Editor’s Note: May 2014 will mark the 20^th anniversary of Nelson Mandela winning the presidential election in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela — this name stands for a luminous figure that, like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, gave back dignity to an oppressed majority. Their freedom, the freedom of all South Africans, is forever associated with that name. For his dream of a democratic South Africa free of racial segregation Mandela paid a high price. But even 27 years of imprisonment didn’t stop him from becoming the central figure in the fight against apartheid and a moral compass for his fellow South Africans and the rest of the world.

February 11^th 1990, the day a new era began for South Africa, was a hot and humid Sunday and all of Cape Town was on its feet. Thousands of people rushed to the vintner village Paarl near Cape Town, where Mandela spent the last months of his detention in the warder’s house of the local prison. The narrow street leading to the prison was surrounded by barbwire and thousands of spectators. Frederik de Klerk, South Africa’s last white head of state, was originally planning on secretly flying Mandela to Johannesburg to release him into freedom there. But Mandela insisted on Cape Town — his legally imposed home for the past 27 years.

Finally, around 4 in the afternoon, with one hand holding his wife’s and the other raised to a fist, Nelson Mandela stepped through the open gate of the Victor Verster Prison, and into a new world. Suddenly the situation almost escalated then and there: While journalists rushed forward at the freedom fighter’s sight, the police reached for their weapons. But then something extraordinary happened as Cheryl Carolus, eyewitness and leading member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) — one of the most important anti-apartheid organizations during that time — recalls: "Suddenly, we all took each other’s hands – the police, the comrades, the prison guards. And we cried while Mandela was walking towards us. It was an unbelievable moment.”

Mandela was then driven to the town hall of Cape Town, where nearly 100,000 people gathered in the morning hours to witness Mandela’s first public address to the nation. “Friends, comrades, and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy, and freedom for all. I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people” were his first words to the world. His appearance was dignified and without any indication of resentment.

Born on July 18^th 1918, Rohihlahla Mandela, who received his Christian name, Nelson, in school, was raised to be a leader. His great-grandfather was king of the Xhosa’s Thembu dynasty, his father local chief and councilor to the monarch. It was during his childhood, when Mandela’s virtues began to form.

He left his rural home to study law in Fort Hare, back then the only university for blacks. In 1952 he and Oliver Tambo — later the president of the African National Congress (ANC), the black liberation movement — opened South Africa’s first black law firm in Johannesburg. There he met Walter Sisulu, his political mentor, as well as Winnie Mandela, the country’s first black social worker, for whom he divorced his wife Evelyn. In 1961, within the context America’s liberation fighters like Martin Luther King, the young Mandela co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation): ANC’s radical faction that promoted violence, after peaceful protests against apartheid remained unfruitful.

When charged with four counts of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the Apartheid regime, and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, Mandela was relieved. He had been preparing himself for the death penalty. On the eve of his conviction he told the judge that the end of the racist regime in South Africa was an ideal that he was willing to die for.

In his autobiography Long Way to Freedom, Mandela described the inhumane conditions on Robben Island, which turned the angry revolutionary into a wise statesman who realized that an armed resistance wouldn’t kill apartheid, but strengthen it. The damp concrete cell that he would remain in for 18 years was so small that his head and feet nearly touched the opposite walls, when the almost 6’ foot 4” man stretched out on his straw mat. The meals consisted of two dishes: corn mash or boiled corncob. The long and hard days of labor in a lime quarry burdened his lungs and eyes and Mandela would suffer from the effects of forced labor for the rest of his life. For 21 years of his 27-year-long imprisonment, Mandela was neither allowed to touch his wife Winnie nor his children. When his mother and his oldest son died he was not allowed to pay his last respects to them, which he was never able to come to terms with. His 50^th birthday passed, followed by his 60^th, and there were still no signs that the National Party would abandon their hard stance.

But detainee number 46664 would not surrender nor show any weakness. He read and wrote a lot, mastered self-control, discipline, patience, and the fine art of tactfully dealing with opponents by bringing out the good in them — an important leadership quality that would come in handy when the secret negotiations with the apartheid regime began in the 1980s.  It was this messianic skill that led to his release from prison and ultimately to the “Wonder of Cape Town,” which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. 

During the next three years after his release from prison, which was ordered by De Klerk, who would later become his vice president, Mandela invested all of his charisma into ending the power of the white minority without escalation. These years were marked by a series of negotiations between the governing National Party (the originator of Apartheid), the ANC, and a wide variety of other political organizations, which resulted in a paramount event: South Africa’s first multi-racial election. The black people who, until then, weren’t allowed to work or live where they wanted to, who weren’t tolerated in white restaurants, who were removed from society and sent to prison without trial, were now allowed to vote for the first time. Though Mandela was able to prevent a civil war, thousands of South Africans died through violent conflicts between his release from prison and the first equal elections.

Arguably, never before in history has such a total social upheaval without a preceding civil war occurred; never before did a presiding class hand over their rein of power, without being forced to by revolution. And most certainly has a leader of a liberation movement who, like Mandela, spent 27 years under lock and key, ever before returned into his country’s politics without any resentment, hate, or desire for retaliation. It wasn’t vengeance that made him reach his goal, but his foresight and vision, his cleverly guided dialogue, and sharp diplomacy.

In April 1994 the erstwhile world’s most prominent prisoner led the ANC to victory during South Africa’s first free elections and became the first black president of the former racial state. His entire presidency was placed entirely in the service of conciliation. He drank tea with his former prison guards and won over the hearts of many white South Africans during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Mandela utilized this formerly all-white sport, which was rejected by the black population because of its association with apartheid, as a vehicle for conciliation. The moment he ran onto the field of the Ellis Park stadium dressed in the Springboks’ green jersey to present the team’s captain, Francois Pienaar, with the winner’s cup, remains unforgettable. With this grand gesture Mandela expressed that whites too, were part of the new South Africa.

The accusation of being too lenient followed him throughout his life, though most likely South Africa would not have remained stable had he defied white interests too much. South Africa’s constitution, which ranks as the most progressive in the world, serves as proof of this.

South Africa’s trauma, but also its potential, are symbolized by Mandela’s life and his suffering. Thanks to a fortunate historical coincidence, he and De Klerk were the only two who were able to break through the Cape’s political deadlock. While South Africa to this day remains affected by the consequences of racial segregation, a high crime rate, and resounding gap between rich and poor, as well as rampant corruption throughout all levels of government, South Africa’s people live in a free country today.

Author Bio:
Karolina Swasey is a contributing writer of Highbrow Magazine.