biography of a person who helped build democracy

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People who shaped and helped the growth of democracy

This is a selection of people in history, who have played an important role in the creation and growth of democracy.

Democracy means society is governed by the input and sanction of all members of society. Democracy means power does not rest in the hands of a few wealthy and privileged people, but people of all rank can have a say in the decision-making process.

Throughout history, democracy has been an evolution. Early democracies were limited to men, and people of certain status in society. But, these early democracies were still an important difference to the rule of absolute monarchs, dictators or oligarchs. Arguably, there are no ‘perfect democracies’ – But, some societies are more democratic than others.

In recent centuries, democracy has also come to include ideas such as liberty and individual freedom – treating everyone in an equal manner. Also given the rise in population size, direct democracy is rarely practised; instead democracy tends to involve elected representatives.

Key figures in the history of democracy

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan .   “People who shaped democracy”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 01/08/2013. Last updated 1 February 2018.

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South Africa as it stands today has been defined by its strength to overcome the apartheid era. On Freedom Day, every year on April 27, the country not only celebrates this, but reflects on the persistent battle it had to face to get to a point where every voice was heard. 

We cannot speak about Freedom Day or South Africa’s democracy without the image of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically-elected president, coming into view.

While his life is one that the country, and the whole world, will always honour, there are so many resilient freedom advocates who also dreamed of a united South Africa that deserve their props for helping the country achieve its democracy. 

These were the people on the ground, dedicating their lives to achieving a future that, at the time, seemed far out of reach. They gave South Africans hope and purpose in their plans to create a better future for the country. They consistently displayed their bravery by confronting the apartheid government head-on and speaking up for what they believed in. 

South Africa’s democracy was not built in a day. It took several movements, cost numerous lives, and tore the country apart time and time again before it was able to be put back together. Without strong citizens on the ground who took it upon themselves to lead the country towards a united future, South Africa would not be celebrating Freedom Day. 

While we celebrate these freedom fighters on April 27, it’s worth noting that there are so many more incredible leaders who couldn’t fit on this list, and they too must be honoured. 

1. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela 

To the majority of people around the world Madikizela-Mandela is known as Nelson Mandela’s former wife. However, in South Africa she is the “ mother of the nation ,” and an anti-apartheid heroine in her own right. Madikizela-Mandela kept the fire burning and the fight against apartheid going while many leaders were imprisoned or forced to flee the country.

Her struggle against the apartheid government cost her own freedom. In 1969, Madikizela-Mandela was locked in solitary confinement for 491 days at the Pretoria Central Prison where she was beaten and tortured.

In 1977, she was banished to a small town in the Free State province, formerly Brandfort, and still she did not accept defeat — Madikizela-Mandela inspired the youth and women in the area to become politically active. Her stay was not a peaceful one — she was harassed by the police on numerous occasions and they hassled anyone who tried to help her. She left Brandfort in 1985 to return to her home in Soweto to continue the fight. 

For her contribution to South Africa’s democracy during apartheid, she was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award , among other accolades. 

Madikizela-Mandela not only stood for Black women’s rights as the leader of the African National Congress’ Women’s League in 1993, she also occupied a seat in the National Assembly and continued advocating for the rights of Black people and women and girls as a member of parliament from 1994 to 2004. 

2. David Webster

Academic and anthropologist David Webster spent his life connecting with people in hardship and finding creative ways to amplify their stories. 

His very first protest against apartheid regulations was in 1965 at Rhodes University, when the then 22-year-old Webster organised a sit-in on the library steps against the city council’s decision to ban Black people from watching rugby games. 

He took this activism with him into the working world as a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. There he founded the Conference of Academics for a Democratic Society (CADS), which hosted a group of academics who believed in democracy, and was designed to pressure the university into getting involved with the community around them. He was also known for hosting social gatherings known as the “David Webster tea parties", which were for discussing creative ways to assist the liberation struggle.

Webster was assassinated in May 1989 in a hit ordered by the apartheid defence force’s security branch, the Civil Co-operation Bureau, who said he was involved in “terrorist activtities” . He died just nine months before Nelson Mandela was released from prison. 

3. Helen Suzman

Helen Suzman’s work of over 36 years, as a parliamentarian who stood for equality and human rights, came full circle when she served on the Independent Electoral Commission that oversaw the first democratic elections in 1994. 

Before this historic moment, Suzman used her voice as a Member of Parliament to speak up in the name of justice . She represented the Progressive Party in parliament, which was in opposition to the governing party during the apartheid era. For 13 years she stood as the sole representative voice for marginalized people in an all-white parliament, and was ridiculed for her stance. 

She criticised the governing party’s enforcement of apartheid regulations at the time, spoke for those who were wrongly imprisoned, and strongly opposed discrimination against Black women, among other things. In 1978 she was  awarded the United Nations Award for International League of Human Rights for her persistence in standing for social and political justice. 

After 1994 she sat as a member of the statutory Human Rights commission and stood alongside Nelson Mandela as he signed in the country’s new constitution in 1996.

4. Solomon Mahlangu

Solomon Mahlangu was a military operative and freedom fighter who fought against apartheid regulations during his short life.

At the young age of 20, Solomon Mahlangu was forced to leave school in Grade 8 when it was closed during the Soweto Uprising , which was a series of demonstrations led by Black schoolchildren.

He joined the African National Congress (ANC) and was sent to Mozambique to be trained as part of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the ANC, which was founded after the Sharpeville massacre — a mass shooting on a peaceful demonstration that left 69 dead and 180 injured. He received his training in Angola and Mozambique, and returned to South Africa in 1977 to join the student protests. 

Mahlangu is best known for being hanged for a double murder that he did not commit. When he returned to South Africa, he along with two companions were stopped by police and a gun fight ensued that left two civilians dead and two injured. While one accomplice managed to escape, Mahlangu and the shooter were arrested — the latter beaten so badly in custody that he was not fit to stand trial. 

Apartheid laws meant that Mahlangu was charged with the murders as an accomplice, and despite international protestations, his not guilty plea, and the acceptance from the judge that he was not the shooter, the apartheid state demanded the death penalty.  

Mahlangu was sentenced to death by hanging on March 2, 1978 and executed on April 6, 1979 at the Pretoria Central Prison. 

His last words were: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight.” 

5. Steve Biko

Steve Biko was an anti-apartheid activist who died in a police hospital after being interrogated by the South African police in 1977 — with his death sparking international protests and a UN arms embargo. Biko was strongly against the apartheid system and the white minority rule in South Africa. 

Biko spearheaded the formation of the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO), which fought against injustices faced by Black students when both their student groups and Black political organisations were illegal. 

He then went on to found and lead the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) alongside fellow activists, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele and Barney Pityana.

The BCM was an anti-apartheid movement that filled the power void when the ANC and Pan African Congress leaders were banished and jailed and was founded as a direct result of the Sharpeville Massacre in the late 1960s. The massacre saw around 300 South African police open fire on unarmed civilians who were peacefully marching against the apartheid  pass laws — a regulation that required Black people and other people of colour to carry a pass book whenever travelling so that the government could monitor their movements. 

The movement sought to empower young Black South Africans and inspire them to break themselves free from the chains of white governance. The BCM helped with the empowerment and mobilisation of Black people in urban areas. 

Before his death, Biko was handed a banning order that prevented him from speaking in public, and confined him to King Williams Town, in the Eastern Cape province. 

6. Albertina Sisulu

Albertina Sisulu was a nurse and freedom fighter. While working as a trainee nurse at Johannesburg General Hospital she encountered racism directly for the first time in her life  — with her white counterparts treated as superior to the Black nurses. 

Sisulu’s political journey began in 1984, when she joined the ANC Women’s League , the women empowerment division of the ANC. In 1956, Sisulu helped to organise the revolutionary anti-pass women's march . 

In her opposition and activisim against the Bantu education system, which divided people racially and was aimed at limiting the futures of Black people, she turned her own Soweto home into a makeshift school for Black children until the government passed a law prohibiting it. 

She and her husband, fellow anti-apartheid activist, Walter Sisulu, were harassed and arrested on several occasions for their political activities and willingness to stand up for Black people’s rights.

In 1963 , after her husband fled the country while waiting for his appeal against a six-year sentence, Sisulu and her son Zwelakhe Sisulu were arrested under the General Law Amendment Act of 1963 because she refused to tell the police the whereabouts of her husband. She was the first woman to be arrested under the act.

In 1994 she was elected to be a part of South Africa’s first democratic parliament. 

7. Lillian Masediba Ngoyi

Lilian Ngoyi joined the ANC in 1950 during their Defiance Campaign , the first and largest protest whereby South Africans of all races fought against the apartheid laws. 

Ngoyi had a talent for public speaking which won her recognition by the ANC, and in 1951 was elected as president of the ANC Women’s League. In 1954, the Federation of South African Women was formed and Ngoyi was elected as its president.

On Aug. 9, 1956 , together with Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, and Sophia Theresa Williams de Bruyn, Ngoyi led the women’s anti-pass march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, holding a petition signed by thousands of women to be delivered directly to Prime Minister Strijdom’s door.

Today, Aug. 9 is honoured as National Women’s Day in South Africa thanks to this historical action, and the Koos Beukes Clinic at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto was renamed Lilian Ngoyi Community Health Center in her honour.

8. Helen Joseph

Helen Joseph worked as an information and welfare officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War . After the war, she took a job with the  Garment Workers Union (GWU) — a union of factory workers that stood for women from all walks of life, regardless of race or class. The purpose of this union was also to fight for women of lower status who received low pay.

In 1955, she was one of the leaders who read out the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People — “a crucial historical moment in establishing a new order based on the will of the people…” and a “document that embodies the hopes and aspirations of Black people”, according to the University of KwaZulu-Natal . 

Joseph was also one of the organisers of the historical Women’s March on Aug. 9 1956. She was a founding member of the South African Congress of Democrats, a white anti-apartheid organisation, and also held the role of the national secretary of Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW).

9. Charlotte Maxeke

Maxeke was known as the "Mother of Black Freedom" in South Africa as she fought for women’s rights and also helped make quality education available to Black children after building a school in Evaton, Johannesburg.  

She helped organise the anti-pass movement in 1913, which aimed to end the laws that forced women, especially women of colour, to carry pass books with information of where they worked and commuted to so that the apartheid government could keep tabs on their movements.

Maxeke also founded  the Bantu Women’s League of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which was an organisation set up to fight for injustices faced by women, such as carrying passes. She then led a team of representatives to Prime Minister Louis Botha to address concerns around passes that had to be carried by women.

Maxeke also protested against low wages for the industrial workforce and participated in the formation of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) in 1920. She addressed the Women’s Reform Club, an organisation that fought for women’s voting rights. Maxeke set up an employment agency for Africans in Johannesburg as she was concerned about the welfare and future of African people.

10. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The current executive director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, is a passionate human rights, equality, and social justice advocate. Mlambo-Ngcuka was also actively involved in the liberation struggle to end apartheid in South Africa.

Mlambo-Ngcuka was part of the women’s rights movement that helped to ensure that women were represented in South Africa’s democratic constitution. In 1984, she was the youth director for the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Board in Geneva, where she was promoting the development of education in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Between 1987 and 1989 , she promoted economic independence and ran skills training programmes for women in informal settlements and African independent churches.

