WHEN DID NELSON MANDELA BECOME THE LEADER OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT? E. S.

Reddy Mandelas election to the Presidency of the African National Congress in 1990 was a mere formality. When he walked out of the prison in February that year, the people of South Africa and the world recognised him as the leader, and he went around the world meeting Heads of State and addressing masses of people as the leader of South Africa. Even while he was in prison, the apartheid regime, by its discussions with him, had acknowledged him as the leader. When Mandela went to prison in 1962, Chief Luthuli was the President of the African National Congress. Oliver Tambo was the Deputy President and head of the External Mission of the ANC. Walter Sisulu, described as Mandelas mentor, had been Secretary General of ANC; he went underground and was caught in Rivonia in July 1963. They were all older and senior to Mandela in the ANC. Mandela had been authorised by the ANC leadership in 1961 to organise Umkhonto we Sizwe , mainly for sabotage, under the guidance of the ANC. Umkhonto , a multi-racial organisation, committed hundreds of acts of sabotage by 1963. But it did not succeed in its mission of awakening the world to the grave situation in South Africa and persuading the Western Powers to exert pressure on the apartheid regime. By the end of 1964, the regime was able to deal a severe blow to its very existence. Oliver Tambo became the virtual leader of Umkhonto and, after the death of Chief Luthuli in 1967, the acting President of the ANC. He was, i n effect, the leader of the revolution in South Africa, as well as the guide of the world-wide solidarity movement. Mandela was little known outside South Africa until he was charged as Accused No. 1 in the Rivonia trial in October 1963. Since then, the ANC, the anti -apartheid movements and the United Nations did all they could to publicise his life and his statements in many languages all over the world.

In 1968, I sent personal letters to friends in the anti-apartheid and solidarity movements and to governments reminding them that Mandela would be 60 years old on 18 July Mac Maharaj had drawn my attention to this and suggesting international observance. I met Oliver Tambo in London to obtain his approval for my initiative, and support by the ANC for the observances. He told me that people in the ANC wanted to celebrate his 60 th birthday in October 1977, but he had discouraged them. He thought for a few seconds and said E.S. you should go ahead. It is better that the initiative comes from the outside. We will associate with it in due course . The international observance of Ma ndelas 60 th birthday was far beyond my expectations. About 10,000 birthday cards went to Mandela in prison or to Winnie. (I heard that prison authorities would inform Mandela of the number of cards received but give him only one.) Prime Minister James Callahan greeted him in the British Parliament. The European Parliament and several Governments took action. I saw Oliver again in London and told him that I would like to promote observance of birthdays of other prisoners like Sisulu, Mbeki and Kathrada. He said: E.S. We have decided to focus on Mandela alone. So the re were few observances of the birthdays of other leaders. Meanwhile, Governments, cities and universities began to honour Mandela by giving him awards and freedom of cities and naming buildings and parks after him. In 1981, the United Nations General Assembly encouraged honours to political prisoners in South Africa. There were so many honours to Mandela that the press spoke of a Mandela fever. Artists and rock musicians made Mandela known to tens of millions of people. The Wembley concert in London, organised by the British Anti -Apartheid Movement for the 70 th birthday of Mandela, was viewed on the TV by billions of people around the world. The Free Mandela campaign became the most effect ive campaign for international action against apartheid.

In South Africa itself, the campaign for the release of Mandela grew rapidly from 1980, when a petition was sponsored by Percy Qoboza and Bishop Tutu. Mandela became the best known, loved and most honoured political prisoner in history. The tremendous reception he received on his release was not surprising, He had been for the people of South Africa, as well as people in the rest of the world, the symbol of the struggle for freedom. Returning to my question, I wonder if Mandela had been chosen as the leader in 1978 when Oliver Tambo told me that all attention should be focussed on Mandela? Oliver was violently against any honours to himself. In 1985, on the 40 th anniversary of the United Nations, I prepared a collection of his speeches at United Nations meetings and conferences for publication in London. When I informed him of this, he sent me a curt cable asking me to stop publication immediately and confirm to him. He had struggled hard to direct the movement from abroad. He had a heart attack in London in the 1960s and a stroke in Dar es Salaam in September 1984. But they were kept secret so as not to alarm people of South Africa. I met him days after the stroke at a conference in Arusha of Socialist International with frontline States and liberation movements. He looked ill but addressed the conference. At my suggestion, Sweden invited him for a vacation and medical treatment, but he did not go. Instead, the next time he saw me at a conference in Paris in 1986, he said: E.S. you are tired. You should take a vacation. He suffered another severe stroke in Lusaka and was recuperating in Sweden when Mandela was released. December 10, 2013