Freeing Mandela

Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela left Victor Verster prison in Paarl. Today South Africa and the world celebrates that epoch-shifting event.

After twenty-seven years the ANC leader, who had by the 1980s become a symbol of the anti-Apartheid movement and the embodiment of South Africa’s pariah status, was free. Mandela spent the bulk of his jail time on Robben Island where he turned the notorious prison into “Mandela University,” where a generation of anti-Apartheid leaders was trained to confront apartheid. The leadership cadre that emerged from the long years of National Party rule came broadly from two categories. There were the Robben Islanders and there were the Exiles. Mandela came to embody the thousands from the former group.

By the end Mandela’s imprisonment conditions softened. From Robben Island he moved on to Pollsmoor Prison, and from there to Victor Verster, where he lived in a home on the prison grounds. These changes came about as the result of the decision of PW Botha’s government to start meeting with Mandela, a process accelerated with FW de Klerk’s ascension to the Presidency. Throughout the negotiation process Mandela refused to consider himself first, never accepting release with preconditions, always keeping in mind that he was not the ANC but rather was of the ANC.

It has been twenty years since Mandela made the literal long walk from Victor Verster that represented the metaphorical long walk that he had endured over the decades. While it is easy to look at South Africa today and criticize policy x or politician y or social phenomenon z, keep in mind how nearly impossible the current state of South Africa would have seemed just a quarter century ago, in the terrible year of 1985.

Since then Mandela was released and the negotiation process culminated in Mandela’s election as the country’s first legitimate president. Madiba served one term in office, giving way to Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki left office under a cloud, to be sure, but Jacob Zuma came to office through a legitimate political process. The country never descended to the race war that many predicted would be the country’s fate. This year South Africa will host the World Cup. And God willing, Nelson Mandela will be at the Opening game in Soccer City when Bafana Bafana takes on Mexico to kick off the world’s biggest sporting event. South Africa has a long way yet to go. But let’s not forget how far it has come.

Historians are trained to be critical, not to engage in hagiography. Yet it is hard for me, on a day like this, not simply to revel in Mandela’s greatness, in his status as a giant of modern global history, in the power of his story. His long walk was South Africa’s. And on a day like today, perhaps South Africa”s long walk can be all of ours to share.