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10 South African Freedom Fighters (Who Aren't Nelson Mandela) That Everyone Should Know

April 27, 2021

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Biography of Nelson Mandela

Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo , in the Eastern Cape, on 18 July 1918. His mother was Nonqaphi Nosekeni and his father was Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. In 1930, when he was 12 years old, his father died and the young Rolihlahla became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni 1 .

Hearing the elders’ stories of his ancestors’ valour during the wars of resistance, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.

He attended primary school in Qunu where his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, in accordance with the custom of giving all schoolchildren “Christian” names.

He completed his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and went on to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute, where he matriculated.

Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but did not complete the degree there as he was expelled for joining in a student protest.

On his return to the Great Place at Mqhekezweni the King was furious and said if he didn’t return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. They ran away to Johannesburg instead, arriving there in 1941. There he worked as a mine security officer and after meeting Walter Sisulu, an estate agent, he was introduced to Lazer Sidelsky. He then did his articles through a firm of attorneys – Witkin, Eidelman and Sidelsky.

He completed his BA through the University of South Africa and went back to Fort Hare for his graduation in 1943.

Nelson Mandela (top row, second from left) on the steps of Wits University.

Meanwhile, he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand. By his own admission he was a poor student and left the university in 1952 without graduating. He only started studying again through the University of London after his imprisonment in 1962 but also did not complete that degree.

In 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment, he obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa. He graduated in absentia at a ceremony in Cape Town.

Entering politics

Mandela, while increasingly politically involved from 1942, only joined the African National Congress in 1944 when he helped to form the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).

In 1944 he married Walter Sisulu’s cousin, Evelyn Mase, a nurse. They had two sons, Madiba Thembekile "Thembi" and Makgatho, and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. He and his wife divorced in 1958.

Mandela rose through the ranks of the ANCYL and through its efforts, the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action, in 1949.

Nelson Mandela on the roof of Kholvad House in 1953.

In 1952 he was chosen as the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy. This campaign of civil disobedience against six unjust laws was a joint programme between the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. He and 19 others were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months of hard labour, suspended for two years.

A two-year diploma in law on top of his BA allowed Mandela to practise law, and in August 1952 he and Oliver Tambo established South Africa’s first black-owned law firm in the 1950s, Mandela & Tambo. 2

At the end of 1952 he was banned for the first time. As a restricted person he was only permitted to watch in secret as the Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955.

The Treason Trial

Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop on 5 December 1956, which led to the 1956 Treason Trial. Men and women of all races found themselves in the dock in the marathon trial that only ended when the last 28 accused, including Mandela, were acquitted on 29 March 1961.

On 21 March 1960 police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest in Sharpeville against the pass laws. This led to the country’s first state of emergency and the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on 8 April. Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among thousands detained during the state of emergency.

During the trial Mandela married a social worker, Winnie Madikizela, on 14 June 1958. They had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa. The couple divorced in 1996.

Days before the end of the Treason Trial, Mandela travelled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference, which resolved that he should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a national convention on a non-racial constitution, and to warn that should he not agree there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a republic. After he and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial, Mandela went underground and began planning a national strike for 29, 30 and 31 March.

In the face of massive mobilisation of state security the strike was called off early. In June 1961 he was asked to lead the armed struggle and helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), which launched on 16 December 1961 with a series of explosions.

Madiba travelled with his Ethiopian passport.

On 11 January 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi, Mandela secretly left South Africa. He travelled around Africa and visited England to gain support for the armed struggle. He received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia and returned to South Africa in July 1962. He was arrested in a police roadblock outside Howick on 5 August while returning from KwaZulu-Natal, where he had briefed ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli about his trip.

He was charged with leaving the country without a permit and inciting workers to strike. He was convicted and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, which he began serving at the Pretoria Local Prison. On 27 May 1963 he was transferred to Robben Island and returned to Pretoria on 12 June. Within a month police raided Liliesleaf, a secret hideout in Rivonia, Johannesburg, used by ANC and Communist Party activists, and several of his comrades were arrested.

On 9 October 1963 Mandela joined 10 others on trial for sabotage in what became known as the Rivonia Trial. While facing the death penalty his words to the court at the end of his famous "Speech from the Dock" on 20 April 1964 became immortalised:

“ I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. 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 which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. ” Speech from the Dock quote by Nelson Mandela on 20 April 1964

On 11 June 1964 Mandela and seven other accused, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni, were convicted and the next day were sentenced to life imprisonment. Goldberg was sent to Pretoria Prison because he was white, while the others went to Robben Island.

Mandela’s mother died in 1968 and his eldest son, Thembi, in 1969. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

On 31 March 1982 Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town with Sisulu, Mhlaba and Mlangeni. Kathrada joined them in October. When he returned to the prison in November 1985 after prostate surgery, Mandela was held alone. Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee visited him in hospital. Later Mandela initiated talks about an ultimate meeting between the apartheid government and the ANC.

A picture captured during a rare visit from his comrades at Victor Verster Prison.

Release from prison

On 12 August 1988 he was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After more than three months in two hospitals he was transferred on 7 December 1988 to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl where he spent his last 14 months of imprisonment. He was released from its gates on Sunday 11 February 1990, nine days after the unbanning of the ANC and the PAC and nearly four months after the release of his remaining Rivonia comrades. Throughout his imprisonment he had rejected at least three conditional offers of release.

Mandela immersed himself in official talks to end white minority rule and in 1991 was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend, Oliver Tambo. In 1993 he and President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize and on 27 April 1994 he voted for the first time in his life.

On 10 May 1994 he was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected President. On his 80 th birthday in 1998 he married Graça Machel, his third wife.

True to his promise, Mandela stepped down in 1999 after one term as President. He continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund he set up in 1995 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

In April 2007 his grandson, Mandla Mandela, was installed as head of the Mvezo Traditional Council at a ceremony at the Mvezo Great Place.

Nelson Mandela never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life is an inspiration to all who are oppressed and deprived; and to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.

He died at his home in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013.

1. Nelson Mandela's father died in 1930 when Mandela was 12 and his mother died in 1968 when he was in prison. While the autobiography Long Walk to Freedom says his father died when he was nine, historical evidence shows it must have been later, most likely 1930. In fact, the original Long Walk to Freedom manuscript (written on Robben Island) states the year as 1930, when he was 12.

2. have established that there were at least 2 other black owned law firms before Mandela and Tambo.

Biography of Stephen Bantu (Steve) Biko, Anti-Apartheid Activist

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Steve Biko (Born Bantu Stephen Biko; Dec. 18, 1946–Sept. 12, 1977) was one of South Africa's most significant political activists and a leading founder of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement . His murder in police detention in 1977 led to his being hailed a martyr of the anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson Mandela , South Africa's post-Apartheid president who was incarcerated at the notorious Robben Island prison during Biko's time on the world stage, lionized the activist 20 years after he was killed, calling him "the spark that lit a veld fire across South Africa."

Fast Facts: Stephen Bantu (Steve) Biko

• Known For : Prominent anti-apartheid activist, writer, founder of Black Consciousness Movement, considered a martyr after his murder in a Pretoria prison
• Also Known As : Bantu Stephen Biko, Steve Biko, Frank Talk (pseudonym)
• Born : December 18, 1946 in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa
• Parents : Mzingaye Biko and Nokuzola Macethe Duna
• Died : September 12, 1977 in a Pretoria prison cell, South Africa
• Education : Lovedale College, St Francis College, University of Natal Medical School
• Published Works : "I Write What I Like: Selected Writings by Steve Biko," "The Testimony of Steve Biko"
• Spouses/Partners : Ntsiki Mashalaba, Mamphela Ramphele
• Children : Two
• Notable Quote : "The blacks are tired of standing at the touchlines to witness a game that they should be playing. They want to do things for themselves and all by themselves."

Early Life and Education

Stephen Bantu Biko was born on December 18, 1946, into a Xhosa family. His father Mzingaye Biko worked as a police officer and later as a clerk in the King William’s Town Native Affairs office. His father achieved part of a university education through the University of South Africa, a distance-learning university, but he died before completing his law degree. After his father's death, Biko's mother Nokuzola Macethe Duna supported the family as a cook at Grey's Hospital.

From an early age, Steve Biko showed an interest in anti-apartheid politics. After being expelled from his first school, Lovedale College in the Eastern Cape, for "anti-establishment" behavior—such as speaking out against apartheid and speaking up for the rights of Black South African citizens—he was transferred to St. Francis College, a Roman Catholic boarding school in Natal. From there he enrolled as a student at the University of Natal Medical School (in the university's Black Section).

While at medical school, Biko became involved with the National Union of South African Students. The union was dominated by White liberal allies and failed to represent the needs of Black students. Dissatisfied, Biko resigned in 1969 and founded the South African Students' Organisation. SASO was involved in providing legal aid and medical clinics, as well as helping to develop cottage industries for disadvantaged Black communities.

Black Consciousness Movement

In 1972 Biko was one of the founders of the Black Peoples Convention, working on social upliftment projects around Durban. The BPC effectively brought together roughly 70 different Black consciousness groups and associations, such as the South African Student's Movement , which later played a significant role in the 1976 uprisings, the National Association of Youth Organisations, and the Black Workers Project, which supported Black workers whose unions were not recognized under the apartheid regime.

In a book first published posthumously in 1978, titled, "I Write What I Like"—which contained Biko's writings from 1969, when he became the president of the South African Students' Organization, to 1972, when he was banned from publishing—Biko explained Black consciousness and summed up his own philosophy:

"Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time. Its essence is the realisation by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression—the blackness of their skin—and to operate as a group to rid themselves of the shackles that bind them to perpetual servitude."

Biko was elected as the first president of the BPC and was promptly expelled from medical school. He was expelled, specifically, for his involvement in the BPC. He started working full-time for the Black Community Programme in Durban, which he also helped found.

Banned by the Apartheid Regime

In 1973 Steve Biko was banned by the apartheid government for his writing and speeches denouncing the apartheid system. Under the ban, Biko was restricted to his hometown of Kings William's Town in the Eastern Cape. He could no longer support the Black Community Programme in Durban, but he was able to continue working for the Black People's Convention.

During that time, Biko was first visited by Donald Woods , the editor of the East London Daily Dispatch , located in the province of Eastern Cape in South Africa. Woods was not initially a fan of Biko, calling the whole Black Consciousness movement racist. As Woods explained in his book, "Biko," first published in 1978:

"I had had up to then a negative attitude toward Black Consciousness. As one of a tiny band of white South African liberals, I was totally opposed to race as a factor in political thinking, and totally committed to nonracist policies and philosophies."

Woods believed—initially—that Black Consciousness was nothing more than apartheid in reverse because it advocated that "Blacks should go their own way," and essentially divorce themselves not just from White people, but even from White liberal allies in South Africa who worked to support their cause. But Woods eventually saw that he was incorrect about Biko's thinking. Biko believed that Black people needed to embrace their own identity—hence the term "Black Consciousness"—and "set our own table," in Biko's words. Later, however, White people could, figuratively, join them at the table, once Black South Africans had established their own sense of identity.

Woods eventually came to see that Black Consciousness "expresses group pride and the determination by all blacks to rise and attain the envisaged self" and that "black groups (were) becoming more conscious of the self. They (were) beginning to rid their minds of the imprisoning notions which are the legacy of the control of their attitudes by whites."

