

The government and the ANC agree to resume talks in May, and by now, Mandela has a better sense of de Klerk’s character: “Mr. de Klerk was by no means the great emancipator. He was a gradualist, a careful pragmatist…He was not yet prepared to negotiate the end of white rule” (577). Mandela perceives that the National Party’s strategy is to woo Coloured voters on the Cape and ally with the IFP to form a new National Party while ANC enthusiasm declines.

Formal talks begin in early May, and it is the first time white and nonwhite leaders have negotiated as equals in South Africa. Early negotiation centers around defining “politically motivated crimes.” A memorandum laying out the major issues to resolve is drawn up, and the ANC demands an interim, transitional government is installed during the process of writing a new constitution.

In June, Mandela leaves on a six-week tour of Europe and North America. He refuses de Klerk’s request to call for an end to sanctions, as he is steadfastly opposed to ratcheting down pressure on the government. In the United States, he attempts to dissuade President George H.W. Bush from lifting sanctions.

On the way to Ireland, Mandela catches a chill; by the time he reaches the UK to meet Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he has pneumonia. Thatcher is determined to lift sanctions, and he can make no progress with her.

The year 1990 sees rising political violence—1,500 people are killed—and Mandela is eager to make progress. Roughly 40 ANC members are arrested for supposedly planning a communist revolution called Operation Vula. De Klerk tries to use this to split the ANC from the Communist Party, but Mandela is satisfied with his allies’ explanations and refuses. Mandela does agree, however, that the ANC should suspend its armed struggle to create better negotiation conditions. On August 6, the Pretoria Minute, which suspends the ANC armed struggle, is signed.

Despite the ceasefire, violence continues to spiral out of control, and it seems the authorities are uninterested in stopping it. Mandela begins to suspect the government is surreptitiously aiding the IFP. A government bill allowing Zulus to carry their traditional weapons to rallies makes explicit the government’s condoning of IFP violence.

In September, Mandela gives a speech saying a group of disaffected security forces is the driver of political violence. Mandela confronts de Klerk about police complicity and the government’s silence, but de Klerk never responds. Less than a month after signing the Pretoria Minute, Mandela worries that they may need to resume armed struggle.

In December 1990, Oliver Tambo returns to South Africa after three decades of exile. The other leaders are shocked when he recommends reevaluating the ANC’s sanctions policy, and his proposal is rejected.

Desperate to put an end to the violence between the IFP and ANC, Mandela meets with Chief Buthelezi in April 1991. Despite their mutual agreement to calm tensions, neither this meeting nor a later meeting results in action by IFP, and Mandela notes that violence by ANC members also continues. The ANC suspends talks in May 1991 following de Klerk’s intransigence.

In July 1991, the ANC conference is held in South Africa for the first time in 30 years. Mandela is elected President, and Cyril Ramaphosa, an important union leader and brilliant negotiator, is elected Secretary-General. The ANC then undertakes preparations for the election to select delegates to the constitutional convention in earnest.

That year, Winnie is put on trial for the kidnapping of four youths, as well as the murder of one. She is found guilty, sentenced to six years, and released on bail pending appeal. Mandela steadfastly maintains the she is innocent. 

On December 20, 1991, talks on the constitutional convention—the CODESA talks—formally begin between the government and all other parties. The PAC refuses to join; Mandela believes it is because elections would show they lacked a wide base of support. The IFP also contrives a reason to boycott the talks.

On the first day, most parties agree to the Declaration of Intent, committing all parties to an undivided South Africa with equal protection guaranteed by an independent judiciary. A second round of CODESA talks are scheduled for May 1992. However, in his closing speech, de Klerk chastises the ANC for not disclosing its weapons caches and keeping the MK as a “private army” (596). Mandela is enraged and takes the podium, angrily accuses de Klerk of abusing his position and continuing the government’s secret war on the ANC. The next day, Mandela and de Klerk try to appear friendly to avoid derailing negotiations, but both sides have lost trust in the other.

The National Party is facing pressure on its right flank from the new opposition party, the Conservative Party, so de Klerk holds a referendum (for the white population) on support for his reforms and negotiations. The referendum passes with 69 percent of the vote.

On April 13, 1992, Mandela holds a press conference to announce his separation from Winnie. In his statement, he thanks “Comrade Nomzamo” (600) for her strength and love but states they have irreconcilable differences. He says that he parts from her with “no recriminations” (600).

