The next shattering experience was the death of my eldest son in a car accident. Nelson Mandela's letters from prison to his second wife Winnie are poignant in the way they show the price paid for his total immersion in the anti-apartheid struggle, as is her account of this period. Left to raise their children alone, Winnie once described the impact of taking them to see him in prison: "Taking them at that age to their father - their father of that stature - was so traumatic.
It was one of the most painful moments actually. And I could see the strain on my children both before their visit and for quite some time after they had some contact with their father.
War of attrition. By the time Nelson Mandela was moved to Pollsmoor prison on the mainland, he was the world's most famous but perhaps least recognisable political prisoner. No contemporary photograph of him had been seen for years. The late anti-apartheid activist Amina Cachalia, who had known him well before he went into prison, visited him.
She told me she had taken a small camera into the prison with her, and as they had lunch she reached for her bag and said she was going to take a picture of him. He held her by the arm and shook his head. She said Nelson Mandela was afraid they would confiscate the camera and terminate the visit.
Amina Cachalia laughed at the thought of the impact her photograph would have had. Fellow prisoner Ahmed Kathrada recalled that in Pollsmoor in , Nelson Mandela was called to the prison office and then returned to his ANC colleagues and started reading the newspapers.
After a few minutes he said to them: "Oh by the way chaps, I was told President Botha has offered to release us. After serving his sentence, Mandela continued to lead protests against the government and, in , he, along with others, was tried for treason. He was acquitted in and lived in hiding for 17 months after the trial. Over time, Mandela came to believe that armed resistance was the only way to end apartheid.
In , he briefly left the country to receive military training and gain support for the cause but was arrested and convicted soon after his return for leaving the country without a permit.
They charged him and his allies with sabotage. Mandela and the other defendants in the ensuing Rivonia Trial knew they were sure to be convicted and executed. So they turned their show trial into a statement, publicizing their anti-apartheid struggle and challenging the legal system that oppressed Black South Africans.
It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live. He was allowed only one minute visit with a single person every year, and could send and receive two letters a year. Confined in austere conditions, he worked in a limestone quarry and over time, earned the respect of his captors and fellow prisoners.
He was given chances to leave prison in exchange for ensuring the ANC would give up violence but refused. His supporters agitated for his release and news of his imprisonment galvanized anti-apartheid activists all over the world. In the s, some members of the United Nations began to call for sanctions against South Africa—calls that grew louder in the decades that followed. Eventually, South Africa became an international pariah.
Now 71, Mandela negotiated with de Klerk for a new constitution that would allow majority rule. Apartheid was repealed in , and in , the ANC, now a political party, won more than 62 percent of the popular vote in a peaceful, democratic election. Goldberg, who has been held apart from his comrades for more than 20 years, accepts the offer and is released. Is discharged from the Volks Hospital and held in a cell alone at Pollsmoor Prison, from where he begins communicating with the government about eventual talks with the ANC.
Is transferred to Victor Verster Prison near Paarl, where he is held in the house formerly occupied by a warder. Nelson Mandela meets one of his warders at the cottage at Victor Verster Prison where he stayed until his release in Meets De Klerk, who says he will be released the next day in Johannesburg. Mandela objects, saying he wants to walk through the gates of Victor Verster Prison, and asks for two weeks for the ANC to prepare. De Klerk refuses the extension but agrees to release him from Victor Verster.
Trials and prisons chronology 2 December Nelson Mandela is charged, with 19 others, including Walter Sisulu, for violating the Suppression of Communism Act. Nelson Mandela was known as the Black Pimpernel when he went underground in Image: Courtesy of Azher Saloojee. In , he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in for illegally leaving the country.
Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in on charges of sabotage. In June , he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison. Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry.
He could write and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. He was later moved to another location, where he lived under house arrest. In , F. Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government.
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