Woods went on to champion Biko's cause and become his friend. "It was a friendship that ultimately forced Mr. Woods into exile," The New York Times noted when Woods' died in 2001. Woods was not expelled from South Africa because of his friendship with Biko, per se. Woods' exile was the result of the government's intolerance of the friendship and support of anti-apartheid ideals, sparked by a meeting Woods arranged with a top South African official.

Woods met with South African Minister of Police James "Jimmy" Kruger to request the easing of Biko's banning order—a request that was promptly ignored and led to further harassment and arrests of Biko, as well as a harassment campaign against Woods that eventually caused him to flee the country.

Despite the harassment, Biko, from King William's Town, helped set up the Zimele Trust Fund which assisted political prisoners and their families. He was also elected honorary president of the BPC in January 1977.

Detention and Murder

Biko was detained and interrogated four times between August 1975 and September 1977 under Apartheid era anti-terrorism legislation. On August 21, 1977, Biko was detained by the Eastern Cape security police and held in Port Elizabeth. From the Walmer police cells, he was taken for interrogation at the security police headquarters. According to the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa" report, on September 7, 1977:

"Biko sustained a head injury during interrogation, after which he acted strangely and was uncooperative. The doctors who examined him (naked, lying on a mat and manacled to a metal grille) initially disregarded overt signs of neurological injury. "

By September 11, Biko had slipped into a continual semi-conscious state and the police physician recommended a transfer to the hospital. Biko was, however, transported nearly 750 miles to Pretoria—a 12-hour journey, which he made lying naked in the back of a Land Rover. A few hours later, on September 12, alone and still naked, lying on the floor of a cell in the Pretoria Central Prison, Biko died from brain damage.

South African Minister of Justice Kruger initially suggested Biko had died of a hunger strike and said that his murder "left him cold." The hunger strike story was dropped after local and international media pressure, especially from Woods. It was revealed in the inquest that Biko had died of brain damage, but the magistrate failed to find anyone responsible. He ruled that Biko had died as a result of injuries sustained during a scuffle with security police while in detention.

Anti-Apartheid Martyr

The brutal circumstances of Biko's murder caused a worldwide outcry and he became a martyr and symbol of Black resistance to the oppressive apartheid regime. As a result, the South African government banned a number of individuals (including Woods) and organizations, especially those Black Consciousness groups closely associated with Biko.

The United Nations Security Council responded by imposing an arms embargo against South Africa. Biko's family sued the state for damages in 1979 and settled out of court for R65,000 (then equivalent to $25,000). The three doctors connected with Biko's case were initially exonerated by the South African Medical Disciplinary Committee.

It was not until a second inquiry in 1985, eight years after Biko's murder, that any action was taken against them. At that time, Dr. Benjamin Tucker who examined Biko before his murder lost his license to practice in South Africa.   The police officers responsible for Biko's killing applied for amnesty during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, which sat in Port Elizabeth in 1997, but the application was denied.   The commission had a very specific purpose:

"The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to investigate gross human rights violations that were perpetrated during the period of the Apartheid regime from 1960 to 1994, including abductions, killings, torture. Its mandate covered both violations by both the state and the liberation movements and allowed the commission to hold special hearings focused on specific sectors, institutions, and individuals. Controversially the TRC was empowered to grant amnesty to perpetrators who confessed their crimes truthfully and completely to the commission.

(The commission) was comprised of seventeen commissioners: nine men and eight women. Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu chaired the commission. The commissioners were supported by approximately 300 staff members, divided into three committees (Human Rights Violations Committee, Amnesty Committee, and Reparations and Rehabilitation Committee)."  

Biko's family did not ask the Commission to make a finding on his murder. The "Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa" report, published by Macmillan in March 1999, said of Biko's murder:

"The Commission finds that the death in detention of Mr Stephen Bantu Biko on 12 September 1977 was a gross human rights violation. Magistrate Marthinus Prins found that the members of the SAP were not implicated in his death. The magistrate's finding contributed to the creation of a culture of impunity in the SAP. Despite the inquest finding no person responsible for his death, the Commission finds that, in view of the fact that Biko died in the custody of law enforcement officials, the probabilities are that he died as a result of injuries sustained during his detention."

Woods went on to write a biography of Biko, published in 1978, simply titled, "Biko." In 1987, Biko’s story was chronicled in the film “Cry Freedom,” which was based on Woods' book. The hit song " Biko ," by Peter Gabriel, honoring Steve Biko's legacy, came out in 1980. Of note, Woods, Sir Richard Attenborough (director of "Cry Freedom"), and Peter Gabriel—all White men—have had perhaps the most influence and control in the widespread telling of Biko's story, and have also profited from it. This is an important point to consider as we reflect on his legacy, which remains notably small when compared to more famous anti-apartheid leaders such as Mandela and Tutu. But Biko remains a model and hero in the struggle for autonomy and self-determination for people around the world. His writings, work, and tragic murder were all historically crucial to the momentum and success of the South African anti-apartheid movement.

In 1997, at the 20th anniversary of Biko's murder, then-South African President Mandela memorialized Biko, calling him "a proud representative of the re-awakening of a people" and adding:

“History called upon Steve Biko at a time when the political pulse of our people had been rendered faint by banning, imprisonment, exile, murder and banishment....While Steve Biko espoused, inspired, and promoted black pride, he never made blackness a fetish. At the end of the day, as he himself pointed out, accepting one’s blackness is a critical starting point: an important foundation for engaging in struggle."

• Biko, Steve. I Write What I Like . Bowerdean Press, 1978.
• “ Cry Freedom .”  IMDb , IMDb.com, 6 Nov. 1987.
• “ Donald James Woods .”  Donald James Woods | South African History Online , sahistory.org.
• Mangcu, Xolela. Biko, A Biography. Tafelberg, 2012.
• Sahoboss. “ Stephen Bantu Biko .”  South African History Online , 4 Dec. 2017.
• “ Steve Biko: The Philosophy of Black Consciousness ." Black Star News, 20 Feb. 2020.
• Swarns, Rachel L. “ Donald Woods, 67, Editor and Apartheid Foe .”  The New York Times , The New York Times, 20 Aug. 2001.
• Woods, Donald. Biko . Paddington Press, 1978.

“ Apartheid Police Officers Admit to the Killing of Biko before the TRC .”  Apartheid Police Officers Admit to the Killing of Biko before the TRC | South African History Online , 28 Jan. 1997.

Daley, Suzanne. “ Panel Denies Amnesty for Four Officers in Steve Bikos Death .”  The New York Times , The New York Times, 17 Feb. 1999.

“ Truth Commission: South Africa .”  United States Institute of Peace , 22 Oct. 2018.

• Biography of Donald Woods, South African Journalist
• South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement in the 1970s
• What Was Apartheid in South Africa?
• Memorable Quotes by Steve Biko
• Biography of Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu, South African Activist
• A Brief History of South African Apartheid
• Biography of Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu, Anti-Apartheid Activist
• The End of South African Apartheid
• Understanding South Africa's Apartheid Era
• South Africa's Extension of University Education Act of 1959
• Biography: Joe Slovo
• Chief Albert Luthuli
• Nelson Mandela
• Biography of Martin Thembisile (Chris) Hani, South African Activist
• Apartheid 101
• Pass Laws During Apartheid

Oliver Tambo

(1917-1993)

Who Was Oliver Tambo?

Early life and career.

Oliver Reginald Tambo was born on October 27, 1917, in the village of Bizana, South Africa to the Pondo people. Of modest farming origins, he earned a scholarship to attend the University of Fort Hare, the only university open to Black citizens in the country, where he studied education and science. He received his bachelor's degree in 1941.

Working With Nelson Mandela

In 1944, Tambo and Mandela, who came from the same region as Tambo and also attended Fort Hare, helped form the Youth League of the African National Congress. Tambo taught at a missionary school for a time but opted to study law, seeing legal action as a powerful tool in which to dismantle state-supported segregation. In 1952, he joined with Mandela to open the Johannesburg-based Mandela and Tambo, the first Black South African law firm. An Anglican, he also had considered a career in the priesthood.

Tambo became increasingly at the forefront of ANC political activity, further agitating against apartheid, the caste system enforced upon the native Black population by the white-controlled government. He and other party members were arrested in 1956 for treason, though later cleared. During this period, Tambo married Adelaide Tshukudu, a nurse and member of the ANC's Youth League; the couple would go on to have three children.

Appointed ANC Acting President

After the Sharpville demonstration massacre, where dozens of citizens were killed or hurt, the ANC took on the stance of using violent, militant tactics to overthrow apartheid. The party was banned by the government and Mandela would be sentenced to life imprisonment. Tambo was appointed to head the ANC in exile by the party's president, Chief Albert Luthuli. Tambo became acting party president in 1967, upon Luthuli's death.

Tambo established residences in Zambia and London, England, among other locales, and received party aid from some European countries, including Holland, East Germany and the Soviet Union. From abroad Tambo coordinated resistance and guerrilla movements, and, despite internal organizational struggles, was able to keep the multiracial ANC intact. During the 1980s, with the unrest in South Africa reaching chaotic heights under the P.W. Botha regime, Tambo was increasingly able to find Western support for the plight of the people, including economic boycotts.

Return to South Africa and Death

Though steadfast in his resolve, Tambo was noted for his grace, warmth and affection. He was able to return to his native country in 1990, when the ban against the ANC was lifted by new South African President F.W. de Klerk. In struggling health after having suffered a stroke, Tambo turned over party presidency to Mandela in 1991 and became chairman. Tambo died on April 24, 1993, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Oliver Tambo
• Birth Year: 1917
• Birth date: October 27, 1917
• Birth City: Bizana
• Birth Country: South Africa
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Oliver Tambo was the acting president of the African National Congress, the South African anti-apartheid political party. Tambo served primarily in exile.
• World Politics
• Astrological Sign: Scorpio
• University of Fort Hare
• Nacionalities
• South African
• Death Year: 1993
• Death date: April 24, 1993
• Death City: Johannesburg
• Death Country: South Africa

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• Article Title: Oliver Tambo Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
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• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: July 15, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
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• We are called terrorists. After 70 years, what would anybody do if the response had been murder, torture, life imprisonment? Who is a terrorist? Is it not the person who has been persecuting human beings simply because they are black?

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His Life and Legacy - Oliver Tambo

Oliver Reginald Tambo , leader of the African National Congress in exile for thirty years, died on 23 April 1993. Yet his legacy lives on. Comrade O.R. left us a significant and enduring heritage, one, which enhanced our new constitution, contributed to the inclusive and equitable policies of our democratically elected government, and affirmed the abiding vision of the ANC itself.

The African National Congress has consistently produced leaders of the highest calibre. But Oliver Tambo, thoughtful, wise and warmhearted, was perhaps the most loved. His simplicity, his nurturing style, his genuine respect for all people seemed bring out the best in them. Comrade O.R.'s life was remarkable for the profound influence he had on the ANC during the difficult years of uncertainty, loneliness and homesickness in exile. During his fifty years of political activity in the ANC, Comrade O.R., as he affectionately came to be known, played a significant role in every key moment in the history of the movement, until his death. Oliver Tambo is a founder member and secretary of the ANC Youth League in 1944; the general secretary of the ANC from 1952; the mandated leader of the ANC's Mission in Exile 1960; the President of the ANC from 1977 until 1990; then National Chairperson until his death, in 1993.