In this chapter, Mandela laments that his commitment to the struggle robbed him of the opportunity for a normal family life. He writes: “To be the father of a nation is a great honor, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy. But it was a joy I had far too little of” (600). 

The CODESA 2 talks start in May 1992, at which point the government is weakened by recent corruption scandals and evidence of its involvement in Inkatha attacks. Preparatory talks get hung up on the National Party’s last-minute proposal for a Senate that would enable a minority veto. CODESA 2 fails to make progress, but both parties agree to continue negotiations.

The ANC and its allies call for strikes, demonstrations, and boycotts to begin on June 16 and culminate in a two-day national strike on August 3 and 4. On the night of June 17, Inkatha partisans kill 42 people in the township of Boipatong. It is the fourth massacre of ANC supporters that week, but neither the police nor President de Klerk respond.

Mandela is furious and warns de Klerk that he will call a mass defiance campaign. He harbors serious doubts about the negotiation process: “The government was blocking the negotiations and at the same time waging a covert war against our people. Why then were continuing to talk with them?” (603). But Mandela decides he cannot abandon the process now.

On September 7, troops of the Ciskei Bantustan open fire on ANC supporters, killing 29. In this moment of deepest crisis, the National Party and the ANC begin talks again, and on September 26, Mandela and de Klerk sign the Record of Understanding. An independent police review board will be set up, the Inkatha worker-hostels will be fenced in, and Zulu weapons will be banned from public rallies. Most importantly, the Record of Understanding affirms the government’s acceptance of a single legislative body for the transitional government that will hold the constitutional convention.

Chief Buthelezi and the IFP withdraw from the negotiations and ally with reactionary Afrikaner parties who desire a white homeland within South Africa. Joe Slovo, secretary of South Africa’s Communist Party, suggests a “government of national unity” that would allow the National Party to join the governing coalition by default for a limited number of years.

In February 1993, the ANC and the government announce an agreement on a five-year government of national unity, a multiparty cabinet, and a transitional executive council with elections to be held as early as the end of the year.

In April 1993, Mandela is vacationing at his new home in Qunu when news arrives of the assassination of Chris Hani, a major leader of the MK and SACP. A member of an Afrikaner nationalist militia is arrested. Mandela, not de Klerk, is invited to the national broadcast to address the nation. Mandela implores all the peoples of South Africa to reject a return to violence and hate, and the ANC organizes mass demonstrations to prevent tension from boiling over. A member of the Conservative Party is soon arrested in connection with the assassination—more evidence of what Mandela calls the “Third Force.”

Two weeks later, Oliver Tambo dies of a stroke. Although they had been separated for over three decades, Mandela considers Tambo his greatest friend.

Details for the transitional government and subsequent government of national unity are ironed out, and Mandela and de Klerk are jointly awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. Mandela admits to being skeptical of awards, but he is moved by the honor, not least of all because he will be the third member of the antiapartheid movement to receive it.

The ANC begins campaigning for the 1994 general election immediately. The organization does not have practice operating as a political party contesting in elections and therefore must scramble to build campaign infrastructure and train volunteers.

The IFP and nationalist Afrikaner parties do not register for the elections, though by the end of February 1994, Mandela convinces Chief Buthelezi to have the IFP participate in the elections. Regardless, there are massacres of ANC supporters by IFP mobs throughout March, seemingly attempting to postpone the elections. When there is no postponement, Buthelezi accepts a constitutional role for the Zulu monarchy.

At the elections-only debate, Mandela hammers de Klerk and the National Party for attempting to stir race hatred between Coloureds and Africans and not wishing to spend resources on nonwhite people. Even so, he extends his hand to de Klerk at the end of the debate and offers to work with him.

Mandela casts his vote on April 27, in Inanda, Natal, the burial place of the ANC’s first president and where fighting between ANC and INF supporters has been the worst. Violence ceases during the four days of voting. In the final tally, the ANC wins 62.6 percent of the vote.

Now that he is confirmed as South Africa’s first post-apartheid president, Mandela sees his role as a facilitator of reconciliation and stresses that the struggle was against a system of oppression not any one race. The new government is inaugurated on May 10, 1994, and a military display demonstrates the armed forces’ allegiance.

To conclude his autobiography, Mandela summarizes the course of his life, his love for his fellow freedom fighters, and his unwavering belief that hate is learned and not intrinsic to any person. Although apartheid ended, he writes “we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free” (624) and says he has no time for rest since his “long walk is not yet ended” (625).