Is world politics solely determined by impersonal forces like the balance of power, capital
flows, and the advance of technology?
Or do people play some role in shaping the world in which we live?
I’m Jim Lindsay and this is Lessons Learned.
Our topic today is Prisoner Number 46664, better known to the world as Nelson Mandela.
He was released from a South African prison after twenty-seven years of confinement on
February 11, 1990.
Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa.
In his twenties, he joined the African National Congress, better known by its initials, the
ANC.
As a member of the ANC, he worked to end the system of apartheid, or white-majority rule
in South Africa.
Initially Mandela was committed to the principle of non-violent resistance that had been championed
by Mahatma Gandhi, who had led the Indian independence from Great Britain.
By 1961, however, Mandela had abandoned non-violent resistance to take the lead of the ANC’s
armed wing.
In a series of sabotage and bombing campaigns against the South African military and government
facilities, he tried to facilitate the end of apartheid.
But his campaign of military resistance didn’t last long.
In 1962, he was arrested, and first tried for sabotage and then for treason.
At his trial for treason Mandela justified his embrace of armed struggle and his abandonment
of non-violent resistance.
He argued it was justified on the grounds that the increased repression of the white
government in Pretoria had made violent resistance the only option.
At the conclusion of his trial he gave a stirring defense of the principles that had guided
his struggle.
>> Nelson Mandela: I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which
all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.
It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized, but may not.
If it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
>> Jim Lindsay: Despite his impassioned and eloquent defense, Mandela was sentenced to
life in prison.
He would spend the next quarter of a century behind prison bars.
He spent many of those years in South Africa’s infamous Robben Island prison, working at
hard labor in a lime quarry.
He would receive one visitor and one letter every six months.
If the South African government thought that imprisoning Mandela would stop his fame, they
were wrong.
Over the years as his fame grew, he became the symbol of the evils of apartheid.
In 1985, the white-majority regime in Pretoria offered Mandela the opportunity to go free
if he would renounce armed struggle.
He refused to.
Eventually the government in Pretoria recognized reality and in February 1990 Nelson Mandela
was released from prison.
As he left the prison, he spoke to the people of South Africa.
He refused to give up on armed struggle, but nonetheless said he hoped to negotiate a peaceful
end to apartheid.
Over the next years, Mandela would lead that successful effort to end apartheid and peacefully
transition to democratic rule.
In 1993, Mandela would be recognized for his successes with the Nobel Peace Prize; and
in 1994 Mandela would be elected in South Africa’s first free, open, and inclusive
elections as president of the country.
What is the lesson of Nelson Mandela’s experience?
At its broadest it reminds us that people do shape history.
People can make a difference.
Mandela’s courage and commitment brought the evil system of apartheid to an end and
changed the face of a nation.
We see similar examples of people making a difference today—differences both large
and small.
It might be Aung San Suu Kyi fighting for democratic transition in Burma, or a fruit
vendor like Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, who sacrifice sparked revolution that is sweeping
the Arab world.
We see it in the tireless efforts of countless people from government, from business, from
non-profit groups, working to tackle tough foreign policy problems.
I invite to join me in continuing the conversation at my blog, The Water’s Edge.
You can find at cfr.org.
This is Jim Lindsay, and I want to thank you for watching this installment of Lesson’s
Learned.