What shaped the life of Oliver Tambo? What values and life skills enabled him to make such an important and enduring impact on the history of the African National Congress and on our new, democratic South Africa? Two major processes in Comrade O.R.'s early life moulded his style in politics and leadership - his traditional rural roots; and the expertise he acquired through education. Each experience was very different; yet O.R. combined them creatively to develop an approach, which was able to reach and empower a broad mass of the people, both nationally and internationally.

On an early summer morning on 17 October 1917, in the small village of Kantolo, about 20 kilometres, from Bizana, Pondoland, a son was born to Mzimeni, son of Tambo, and his third wife, Julia.

Pondoland, known for its green, fertile and available land, had been the last chiefdom in South Africa to remain independent. The annexation of Pondoland had taken place within Oliver Tambo's parents' lifetime. It was an act that completed the process of colonial dispossession of South Africa. Tambo's father was acutely conscious of this British assault on Pondoland; the naming of his son 'Kaizana', after Britain's enemy, the Kaizer of Germany during World War One, was making a pointed statement.

The Tambo homestead was unusually large:’ a big kraal, as distinct from a two-hut home, of which there were many', remembered O.R. The homestead consisted of the paternal grandparents, their three sons, and their wives and children. Oliver's father, Mzimeni, who was not a Christian, had four wives (though he married his youngest wife, Lena, only after his second wife died in labour). It is a tribute to Mzimeni that family relationships were harmonious. The wives had an excellent relationship, and the ten children were very close. Mzimeni was comfortably off. He owned at least 50 cattle at one time, several fine horses and an ox-wagon. These resources led to trading and transport opportunities. Mzimeni was not literate - 'my father had not seen the inside of a classroom'. His prosperity was largely due to his own enterprise. Shrewd, creative and quick to seize an opening, Mzimeni sought and gained employment as an assistant salesman at the nearby trading store. This exposure to a more commercial economy taught Mzimeni a number of skills and widened his world.

Two women in O.R.'s life, his own mother, and his father's third wife were Christians. They also opened up new horizons. Oliver's mother was a sociable and energetic person who could read and write. She established her home as the local headquarters of the Full Gospel Church. Tambo recalled occasions when there were large, bustling gatherings of worship in his mother's hut. Eventually, perhaps because of her influence, Mzimeni himself converted to Christianity, and had all his dependents baptised.

In that somewhat large and busy homestead, Kaizana had an active, happy and traditional childhood. From as early as three or four years old, young Kaizana was learning the essential skills of the rural economy, and the practical discipline that went along -with it. Tambo vividly recalled the duties of the small boys, describing their fairly heavy responsibilities in tending the calves, and ensuring that the animals were permitted to suckle only after milking. As the boys grew older and were able to accept more responsibility, they were given the task of herding the cattle.

The young Tambo took pride in taking responsibility for more grown up tasks. He learnt to plough; He mastered the difficult craft of spanning a team of oxen. He taught them to obey commands ‘in such a way as the whole team pulls together’.

The whole family contributed to the homestead economy. Work was practical and rewarding. Unlike labour in industrial society, it was not separated from home or community. Herding, like other productive activities, would be done in groups, and would include social interaction and cooperation.

In a society where everyone knew almost everyone else, group pressure was a strong form of discipline. The Amapondo like many polities in southern Africa, had a consensus approach to decision-making. Between headmen and the community, as well as between chiefs and the people, there was a balance of power. In his autobiography. President Mandela recalled how 'at a council meeting, or imbizo, everyone was heard: chief and subject, warrior and medicine man, shopkeeper and farmer, landowner and labourer... It was democracy in its purest form'.

After thorough discussion, the chief and his advisers would get the feel of the meeting. Opponents of the plan were encouraged to speak out. Chiefs relied on their councillors to prevent them from acting contrary to popular will. This very sound practice, of never straying too far away from their constituencies - was to play a profoundly important role in the ANC style of leadership of both Tambo and Mandela By the time little Kaizana was old enough to herd, a cash economy had already begun to infiltrate the area. Regularly, young men from Kantolo would take the 25-kilometre trip to Bizana, where there was a recruiting station for the coalmines in KwaZulu-Natal and the gold mines in Gauteng, in order to earn money for taxes. All of Oliver's older brothers became wage labourers, both the traditionalists, such as Willy and Zakele, and the younger Christians such as Wilson and Alan. The migrant labour system was indeed an integral part of the homestead economy, and became Migrant labour also brought risk and adversity. The health of Wilson, Oliver's older brother, was ruined when he contracted TB in the compounds of the sugar plantations and had to return home, permanently unfit for strenuous work. In about 1929, the Tambo family suffered a major tragedy: Oliver's uncle and his older brother Zakele were killed in an underground fire in the Dan Hauser coal mine. Aside from the heartbreak and personal anguish, the deaths of two healthy and productive members of the homestead was a severe economic blow, and further hastened the until the end of his life, Oliver Tambo remained deeply attached to his traditional culture. But, thanks to the shrewd insight of his father, O.R. was also able to learn the skills of the colonisers.

Although Mzimeni Tambo was a traditionalist, he also saw the value of western education. Working in the trading store for many years, Mzimeni had been impressed by two aspects of the white trader: that his learning enabled him to run an independent business and keep its books; and that his relative wealth gave him power and status. As Comrade O.R. observed:

People went to him to buy. He had a car, horses - he was a reference point to the community - and he had servants. In general he was a chief in his own right. He certainly was something above the level of ordinary people. It was exactly this difference of levels that my father was targeting, in insisting that his children should go to school.

On his first day, young Kaizana was asked to come to school with a new, 'English' name. After his mother and father discussed it at length that evening, the little boy took his new name to his teacher. It was, he said, to be 'Oliver’. The schoolteacher turned out to be very strict, and would beat the children for the slightest offences. Oliver began to dread school, and would find any excuse not to take the long ten-mile walk to school. Mzimena was so determined that his children should persevere that he moved the children several times to other schools. As he grew older, Oliver began to want to leave home.

My age group, some of them, had left their homes, crossed the Umtamvuna and went to Natal to work - some in the plantations. And some were coming back, big stout chaps already. They were young men, and I was still going to this school. So I began to think in terms of leaving, escaping to go and work there as a garden boy or even in the sugar plantations. I would work there and bring back money to my parents - that's what everyone else was doing.

One day, when Oliver was about eleven years old, he met a lad who was in the debating society of another school. He and his friends were deeply impressed with the ease with which this youngster spoke English. That experience changed Oliver's attitude to education. He had discovered in himself a love of discussion and debate, and English seemed to be the key to skills, independence and power.

Not long afterwards, Oliver was given the opportunity, through a family friend, to enrol at the missionary school at Flagstaff, called Holy Cross. By this time, Oliver's father did not have money to pay the fees. But Oliver was so anxious to stay, that the school itself managed to find two kind English sisters who sent the sum of ten pounds a year for Oliver's schooling. His older brother, working as a migrant in faraway KwaZulu-Natal, also sent an additional amount from his hard-earned wages to make up the shortfall in the fees.

From then onwards, Oliver never looked back. Really motivated to learn now, he starred in class. After five years at Holy Cross, his teachers found him a place in the well-known black school of St Peter's in Johannesburg. Many years later. Comrade O.T. linked the kind deed of the English ladies to the international support 'for those engaged in the struggle for liberation from oppression and the apartheid system in particular' in the years to come.

'They were total strangers to us as we were to them. They intervened tirelessly to save the careers of two unknown youngsters who but for their intervention, might have bad to say goodbye to Holy Cross and goodbye to education as well as goodbye to a future of possible usefulness to humanity... They bad stretched a couple of bands across the lands and oceans to the south of the continent of Africa to give aid and support to two unknown children. Two unknown African children.'

Oliver finished his schooling at St Peter's in Johannesburg, a school which exposed him for the first time to boys from other provinces, who spoke other African languages, and also to fast-talking city youngsters. For the first time, in the streets of Johannesburg, he was exposed to race prejudice and segregation but city life was to be his future. Within a year, first his mother and then his father passed away - at the age of sixteen, he was orphaned.

His parents did not live to delight in their son gaining top marks in matric. In those days all scholars in the Transvaal, black and white, wrote the same examination. The black press reported the achievement with great pride that this excellent scholar was from the Transkei, the eastern Cape assembly of chiefs, the Bhunga, granted Oliver a bursary of 30 pounds a year to study at Fort Hare.

Oliver decided to study science. There was an imbalance, he decided, in the black professions there were too many B.A. candidates. Ideally, he had wanted to study medicine; but at the time no university would accept black students. Three years later, Oliver Tambo graduated with a B.Sc. degree in physics and maths. The following year he enrolled for a diploma in higher education. O.T. had a calm and quiet disposition, but he made an impact on his lecturers and his fellow students. He was deeply religious, yet he was also an intellectual. His future friend, partner and comrade, Nelson Mandela, recalled his first impressions of Oliver:

I became a member of the Students Christian Association and taught Bible classes on Sundays in neighbouring villages. One of my comrades on these expeditions was a serious young science scholar whom I had met on the soccer field. He came from  Pondoland, in the Transkei, and his name was Oliver Tambo. From the start, I saw that Oliver's intelligence was diamond-edged; be was a keen debater and did not accept the platitudes that so many of us automatically subscribed to. Oliver lived in Beda Hall, the Anglican hostel, and though I did not have much contact with him at Fort Hare, it was easy to see that he was destined for great things.'  Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom.

Oliver was elected chairperson of the students' representative council of his Anglican residence, Beda Hall. But before his last year at Fort Hare was through, he was expelled for organising a student protest on a point of principle. He then left the university and went home to Kantolo, planning to look for a job - any job, for he had the younger members of the homestead to support. But the news of his expulsion reached his old school, St Peter's. They immediately offered him a post as Maths, master.

Once again, Oliver was in Johannesburg, and once again, he was in the news amongst the black community. In downtown Johannesburg near Diagonal Street was an estate agent called Walter Sisulu with an office, which attracted the young black elite - the teachers, lawyers, journalists and intellectuals who loved a good discussion on politics and life. Sisulu was keen to meet Tambo, and in due course, friends brought the brilliant scholar around. Tambo at once took to the slightly older man, who had not had much formal higher education, but was seasoned in the hard knocks of city life and had acquired a wealth of wisdom and political insights. Sisulu was interested in marshalling the abilities of the young people who came to his office in the service of their community. At Sisulu's office, Tambo met other like-minded young men - Anton Lembede, A.R Mda, Jordan Ngubane as well as a fellow student whom he remembered from Fort Hare - Nelson Mandela.

Nevertheless, they agreed, the ANC  was  the organisation with a long tradition and my honourable nationalist vision, which they felt they could work with. The group decided on a plan of action to revive Congress. Meeting regularly at the Bantu Men's Social Centre, they decided to put a resolution to the next annual congress.

In 1944, the ANC Congress in Batho, Bloemfontein formally created the ANC Youth, League, as well as a Women's League. Anton Lembede was elected chairman, Oliver ambo secretary and Walter Sisulu treasurer of the new organisation.

AFRICA'S CAUSE MUST TRIUMPH', declared the Youth League manifesto. 'We believe that the national liberation of Africans will be achieved by Africans themselves... We believe in the unity of all Africans from the Mediterranean Sea in the North to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans in the South... and that Africans must speak with one voice.

The Youth League undertook to provide a three-year programme to mobilise the ordinary black people of South Africa.

In the meantime, Tambo was making an enduring impact on his students at St Peters. Dozens of his students remembered his distinctive, interactive and encouraging style of teaching, using methods, which were well ahead of their time.  O.R. inspired many to take up teaching too. After hours, he introduced the concepts of the Youth League to his senior students. Some of them went on to join the movement and become prominent comrades. Amongst them were Andrew Mlangeni, Henry Makoti, Duma Nokwe, Joe Matthews, Vella Pillay and a number of others - although another pupil took a different political direction - Lucas Mangope.

In 1948, the National Party was voted into power by the white electorate. They immediately set about extending and introducing a host of racially discriminating laws. The existing pass laws were tightened up to control labour and the movement of black people. These laws needed to be challenged and resisted. O.R. decided to study law by correspondence, through Unisa, while continuing his teaching. After serving his articles he qualified, then in 1952 joined Nelson Mandela to start an immensely successful firm of attorneys, dedicated to assisting black people against the oppressive apartheid legislation.

Chief Albert Luthuli was elected President thousands of people. It also resulted in a spate of banning orders for its leaders. After Walter Sisulu was banned, Oliver Tambo became national secretary. He and Chief Lutuli, highly respected for his refusal to be 'bought off as a chief by the apartheid regime, worked together on the ANC's programme of mass campaigns and policy during the remainder of the decade. O.R. was deeply influenced by Luthuli's simplicity and integrity.

The ANC is the parliament of the people', Luthuli declared. In 1955, the Congress of the People presented to the nation the Freedom Charter, which reflected the grass roots demands of a democratic South Africa. O.R. was a member of the National Action Committee, which had drafted the clauses based on the popular vision. The following year, he, Luthuli, Mandela, Sisulu and 152 others were arrested for High Treason. But after the preliminary hearings, O.R. and Chief Luthuli were acquitted. In the meantime, with the bulk of the ANC leadership still on trial, Tambo and Luthuli had to continue to lead the struggle. During this period O.R. also updated the ANC constitution, presenting a more detailed, enlightened and inclusive vision, based on the ANC's formal acceptance of the Freedom Charter.

There were some Africanists, within the ANC though, who had a problem with this broader all-encompassing definition of the nation. They were also unhappy with the formation of the ANC Alliance, which consisted of the South African Indian Congress, the South African Coloured People's Organisation, the tiny white Congress of Democrats and the South African Congress of Trade Unions. They felt that the 'non-African' organisations might easily come to dominate the ANC. Eventually, after a noisy confrontation at a regional meeting in 1959, chaired by Oliver Tambo; they broke away to form the Pan Africanist Congress.

In 1957, Oliver had become engaged to Adelaide Tsukudu, a Youth League activist and qualified nurse who worked at Baragwaneth Hospital (now renamed the Baragwaneth-Chris Hani Hospital). The wedding date, set for December 1956, was nearly derailed, as the bridegroom was arrested for High Treason. Fortunately, all the accused were granted bail, and the marriage took place, followed by a joyous wedding reception - for who knew what the future might bring!

O.R. was destined to see very little of his family once he went into exile. Adelaide Tambo became the breadwinner, working double shifts to provide for their children, Thembi, Dali andTselane. She also made her home a place of refuge for ANC members arriving in the UK.

There is a danger in celebrating the lives of men, that we do not properly acknowledge the central role of the women who maintained the household, raised the family and enabled their husbands to play a leading role in the movement. The ANC owes a great debt to them. The photograph below shows Oliver Tambo in Denmark in 1963Historic events had taken place in the last couple of years. On 21 March, I960, police fired on a crowd of people who gathered outside the Sharepville police station to protest against passes. Sixty-nine people died on that day. The event unleashed a storm of protest both at home and abroad. Panicking, the apartheid government banned the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress, and declared a state of emergency, jailing thousands of activists. Chief Luthuli, mandated by the ANC's executive, then instructed Tambo to leave the country to set up a Mission in Exile in order to gather international support for the liberation movement. Once they met O.K., the Scandinavian countries proved to be amongst the most supportive (together with the Netherlands) of the western countries. But it was not always plain sailing for the ANC. In the early period of the mission in exile, O.R. had to deal with many different countries with conflicting ideologies and policies. The governments of most western countries were unhappy with the ANC's willingness to work with the SACP and also its turn to armed struggle in 1962. In Africa, the movement's non-racial policy was seen as a drawback by many newly independent countries, which had fought against white colonialism. It was thanks to O.R.'s obviously genuine commitment, his insight, understanding and his ability to articulate the ANC vision, that negative images of the ANC were eventually dispelled. In 1962 O.R. and Mandela were delighted to meet again.  Mandela left South Africa illegally to help O.R. and the mission to raise support for the movement, and to explain the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the movement’s armed wing to international supporters. Mandela then returned home, to continue his struggle inside South Africa underground.

O.R. campaigned ceaselessly for international sanctions against the apartheid regime. The ANC's staunchest supporter was Father Trevor Huddleston, Oliver's old friend from St Peter's days. Dr Dadoo, leader of the SACP, was also particularly responsive to this economic weapon. The campaign grew to include the boycott of South African sports, arts, academic and all cultural interaction as well as South African export product.

After the arrest of the bulk of the ANC leadership, including Mandela, following Rivonia, the ANC was severely weakened internally. When Wilton Mkwayi was arrested and imprisoned, the position of Supreme Commander of MK was passed to O.R., in exile. The ANC set up its headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.That country's head of state, Julius 'Mwalimu' Nyerere generously donated land for the use of MK as well as any other programmes necessary for the ANC.

It was at Morogoro, Tanzania, that the ANC was able to hold its first conference outside South Africa, in 1969.The conference was sanctioned by the leadership on Robben Island, and was O.R.'s constructive response to criticism by cadres who were itching to return home to wage the armed struggle inside.

Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres in training for the Luthuli Detachment's first military battle against the combined forces of Vorster and Smith .in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), 1967. After the arrest of Nelson Mandela and Wilton Mkwayi, O.R. became Supreme Commander of M.K.

One of the leading protesters was Chris Ham, who had been jailed for two years in Botswana following the ambitious military campaign to invade South Africa via the hostile territory of Rhodesia, through Wankie. 'I blew my top,' Chris Hani remembered. While much of the leadership was furious -with Hani's outburst and wanted to discipline him severely, it was O.R. who was able to overlook the provocation, and really listen to the points Hani was making. The outcome of the Morogoro conference was a significant step forward. Conference agreed that in future political interest was to take precedence over the military, and that a Revolutionary Council (RC) be formed to give direction. The non-racial composition of the RC, though, proved to be a problem with a small, Africanist group of middle-level membership. After many discussions with O.R., they were unable to come to terms with the inclusion of'non-Africans' in the structures. Eventually, the Group of Eight, as they were called, broke away.

 It was to the credit of O.R., and the general esteem with -which he was held, that the split was contained, and did not spread further. Tambo was, as so many exiles have confirmed, the 'glue' that held the movement together during the most difficult and frustrating years in exile.

O.R. immediately began to raise funds from the international community to give these children shelter and education. As a successful teacher himself, O.R. was most concerned that these young exiles should first complete their schooling before joining the military struggle. With the help of comrades, O.R. also initiated the Luthuli Foundation, which allocated bursaries to serious students, placing them in friendly countries around the world.

The massacre by the apartheid regime's South African Defence Force (SADF) in Maseru, 1982, resulted in the deaths of 42 men, women and children, including 12 Basotho civilians. The bombing was part of a general destabilisation campaign on neighbouring countries which lent support to the ANC. Particularly threatening to South Africa was the sustenance the ANC received from socialist countries, including Cuba. The SADF embarked on a series of invasions into Angola, with the encouragement of the USA. It aimed both to drive out Cuban troops who had responded to the elected Angolan government's call for assistance, as well as to smash the MK camps. A series of bombing attacks and pitched battles occurred. At Cuito Cuanavale, MK helped to defeat the SADF. This was an enormous psychological victory for MK. But from then onwards, the struggle began to escalate.

In response to the penetration of selected cadres into South Africa, the SADF unleashed a series of raids on neighbouring countries. These included the bombing of civilian as well as MK targets in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho. Despite the very real threat to his life, O.R. unexpectedly appeared in Maseru - so dangerously close to South Africa's borders - to attend the funeral, and to grieve along with the families and comrades of those who were massacred.

The almost unbearable strain began to affect the movement. The apartheid government sent an ultimatum to the neighbouring countries - expel the ANC, or more raids - would follow. The ANC was obliged to -withdraw from some countries. It was becoming clear that the liberation movement had been infiltrated by informers and askaris. Suspects were questioned, and a number found guilty. In some camps, frustration and uncertainty introduced a climate of suspicion, even paranoia. Prisoners took the brunt of the tension. Eventually, the maltreatment of these prisoners came to the attention of O.R.. He appointed a committee of investigation, and eventually the abuses were curtailed. The committee -was also instructed to formulate a Code of Conduct for both MK and the ANC. A Bill of Rights followed, so that this appalling relapse into inhumanity might never occur again.

O.R. was foremost amongst those who advocated rights for women in the movement. Today’s constitution is an acknowledgement of O.R.'s highlighting gender sensitivity in the ANC nearly fifteen years earlier. Perhaps one of his most well known speeches is remembered for its gentle humour as well as for the challenge it presented to both men and women in the ANC:

Women in the ANC should stop behaving as if there was no place for them above the level of certain categories of involvement. They have a duty to liberate us men from antique concepts and attitudes about the place and role of women in society and the development and direction of our revolutionary struggle. In fear of being a failure. Comrade Lindiwe Mabuza cried and sobbed and ultimately collapsed on top of herself when she learnt she bad been appointed ANC Chief Representative to the Scandinavian countries. But, looking at the record, could any man have done-better?' - O.R.Tambo's speech to the Women's Section of the ANC, Luanda, Angola, 1981.

O.R. was always supremely aware of the value of spelling out clearly the policy of the movement, both to conscientise its members as well as to provide clear guidelines to its representatives in difficult situations. The ANC formally subscribed to the Geneva protocols. It also again revised and updated its constitution. In the preparations for the changes, O.R. made extensive contributions to the guidelines for the commission on the constitution. In the ANC's Bill of Rights, O.R. was also instrumental in foregrounding children's rights, and firmly declared a principled tolerance of sexual orientation.

Looking ahead, O.R made a firm policy statement on the necessity for a multi-party democracy after liberation, in which there would be freedom of speech, of assembly, of association, language and religion. This was an alternative to the one-party state model adopted by many independent African countries.

As mass resistance to so-called apartheid ‘reforms’ inside South Africa escalated in the 1980s, O.R. broadcast regularly on Radio Freedom. He called for a People’s War against apartheid. The democratic labour movement civic organisations, the National Education Crisis Committee, women and youth groups and other anti-apartheid organisations banded together to form the United Democratic Front. O.R. urged them to make the apartheid system ungovernable. State violence rapidly increased in order to suppress popular resistance to apartheid ‘reforms’ such as tricameral parliament, which consisted of whites, Coloureds and Indians only, and the new dummy local councils in the townships. Assassinations, tortures, deaths in detention, troops in the townships, and mounting anger.

At the ANC conference held in Kabwe in 1985, a sober assessment of the 'structural violence of apartheid' led to a decision to step up the armed struggle. O.R. continued to maintain the moral high ground, emphasising that civilian loss of life was still to be avoided. But henceforth military personnel and military officials would no longer be excluded in sabotage attempts. Nevertheless, O.R. did not attempt to deny, or 'sanitize' mistakes. A car bomb aimed at a military target but which killed four civilians was 'inexcusably careless'. He pointed out though, that the violence of apartheid was the cause of these incursions in the first place, At the Children's Conference held in Harare in 1987, to gather evidence on the widespread imprisonment of children, O.R. denounced the grisly method of necklacing. On behalf of the ANC leadership, he called on guerrillas to set an example by avoiding civilian casualties.

The economic weapon continued to be a major campaign. O.R.'s years of patient diplomacy and warm relations with anti-apartheid movements in western Europe and north America began to pay off. Sanctions and divestment campaigns amongst students, the churches, the African-American community, the trade unions and other progressive organisations in civil society were widely publicised, putting pressure on conservative governments to act against apartheid. Fund-raising campaigns and concerts reached a wide range of the population. Almost reluctantly, the Reagan and the Thatcher governments in the USA and the UK began to seek audience with the ANC leadership - they could no longer ignore the powerful popular support that the ANC enjoyed in South Africa, or indeed the widespread symbol that the movement had become, against the scourge of racism which existed throughout the world.

Similarly at home, more and more groups of people - Afrikaner intellectuals, various professionals, white trade unionists, sporting representatives and delegations from a variety of organisations - began to make the pilgrimage to the ANC's headquarters in Lusaka.

During the turbulent eighties, the war on many fronts also included the issue raised by O.R. early in 1985 - that of talks with the enemy. He had outlined the necessary conditions to enable negotiations to take place; firstly, he said, a clear mandate would be necessary from the ANC inside the country; secondly, the prospect of talks. But he also firmly and publicly rejected PW Botha's offer, made in parliament, to release Mandela provided he renounced violence. Lest there be doubts about his intentions, Madiba wrote a speech which his daughter Zindzi read out to an excited public gathering at Jabulani stadium in Orlando, Soweto:

In 1985, following PW Botha's offer to release Nelson Mandela provided he renounced violence, Zindzi Mandela read her father's speech at Jabulani stadium, in Soweto, 'I am a member of the African National Congress. I bare always been a member of the African National Congress and I will remain a member of the African National Congress until the day I die. Oliver Tambo is more than a brother to me. He is my greatest friend and comrade for nearly fifty years. If there is one amongst you who cherishes my freedom, Oliver Tambo cherishes it more, and I know that he would give his life to set me free.

' Echoing his comrade Oliver Tambo.’s sentiments, he went on:

Let [Botha] renounce violence. Let him say that be will dismantle apartheid. Let him unban the people's organisation, the African National Congress. Let him free all who have been imprisoned, banished or exiled for their opposition to apartheid. Let him guarantee free political activity so that people may decide who will govern them.

Once the possibility of negotiations became more likely, it fell on the ANC in exile to present the ANC's strategy for negotiations to its members and to the world. Under Tambo's guidance, a team prepared the Harare Declaration. The schedule was gruelling. As always, O.R. worked late into the night finalising the document, which required careful explanation. In the previous few years, his health had been visibly taxing him. In 1982 he had suffered a mild stroke, and his medical advisers pleaded with him to ease up on his work. Instead, he pledged to the movement that he would continue to work ceaselessly for freedom until the day he died. On 9 August 1989, as the delegation returned from its intensive presentations of the Harare Declaration, O.R. collapsed. He was rushed by plane, arranged by President Kenneth Kaunda, from Lusaka to London. He had suffered a severe stroke.

While O.R. lay in hospital, events occurred in quick succession. Within a few months, the ANC was unbanned and Mandela and other leading political prisoners released. As soon as he could, Mandela journeyed to Sweden, where O.R. was recuperating, to meet his old friend, after nearly thirty years' separation.

Though we had been apart for all the years that I was in prison, Oliver was never far from my thoughts. In many ways, even though we were separated, I kept up a life-long conversation with him in my head.

Their reunion was joyous.

When we met we were like two young boys in the veld, who drew strength from our love for each other.

In December 1990, Tambo returned home. At the first Congress inside South Africa since then banning of the ANC, he reported on the mission, which he had been mandated, to undertake. He was able to deliver the ANC, united and successful. Many years had passed, entailing much pain, sacrifice and the loss of many lives, but the movement's major principles remained intact. At the congress, Mandela was elected President of the ANC, with Oliver Tambo as National Chairman.

In his remaining three years back home, O.R. delighted in spending time at his sisters’ homestead in Kantolo, gazing at the mountains. Years earlier, in exile, he had longed to see that faraway, everpresent landscape of his childhood again. The mountain range, he said, had a special significance for him.

'Looking out from my home, the site of it commanded a wide view of the terrain as it swept from the vicinity of my home and stretched away as far the eye could see - the panorama bordered on a high range of mountains that were faced looking out from home. The Engeli Mountains were a huge wall that rolls in the distance to mark the end of very broken landscape, landscape of great variety and, looking back now, I would say of great beauty... But the nagging question was, what lay beyond the Engeli Mountains? Just exactly what was there?... How far would one be able to walk over the mountains to Egoli, Johannesburg? What sort of world would it be?...What did it conceal from my view? I saw two worlds. The one in the vicinity of my home... This was my world. I understood it from my mother's rondavel... I was part of this world. There was obviously another one beyond the Engele Mountains'.

In the early hours of 23 April 1993, Oliver Tambo suffered a massive, fatal stroke. His death came a mere two weeks after the murder of one of his most talented apprentices, Chris Hani.The shock of the assassination, as well as the very real threat of national mayhem narrowly averted, may well have hastened his own demise.

Oliver Tambo was accorded a state funeral. Scores of friends and heads of state from the international community - east, west and non-aligned - journeyed to bid him farewell. Oliver Tambo, after many years of toil and conscientious care, had led his people, like Moses, to the top of the mountain range. He did not live to see the other side.

Precisely a year after his death, the South African nation went to the polls in the first-ever democratic election. The African National Congress won an overwhelming victory. The people of South Africa had cast their vote of confidence in the ANC, and in the legacy that its leaders had imprinted on its vision. This was the moment for which Oliver Tambo willingly gave his life.

The first, hectic five years of democratic government have tended to overshadow the role of Oliver Tambo. Without him, and his close collaborator Nelson Mandela, the revolution might well have gone ahead, but it would not have taken the form that it did. Working closely with his comrades in exile, at home and on Robben Island, employing the time-honoured style of consensus and collective ownership of decisions. Tambo became the interpreter of the revolution - its teacher, its moral guide and its mediator. Oliver Tambo's ideas live on in our constitution, in the democratic and cooperative values of the African National Congress and in its vision for a just, inclusive and equitable society. At a time when we are taking stock, and preparing for the next phase of our history, it is important to reflect on our heritage and pay tribute to Oliver Tambo, revolutionary thinker, humanist and mentor.

It is our responsibility to break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither whites nor blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity.

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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla (Madiba) Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla (Madiba) Mandela is an amazing man who changed history in South Africa and brought democracy to the nation. Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the small village of Mvezo, near Umtata in Transkei, South Africa. His father was the Chief Councillor to the Superior Chief of the Thembu. As a young boy, he was being prepared to take over as the Chief of the Thembu. With the death of his father in 1930, he was placed under the care of his guardian and cousin, David Dalindyebo, the acting Chief of the Thembu.

While at home, a prepared marriage was being set up for him. To avoid getting married, Mandela and his cousin Justice moved to Johannesburg where he worked temporarily as a night watchman as he wanted to be a lawyer.

In Johannesburg, Mandela met Walter Sisulu who assisted him in finding employment as an articled clerk with a legal firm. When he completed his BA degree by correspondence in 1941, Mandela enrolled at the University of the Witwatersrand for an LLB.

The ANC (African National Congress)

In December 1952, Mandela and Oliver Tambo opened the first Black legal partnership in the country. In the same month, Mandela and some other activists were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. Mandela was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour, suspended for two years.

Over a period of nine years he was put under banning orders. In this time he was also made the Deputy National President of the ANC. Even though he was not allowed to attend the meetings of the ANC, he worked with small groups of the ANC members.

Nelson Mandela played a major role in the constructing of the 'M Plan' (named after him). The plan formulated the grouping of ANC members to cope with underground activity. Renewed bans made it imperative for Madiba to resign from the ANC in September 1953. From that point Madiba had to lead secretly, except during the year of the Treason Trial.

In December 1956 Mandela and 155 political activists were arrested and charged with High Treason. Almost five years later, Justice Rumpff found all of the accused not guilty. In the late 1950s Mandela became National President of the ANC Youth League. By 1959 the treason trial was still in progress. In the same year, the ANC planned an anti-pass laws campaign. The campaign was displaced when the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), arranged mass anti-pass protests on 21 March 1960.

During one of the protests, the Sharpeville massacre occurred. This resulted with the banning of the ANC and the PAC and the government declared a state of emergency. During the time period of the emergency up 1 800 political activists, including Mandela, were imprisoned without charge or trial.

In March 1961 an All-In Africa Conference was held in Pietermaritzburg. Various political groups came together. The banning order on Mandela expired on the eve of the conference, allowing him to make a surprise appearance. Subsequently he was placed as the Honorary Secretary of the All-In National Action Council. Mandela and the Council decided to arrange demonstrations against the proclamation of South Africa as a Republic on 31 May.

They wanted to arrange for a three day stay-at-home strike on 29, 30 and 31 May 1961. Mandela had to go underground, to avoid arrest. Mandela and Walter Sisulu travelled the country in secret arranging the specifics of the strike. Mandela (nicknamed the Black Pimpernel at the time) was a fugitive for almost a year and a half. After large police roll-out on the strikers, Mandela called the strike off on the second day.

The Imprisonment of Nelson Mandela

In 1962 Mandela crossed the border in secret to make a surprise appearance at the Pan-African Freedom Movement Conference in Addis Ababa. He explained to the conference why Umkhonto we Sizwe had to make their initial attacks. On his trip, he got guerrilla training in Algeria and travelled to London where he met with leaders of British opposition parties.

When Mandela returned to South Africa, he was captured on 5 August near Howick in Natal. Mandela was tried in Pretoria's Old Synagogue and in November 1962 sentenced to five years' imprisonment for incitement and illegally leaving the country. He began this sentence in Pretoria Central Prison.

While Mandela was in prison, police raided the underground headquarters of the ANC at Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, arresting members like, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada, Dennis Goldberg and Lionel Bernstein. Police found documents relating to the manufacture of explosives, Mandela's diary of his African tour and copies of a draft memorandum - 'Operation Mayibuye' - which outlined a possible strategy of guerrilla struggle.

In October 1963 Mandela was brought from jail to join the other eight accused on trial for sabotage, conspiracy to overthrow the government by revolution, and assisting an armed invasion of South Africa by foreign troops. Mandela's statement from the dock was, "I am Prepared to Die" which received worldwide publicity.

On 12 June 1964, all of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. The following evening Nelson Mandela was flown to Cape Town en route to Robben Island Prison where he was held until April 1982, when he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison near Cape Town. A massive 'Release Mandela Campaign' was launched in 1982, in South Africa and abroad. A lot of foreign countries put pressure on the South African government to release Mandela, who at that point was the world's most famous political prisoner.

From July 1986 Mandela was in contact with government members, initially with the Minister of Justice Kobie Coetzee, and then with the Minister of Constitutional Development, Gerrit Viljoen. Eventually he had a meeting with the State President PW Botha in July 1989 at Tuynhuys. In December 1989 he met the new state president, FW de Klerk.

Mandela's Release

The years following up to 1994 were very busy. Nelson Mandela travelled South Africa and parts of the World, meeting up with important members of government and the ANC. He started with a trip to Lusaka to meet the ANC's Executive Committee in March 1990.

Mandela then visited the ANC President - Oliver Tambo in Sweden, but had to end the trip early with the growing unrest within South Africa. In May 1990, Mandela headed the ANC delegation, which held talks with South African government representatives at Groote Schuur. In June, Mandela embarked on his six week tour of Europe, the United Kingdom, North America and Africa. He received recognition wherever he went.

During 1992, Mandela continued his programme of extensive international travel, visiting Tunisia, Libya and Morocco. He and the State President - FW De Klerk jointly accepted the Unesco Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize in Paris on 3 February. At the same time the two men attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

On 13 April 1992, Mandela called a press conference at which he stated that he and his wife, Winnie, had agreed to separate as a result of differences, which had arisen between them in recent months.

Mandela indicated in September 1992 that he was prepared to meet De Klerk on condition that he would ban of the public display of dangerous weapons and release the political prisoners. They met at the end of the month and these bi-lateral talks resulted in the signing of a Record of Understanding by the two leaders, which enabled negotiations to be resumed.

Presidential Elections

In September 1993, Mandela visited America and urged world business leaders to lift economic sanctions on South Africa. During the latter half of 1993 and early 1994 Mandela campaigned on behalf of the ANC for the 1994 elections and addressed a large number of rallies and people's forums. In 1994, the first general elections were held, for all members of the public to vote no matter their race denomination.

On 9 May 1994, Mandela was elected as the State President of South Africa. His presidential inauguration took place the next day at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and was attended by the largest gathering of international leaders ever in South Africa.

During his inauguration speech, Mandela called for a 'time of healing' and stated that his government would not allow any sort of discrimination. Mandela promised to create a society in which all South Africans could walk tall without fear.

In 1999 Mandela retired from active political duty. He still works with health and educational issues through the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

100 Moments in Time - Nelson Mandela Exhibition

Nelson Mandela

Winnie Mandela’s legacy

By Sisonke Msimang

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela  died  Monday at age 81. As she is eulogised, there will be many who point to her perceived failures. They will call her a “firebrand” and point to her “radical” political views. Most damning, they will say she was a convicted kidnapper, a corrupt politician, and an  adulterous ,  violent  woman.

Many will compare her with her ex-husband, Nelson Mandela. He will be cast as an angel, while she will be painted as the she-devil who almost took him down. Hers was a life marked as much by racism as sexism. That she was able to meet both head-on is a testament to her fierce spirit. Madikizela-Mandela had strong feminist instincts.

She challenged patriarchy not only in words but also in deeds, and she suffered for it but seemed never to worry too much about how she was perceived by her opponents. She was, to the very end, a remarkably independent woman.

To be sure, Madikizela-Mandela was controversial. She was convicted of kidnapping and assaulting a young activist named Stompie Seipei during a period in the late 1980s when she was often in the company of the notorious  Mandela United Football Club  — a group of bodyguards who both protected and betrayed Madikizela-Mandela.

Madikizela-Mandela was part of the complex politics that dominated the South African landscape as the apartheid regime cracked down on activists. She was deeply enmeshed in  smuggling  guns and other contraband in and out of the country and had been imprisoned, detained and banished on numerous occasions.

These bold acts made her a hero to black South Africans. They understood that like many other leaders and members of the African National Congress (ANC) party, Madikizela-Mandela was in the difficult position of having to lead a revolution while dealing with intense personal trauma.

The primary difference between Madikizela-Mandela and others was that she was a woman. Though she lived in a deeply patriarchal society, her stature and popularity were simply unrivaled. Her defiant attitude was profoundly destabilising to men within her own movement as well as in the broader white society she was challenging.

She had been married only a few years when her husband was sentenced to life in prison. Her two daughters, Zenani and Zindzi, were both just a few years old. Instead of collapsing, as others might have, the woman who was the first  black medical social worker in the country  became a powerful spokesperson for racial justice.

She had a knack for articulating both her intense disdain for the architects of apartheid and her fury at the injustice that had specifically been done to her husband. She was thoroughly unapologetic and crystal clear.

While Nelson Mandela became the most recognisable prisoner of conscience in the world, his wife had one of the most recognisable voices on South African radio. She was fully supportive of the ANC’s decision to burnish Mandela’s reputation and status — to deliberately create an icon the world could rally around. She did much to keep his name and story alive.

Mandela was canonised long before he emerged from jail in 1990. His wife, however, was demonised — taking the fall for speaking when he could not.

For close to three decades, no one saw Mandela’s image. In his place stood Madikizela-Mandela. She took on the role of mourner in chief — grieving for a husband who was imprisoned while giving voice to the pain of black South Africans and articulating their daily losses.

Madikizela-Mandela was punished far more severely for her missteps than her male comrades were for theirs. Although many men had sexual liaisons with women who were not their partners, none of them were shamed for their behaviour. Madikizela-Mandela’s desire for companionship could hardly have been described as unreasonable given her husband’s decades-long imprisonment.

Still, she faced vitriolic criticism when news of her love interests was leaked by spies. In the aftermath of her split from Mandela, there were attempts to cast him as a saint and her as a sinner.

Many people outside South Africa find it difficult to understand why Madikizela-Mandela garnered such widespread support among black South Africans. In some ways, she represented a sort of South African everywoman.

She was powerful and loving and fiercely protective of her children. Like many black women who raised children alone under apartheid, Madikizela-Mandela knew how to survive arbitrary arrest and humiliation, harassment and bullying. Black South Africans saw themselves in her very public struggles.

Madikizela-Mandela never fully adjusted to post-apartheid politics. She rarely attended Parliament and did not seem to enjoy ministerial responsibilities; she had thrived in an era of rage and discontent. With a democratic dispensation in place, she only occasionally made pronouncements that affected politics.

Still, in recent times a restive mood has settled over the country. Mandela’s attempts to bridge the chasm between white and black South Africans are being tested by a new generation of South Africans who have grown up in a grossly unequal society.

There is a renewed militancy in South Africa’s politics, and the embrace of honesty — regardless of its costs — may well be Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy.

Perhaps it is right that in death she finds her place at the center of a politics of resistance again — immortalised as the Pied Piper of defiance, a woman who lived life on her own terms and spoke truth to power.

*This article was published in the Washington Post.  To view the article on their website click  here . 

Sisonke Msimang

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A Guide to the African Charter on Democracy Elections and Governance

The construction of democracies that work underpinned by good governance, respect for human rights, the protection of civil and political freedoms, and respect for…

BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.

Charlotte maxeke (manye) (1874-1939).

Charlotte Maxeke (maiden name Manye) was a  South African  woman who broke societal barriers throughout her life. She was born in South Africa on April 7, 1874 and in the early 1880s attended secondary school at Edwards Memorial School. Upon her graduation, with a  missionary  education in 1885, Manye moved to Kimberly, South Africa with her family and began teaching. In 1891, while in Kimberly, Manye and her sister, Katie, joined the African Jubilee  Choir . This led to a two-year choir tour in  Europe , where she once performed for Queen Victoria. The success of the tour was followed by another tour to  Canada  and the United States. during the mid-1890s. However, this trip ended when the choir organizer abandoned the group in the U.S. without money, passports, or a way home.

When faculty and staff at  Wilberforce   University , an  African Methodist Episcopal (AME)  Church-sponsored institution, heard about Manye being stuck in the U.S., she was offered a scholarship to attend the university. Maxeke accepted and at Wilberforce, studied with a number of scholars including  W.E.B. DuBois . She geared her college experience toward preparing for missionary work once she returned to South Africa. During her studies, Maxeke met a fellow South African, Marshall Maxeke, who would later become her husband.

In the early 1900s, Maxeke returned to South Africa and is now recognized as the first black South African woman to have a college degree, as she graduated from Wilberforce with bachelors of science degree. She began teaching in Pietersburg (now Polokwane), while simultaneously working on opening the first AME college in South Africa. Maxeke and her husband founded a primary and secondary school called “Wilberforce Institute” in Evaton, South Africa.

In 1912 Maxeke and her husband continued their work while attending the first convention of the South Africa Native National Congress’ (SANNC, which eventually became the African National Congress) held in Bloemfontein. At this event, she promoted women’s rights and religious concerns. In 1913 Maxeke worked with other advocates to coordinate Bloemfontein’s anti-pass movement. Five years later in 1918, she founded the Bantu Women’s League (BWL), a branch of SANNC. She continued to promote women’s rights serving as Women’s Missionary Society’s president in 1920.

Maxeke and her family moved to Idutywa, Eastern Cape in 1926 to assume positions at Lota High School. Maxeke’s husband became the school’s president, while Maxeke held the role of Head Teacher. Unfortunately, Marshall Maxeke died in 1928 at 53. After his death, Charlotte Maxeke moved to  Johannesburg ’s juvenile magistrate as a parole officer and court welfare officer.  Charlotte Maxeke died in Johannesburg in 1939. She was 65.

Throughout her life, Maxeke worked to create opportunities and equality for women in South Africa. She participated in a variety of organizations, including the Joint Councils of Europeans and Bantus and helped establish the Widow’s Home and the Foreign Missionary Society. Additionally, she vouched for  Hastings Walter Kazumu Banda  who led Malawi’s independence campaign and who in 1966 became the country’s first President, helping him receive a passport to attend Wilberforce University on scholarship.

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Source of the author's information:.

“Charlotte Maxeke,” http://www.africanfeministforum.com/charlotte-maxeke-south-africa/ ; “A Tribute: Dr. Charlotte Manye Maxeke 7 April 1874 – 16 October 1939,” http://www.sahistory.org.za/tribute-dr-charlotte-manye-maxeke-7-april-1874-16-october-1939 ; Daluxolo Moloantoa, “The Remarkable Life of Charlotte Maxeke,” http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/remarkable-life-charlotte-maxeke ; “Charlotte (née Manye) Maxeke,” http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/charlotte-nee-manye-maxeke .

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Who Helped to Build Democracy in South Africa? Everything About Nelson Mandela

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With the end of Apartheid and the establishment of democracy in South Africa, a new chapter in the country’s history began. The democratic era ushered in a new generation of progressive thought and values to take South Africa forward. But it wasn’t an easy road – many tried to bring down this new and prosperous nation. The country faced many challenges after dismantling Apartheid, with crime rates rising, poverty rates worsening, and unemployment on the rise. Through it all, however, South African people continued to fight for their freedom. The fight for democracy in South Africa began long before Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994. Throughout his imprisonment and subsequent release from jail, Mandela knew he would be released one day, but that didn’t stop him from fighting for his people and his country. He started by writing letters to his friends worldwide, asking them to help bring about change for blacks in South Africa. One such friend was former President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire who later became chairperson of UNESCO. It was through Houphouët-Boigny that Mandela met Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who helped spread the word about Apartheid outside of South Africa and within his church – Tutu is revered worldwide as one of the most influential clerics alive today.

He was a leader of the anti-apartheid movement.

During much of the 1950s and 1960s, Mandela and other black anti-apartheid activists organized boycotts and protests to oppose the government’s policy of racial segregation in general and the system of Apartheid in particular. In 1960, they even launched a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience known as the Defiance Campaign, which was designed to force the government to dismantle Apartheid. Mandela was eventually arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the anti-apartheid movement. After his release in 1990, Mandela continued to fight for anti-apartheid reforms and equal rights for all South Africans. In 1994, as president of South Africa, he signed the historic human rights legislation known as the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which ended Apartheid and officially dismantled the old racist system of racial segregation.

Mandela served as president before he became a lawmaker.

Mandela became the country’s first black president in 1994. Though he was the head of state, he did not become president until after he had served as a lawmaker for a few years for the newly created post of president of South Africa. At the time of his election, he was a member of the racially mixed Transvaal provincial legislature. In 1997, he became the first black president of a majority government in South Africa. He remained in this post until 2004, when he retired from public service permanently. During his term as president, Mandela presided over several complex social and political issues. During the 1990s, he worked to repair the damage done by Apartheid and to bring his country into line with international human rights law. He also had to grapple with the challenges of rebuilding the economy and building multi-racial peace and reconciliation. These issues played a role in shaping democratic institutions in South Africa and Mandela’s approach to governance. While Mandela was president, the issue of land reform emerged as a severe concern for many South Africans. Many black South Africans, especially those on the country’s urban periphery, believed that the government was not doing enough to address the plight of millions of landless black people. In response, they took to the streets to demand land reform. While the majority of these protests were peaceful, some turned violent. Land reform remained a significant concern in South Africa well into the 2000s.

Mandela led negotiations to end Apartheid.

Mandela was one of the key figures in the negotiation process that culminated in the official end of Apartheid in South Africa. He and other anti-apartheid activists had long argued that the only way to end racism in the country was to fight against it at home. So in the early 1980s, Mandela began working to bring together the major anti-apartheid organizations and other disaffected groups. He also began to build a coalition of black, white, and mixed-race anti-apartheid leaders. By the late 1980s, this group was ready to start pressuring the government to end Apartheid. The end of Apartheid would not have happened without the anti-apartheid movement’s determined and concerted push. It is, therefore, worth remembering the role that Mandela and others played in the struggle to end Apartheid.

Mandela has been honored for his service to South Africa and democracy.

After the end of Apartheid, Mandela received several international honors and awards. In 1993, he was named one of the “100 People Who Shook the World” by TIME magazine and received the Nobel Peace Prize 1993. In 1994, Mandela received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the UN Human Rights Prize in 1995. In 2004, Mandela was the first African and South African to be named a “Person of Peace” by the prestigious John Dewey Democracy Prize. In 2007, he received the Nobel Peace Prize again, and in 2009, he received the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Prize for his work promoting peace and democracy. Mandela has also been given honorary degrees from many universities worldwide, including Harvard University and the University of Edinburgh.

Mandela is an advocate for human rights in South Africa and beyond.

Nelson Mandela was a tireless and effective advocate for human rights worldwide during his lifetime. As president, he passed a domestic law prohibiting racial discrimination in all areas of the South African government. He also secured international commitments from other countries through the Johannesburg Protocol and the Mandela Rules that would help to protect human rights in post-conflict countries. During his post-presidential years, Mandela showed considerable leadership in advancing human rights issues. During his lifetime, Mandela wrote and spoke extensively about matters of human rights and democracy. He also founded and contributed to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which continues to advance social justice causes around the world. Mandela died on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95. He was buried next to his wife, Winnie, in his hometown of Mvezo, in eastern South Africa.

Mandela is also an author and poet. He wrote more than thirty books and hundreds of poems during his lifetime.

After leaving public office, Mandela returned to his lifelong love of poetry and writing. He published a memoir and several books of poetry. He continued campaigning for human rights and social justice, writing and speaking publicly about controversial issues such as racism, AIDS, and the ongoing struggle for political and economic equality in South Africa. During his lifetime, Mandela published hundreds of poems, sketches, and short stories, many of which were published in books or on the Nelson Mandela Foundation website. Many of these pieces were published posthumously.

He continues to serve as an activist for social justice and anti-racism in South Africa and worldwide.

In recent years, Mandela has focused much of his attention on the fight against racism and racial discrimination in post-apartheid South Africa. In 2010, Mandela founded the non-profit Nelson Mandela Foundation, which works to address health inequality, poverty, education, and other social justice issues in the country. In June 2013, Mandela was certified as an honorary citizen of the world’s first open government digital city, Heroes Park, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also been mentioned as a contender for the post of South African president in 2016. Many people have helped to build democracy in South Africa. Mandela was one of these people, and now he continues to be an activist for social justice and anti-racism in South Africa and worldwide.

• How Did Nelson Mandela Build Democracy
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• How Nelson Mandela Contributed to Nation Building in South Africa
• How Did Pius Langa Help Build Democracy in South Africa?
• What Mandela did to Build Democracy in South Africa?
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How to Thrive as You Age

A cheap drug may slow down aging. a study will determine if it works.

Allison Aubrey

A drug taken by millions of people to control diabetes may do more than lower blood sugar.

Research suggests metformin has anti-inflammatory effects that could help protect against common age-related diseases including heart disease, cancer, and cognitive decline.

Scientists who study the biology of aging have designed a clinical study, known as The TAME Trial, to test whether metformin can help prevent these diseases and promote a longer healthspan in healthy, older adults.

Michael Cantor, an attorney, and his wife Shari Cantor , the mayor of West Hartford, Connecticut both take metformin. "I tell all my friends about it," Michael Cantor says. "We all want to live a little longer, high-quality life if we can," he says.

Michael Cantor started on metformin about a decade ago when his weight and blood sugar were creeping up. Shari Cantor began taking metformin during the pandemic after she read that it may help protect against serious infections.

Shari and Michael Cantor both take metformin. They are both in their mid-60s and say they feel healthy and full of energy. Theresa Oberst/Michael Cantor hide caption

Shari and Michael Cantor both take metformin. They are both in their mid-60s and say they feel healthy and full of energy.

The Cantors are in their mid-60s and both say they feel healthy and have lots of energy. Both noticed improvements in their digestive systems – feeling more "regular" after they started on the drug,

Metformin costs less than a dollar a day, and depending on insurance, many people pay no out-of-pocket costs for the drug.

"I don't know if metformin increases lifespan in people, but the evidence that exists suggests that it very well might," says Steven Austad , a senior scientific advisor at the American Federation for Aging Research who studies the biology of aging.

An old drug with surprising benefits

Metformin was first used to treat diabetes in the 1950s in France. The drug is a derivative of guanidine , a compound found in Goat's Rue, an herbal medicine long used in Europe.

The FDA approved metformin for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in the U.S. in the 1990s. Since then, researchers have documented several surprises, including a reduced risk of cancer. "That was a bit of a shock," Austad says. A meta-analysis that included data from dozens of studies, found people who took metformin had a lower risk of several types of cancers , including gastrointestinal, urologic and blood cancers.

Austad also points to a British study that found a lower risk of dementia and mild cognitive decline among people with type 2 diabetes taking metformin. In addition, there's research pointing to improved cardiovascular outcomes in people who take metformin including a reduced risk of cardiovascular death .

As promising as this sounds, Austad says most of the evidence is observational, pointing only to an association between metformin and the reduced risk. The evidence stops short of proving cause and effect. Also, it's unknown if the benefits documented in people with diabetes will also reduce the risk of age-related diseases in healthy, older adults.

"That's what we need to figure out," says Steve Kritchevsky , a professor of gerontology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, who is a lead investigator for the Tame Trial.

The goal is to better understand the mechanisms and pathways by which metformin works in the body. For instance, researchers are looking at how the drug may help improve energy in the cells by stimulating autophagy, which is the process of clearing out or recycling damaged bits inside cells.

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Researchers also want to know more about how metformin can help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, which may slow biological aging.

"When there's an excess of oxidative stress, it will damage the cell. And that accumulation of damage is essentially what aging is," Kritchevsky explains.

When the forces that are damaging cells are running faster than the forces that are repairing or replacing cells, that's aging, Kritchevsky says. And it's possible that drugs like metformin could slow this process down.

By targeting the biology of aging, the hope is to prevent or delay multiple diseases, says Dr. Nir Barzilai of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who leads the effort to get the trial started.

The ultimate in preventative medicine

Back in 2015, Austad and a bunch of aging researchers began pushing for a clinical trial.

"A bunch of us went to the FDA to ask them to approve a trial for metformin,' Austad recalls, and the agency was receptive. "If you could help prevent multiple problems at the same time, like we think metformin may do, then that's almost the ultimate in preventative medicine," Austad says.

The aim is to enroll 3,000 people between the ages of 65 and 79 for a six-year trial. But Dr. Barzilai says it's been slow going to get it funded. "The main obstacle with funding this study is that metformin is a generic drug, so no pharmaceutical company is standing to make money," he says.

Barzilai has turned to philanthropists and foundations, and has some pledges. The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, set aside about $5 million for the research, but that's not enough to pay for the study which is estimated to cost between $45 and $70 million.

The frustration over the lack of funding is that if the trial points to protective effects, millions of people could benefit. "It's something that everybody will be able to afford," Barzilai says.

Currently the FDA doesn't recognize aging as a disease to treat, but the researchers hope this would usher in a paradigm shift — from treating each age-related medical condition separately, to treating these conditions together, by targeting aging itself.

For now, metformin is only approved to treat type 2 diabetes in the U.S., but doctors can prescribe it off-label for conditions other than its approved use .

Michael and Shari Cantor's doctors were comfortable prescribing it to them, given the drug's long history of safety and the possible benefits in delaying age-related disease.

"I walk a lot, I hike, and at 65 I have a lot of energy," Michael Cantor says. I feel like the metformin helps," he says. He and Shari say they have not experienced any negative side effects.

Research shows a small percentage of people who take metformin experience GI distress that makes the drug intolerable. And, some people develop a b12 vitamin deficiency. One study found people over the age of 65 who take metformin may have a harder time building new muscle.

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"There's some evidence that people who exercise who are on metformin have less gain in muscle mass, says Dr. Eric Verdin , President of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. That could be a concern for people who are under-muscled .

But Verdin says it may be possible to repurpose metformin in other ways "There are a number of companies that are exploring metformin in combination with other drugs," he says. He points to research underway to combine metformin with a drug called galantamine for the treatment of sarcopenia , which is the medical term for age-related muscle loss. Sarcopenia affects millions of older people, especially women .

The science of testing drugs to target aging is rapidly advancing, and metformin isn't the only medicine that may treat the underlying biology.

"Nobody thinks this is the be all and end all of drugs that target aging," Austad says. He says data from the clinical trial could stimulate investment by the big pharmaceutical companies in this area. "They may come up with much better drugs," he says.

Michael Cantor knows there's no guarantee with metformin. "Maybe it doesn't do what we think it does in terms of longevity, but it's certainly not going to do me any harm," he says.

Cantor's father had his first heart attack at 51. He says he wants to do all he can to prevent disease and live a healthy life, and he thinks Metformin is one tool that may help.

For now, Dr. Barzilai says the metformin clinical trial can get underway when the money comes in.

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This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh