Raised in a Mud Hut but Brilliant and Driven, He Freed His People, Transformed His Nation and Became a Global Icon of Peace

Home , Betsie Verwoerd, Bob Gosani, Cape Town City Hall, Evelyn Mase, I Am Prepared to Die, Jakes Gerwel

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CANADA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1969

1918 - 2013 MANDELA’S MAGIC RAISED IN A MUD HUT BUT BRILLIANT AND DRIVEN, HE FREED HIS PEOPLE, TRANSFORMED HIS NATION AND BECAME A GLOBAL ICON OF PEACE. BUT NOW THAT HE’S GONE, WILL HE BE FORGOTTEN? AN ASSESSMENT OF NELSON MANDELA’S LEGACY BY GLOBE CORRESPONDENTS PAST AND PRESENT PLUS AN EXCLUSIVE, INTIMATE FAREWELL FROM NOBEL LAUREATE NADINE GORDIMER

DOUBLE IDENTITY: With his solid rural roots, Nelson Mandela, shown above at 19, ‘maintained a deep sense of the African self,’ friend and Nobel Prize- winning author Nadine Gordimer writes on Page 5 – a sense of self ‘in synergy with an understanding of Africa’s place in the contemporary world.’ P.K.A. GAESHWE/BLACK STAR

Expanded coverage, including Sandra Martin’s full obituary, exclusive video of Bob Geldof and U2’s Bono discussing his impact and a guest book for anyone wishing to offer condolences or share their memories, at globeandmail.com/mandelatgam.ca/mandela NELSON MANDELA: 1918-2013 The captive freedom fighter who became a global role model

...... Nearly three decades ‘I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black dom- trapped in a cell, 1964 ination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all Sandra Martin persons live together in harmony … It is an ideal which I hope to live for and reports, steeled Mandela narrowly escapes the to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.’ death penalty and is sentenced Mandela to change to life at hard labour. The regime Nelson Mandela before Robben Island the course of history expects him to fade away, but he From his four-hour address to the court and his allies have other plans. that sentenced him to life in prison

elson Mandela was a vision- Nary hero of the multiracial age. He began life in a mud- floored hut near the end of the First World War and wound up winning global accolades and the Nobel Peace Prize for his pivotal role in the liberation of 30 million black and coloured South Africans – and for avoiding a bloodbath in the process. Like an old soldier, he quietly faded away in Johannesburg today with his beloved wife, Gra- ça Machel, by his side. He will be buried with his ancestors in Qunu, a village he left as a young man but revisited often in nostal- gic reveries about his happy childhood before politics, pro- tests and prison determined his destiny. Although retired from public life since 2004, he remained a secular saint to his fervent fol- lowers. Almost anyone familiar with his life – with its extreme hardships and remarkable achievements – is impressed by his ability to learn from experience, to mask his uncertainty and to inspire others to become better human beings. Convicted of treason in 1964, he was sentenced to life at hard labour and expected to fade from view (instead of being given the death penalty and turned into a martyr). Yet prison was the making of him as a political leader. Smart, determined and resilient, with a canny eye for the main chance, he acquired self-disci- pline during his long confine- ment, curbing the impatience and arrogance of his youth. He had the wisdom to realize that apartheid oppressed all South Africans – black, white and 2010 was largely a tribute to him UNREPENTANT: Eight defendants, ganization that would dominate the ANC), make speeches or even coloured alike – and that free- marking the 20th anniversary of Mandela among them, are taken the rest of his life. leave town. dom and justice must embrace his release after spending nearly away from the courthouse in The next year, he, Sisulu and So, in 1955, when the historic tyrants as well as their victims. three decades in prison. Pretoria with fists raised in defiance Oliver Tambo, whom he had met Congress of the People was held He also learned to take a long His legacy has its rough spots. after being convicted on June 16, at Fort Hare, helped to create the near Soweto to draft a “freedom view of the struggle, so that After coming to power, he 1964. Accused of treason, they ANC youth league. charter” for a democratic South when it finally ended, he was ensured the transition from seg- expected the death penalty but Also in 1944, he met and, three Africa of the future, Mandela had able to temper his bitterness and regation to multiracial democra- have been sentenced to life days before his 26th birthday, to watch in disguise from the forgo a heady surge of revenge in cy by assuaging white South imprisonment. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE married Evelyn Mase, a cousin of sidelines. Six months later, he favour of the measured diploma- Africans, to stave off civil war, Sisulu who had come from the was among 136 opposition lead- cy of reconciliation. and placated financial markets, Transkei to train as a nurse. The ers accused of treason for alleg- Many African countries have to prevent an economic collapse. first of their four children arrived edly plotting a communist coup. elected visionary revolutionaries As a result, he saddled his new translates as “to pull a branch of two years later. He secured bail, but returned to as political leaders who then government with old debt, as a tree,” but Mandela suggested In 1948, South African voters his home to find that his wife, a became compromised, if not cor- well as onerous obligations to really means “troublemaker”) handed power to the Afrikaner- devout Jehovah’s Witness whose rupted, by the lure of power. white landowners and to interna- began his formal education, the dominated National Party, which faith ruled out political involve- Because of his principles, his tional economic organizations, first in his immediate family to advocated apartheid – the policy ment, had left, taking with her dedication to equality and social all of which made land reform do so, at the local mission school. of segregation and repression everything in the house, includ- justice and his lack of personal and income redistribution vir- It was there he was given his Eng- that would govern the country ing the children. ambition, Mandela stood apart. It tually impossible. lish name, likely in honour of for almost 50 years. He wasn’t alone long. In a few was with good reason that the He also seemed blinkered to naval legend Horatio Nelson. The ANC responded with a months, he drove past a beauti- United Nations recognized his the savage reality of HIV/AIDS, Mandela hoped to become a campaign of civil disobedience, ful young woman at a bus stop. contribution to world freedom in whose infection rate ballooned to civil servant one day, but in 1939, joining the Communists and At 22, Winnie Nomzamo Madiki- 2009 by designating July 18, his 25 from 8 per cent while he was he was expelled from the Univer- South African Indian Congress to zela was 16 years his junior and birthday, as Mandela Day. in office. It was only in retire- sity of Fort Hare for his part in a forge the multiracial resistance to had just graduated as the coun- A week before his 92nd birth- ment, after losing his own son to student protest and then, to bigotry that became its hallmark. try’s first black social worker. The day, he made a brief appearance the virus in 2005, that he cam- escape an arranged marriage, he ...... two fell in love, married in 1958 at the World Cup final in Johan- paigned openly for AIDS aware- fled to Johannesburg, where he Launches first black legal office and, within two years, had nesburg. Wearing a fur hat and ness and for antiretroviral drugs met Walter Sisulu, who would but soon runs afoul of the law daughters Zenani and Zindzi. bundled against the chill, he was to slow the disease. become his mentor, colleague In March, 1960, several months wheeled around the field in a Considering the scope of his and, eventually, cellmate. Two years later, Mandela finally before Zindzi’s birth, a pivotal golf cart to the joy of the crowd, achievement, however, such mis- Sisulu introduced Mandela to qualified as a lawyer and opened moment in the struggle against his face illuminated by a beatific steps were rare. Lazar Sidelsky, a liberal-minded the country’s first African-run apartheid took place. Police in smile. The last time he made a ...... lawyer who hired him as a clerk law firm in partnership with Sharpeville, a township outside public appearance, it proved a First in his family to go to school, trainee for his firm. Tambo. They provided affordable Johannesburg, panicked during a poignant and symbolic farewell. he wants to be a civil servant After completing his degree by advice to clients who otherwise protest at their station and fired Soccer and Mandela share a leg- correspondence, in 1943, Mandela would have had to appear unre- into a crowd of 10,000, killing 69 acy dating from his days on Rob- Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was enrolled in law at Johannesburg’s presented before white judges. and injuring 200. ben Island during the direst days born on July 18, 1918, the son of a University of the Witwatersrand. But he soon was caught be- In the aftermath, the govern- of apartheid when he and his fel- village chief in the Transkei He left six years later, again with- tween his respect for the law and ment declared a state of emer- low inmates were barred from region of what is now South Afri- out graduating, but not before his desire to denounce a regime gency and outlawed the ANC, playing it. The decision to hold ca’s Eastern Cape province. At being introduced to the African that, by this point, refused to let which responded by dispatching the World Cup in South Africa in the age of 7, Rolihlahla (which National Congress (ANC), the or- him hold public office (even in Oliver Tambo to London to set

...... PATRIARCH TACTICIAN PIONEER

TROUBLE AHEAD: Nelson and Winnie Mandela in a rare BROTHERS GRIM: It is 1992 and F.W. de Klerk and MAGIC MOMENT: On May 10, 1994 – three decades after he was sent to moment together before he goes underground and then Mandela are not getting along. Talks on power- Robben Island as a traitor – Mandela takes the oath of office as South lands in jail. INTERNATIONAL DEFENCE-AID FUND FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA sharing have stalled. DENIS FARRELL/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Africa’s first black president. PHILIPPE WOJAZER/REUTERS NELSON MANDELA: 1918-2013

...... ‘I stand here … not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. 1990 Your … sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands. Today, the majority of After years of international pressure South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no future’ and internal strife, Mandela is freed, ready to lead his nation, through Nelson Mandela after his release much fear but more hope, down the From the stirring speech he gave to a cheering throng home stretch to true democracy. outside Cape Town’s City Hall on Feb. 11, 1990

and the International Monetary Fund, which reassured financial markets, but made a radical over- haul of the country’s economic power base almost impossible. Even his personal life wasn’t immune to a change of heart. Winnie’s flagrant philandering prompted the couple to separate in 1992. When their divorce case was heard four years later, Man- dela described his loneliness to the court, explaining that, since his release, she had refused to discuss their problems and “not once has she ever entered my bedroom while I was awake.” Also in 1996, the Truth and Rec- onciliation Commission began its hearings under Archbishop Des- mond Tutu. The goal was to let anyone with grievances air them and anyone who had done wrong confess and seek forgiveness. The ANC considered the process essential to the peaceful transition to full democracy, but some critics argued that true reconciliation requires justice under the law...... Finds love and champions many causes late in life

After just one term in office, Mandela retired from politics in 1999. In his later years, he created a foundation to assist South Afri- ca’s children and joined the fight against HIV-AIDS, a cause he embraced with passion at least partly because he had failed to do enough while in power. “This is a war,” he said. “It has killed more people than … in all previous wars and in all previous natural disasters. We must not continue to be debating, to be up an office in exile while Man- GREAT ESCAPE: The triumphant in his autobiography, Long Walk easily elected his country’s first arguing, when people are dying.” dela went underground to create walk with Winnie through Cape To Freedom, “are precisely the black president, leading a He also found love late in life. a military wing, the guerrilla Town after his much-anticipated time to launch an initiative.” Government of National Unity. On his 80th birthday in 1998, he force known as Umkhonto we release. He tells the crowd that He began a long series of meet- Although not burdened by the married Graça Machel, widow of Sizwe (Spear of the Nation). apartheid’s days are numbered. ings with the government that baggage most politicians accum- Samora Machel, the first presi- Although short-lived, Mandela’s Within five years, South Africans culminated in his astonishing ulate as they rise to the top, Man- dent of an independent Mozam- stint as an insurgent cost him make him their first black and unconditional release five dela clearly lacked legislative bique. The two spent their time, dearly. He was captured after just president. GREG ENGLISH/ASSOCIATED PRESS years later. On Feb. 11, 1990, at the experience, as did most of his with their grandchildren, largely 17 months, and didn’t regain his age of 71, he walked out of prison cabinet. He was determined to at her home in Mozambique and freedom for 28 years. holding Winnie’s hand and, at support rogue regimes that had at the house on his ancestral He and nine others were Cape Town’s City Hall, made his helped in the struggle, including property at Qunu. Increasingly accused of sabotage, treason and first public speech since his trial, those of Fidel Castro and Moam- frail, the man known to all by his plotting an invasion – crimes his days breaking rocks under a carefully presenting himself as mar Gadhafi. But in other areas, clan name, Madiba, usually that carried the death penalty. blistering sun, damaging his eyes the servant, rather than the mas- his principles softened. walked with a cane. When the trial opened in Octo- permanently. ter, of his party and his people. As Canadian author Naomi In 2007, he went to London to ber, 1963, a thin and pale Mande- But he also was surrounded by “Your tireless and heroic sacri- Klein points out in The Shock see a bronze statue of himself la delivered an uplifting speech friends and colleagues with fices have made it possible for Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Cap- unveiled in the square across that lasted four hours. whom he could discuss political me to be here today,” he said. “I italism, just two weeks before his from Parliament near the like- “During my lifetime,” he con- philosophy and strategies. From therefore place the remaining release, Mandela insisted that na- nesses of Winston Churchill and cluded, “I have dedicated myself the beginning, he saw his guards years of my life in your hands.” tionalizing South Africa’s mines, Abraham Lincoln. to this struggle of the African as, not enemies, but fellow ...... banks and major industries was In his speech, he recalled his people. I have fought against human beings and also slaves of ‘Exhausted heavyweight boxers ANC policy and so “unavoidable.” visit to the city 45 years earlier, white domination, and I have the system he despised. Although at the end of a long title bout’ Yet, to prevent a potential civil after he had gone underground fought against black domination. courteous, he refused to bow and war and the withdrawal of inter- and Oliver Tambo had come to I have cherished the ideal of a scrape, as more sadistic warders After a triumphant world tour national support, he went against London to open an office for the democratic and free society in demanded, and steeled himself that made him a magnet for ce- not only his stated economic pol- outlawed ANC. Wandering the which all persons live together in into a superficial equanimity, no lebrities of all stripes, he icy but some basic clauses imperial city, the two revolution- harmony with equal opportuni- matter the provocation, if only to returned home to negotiate the enshrined in the Freedom Char- aries noted the many monu- ties. It is an ideal which I hope to deny them the satisfaction of transition to majority rule. ter. His government agreed to ments to dead white men, live for and to achieve. But if seeing him lose control. By late 1993, elections were slat- assume the national debt including Jan Smuts, legendary needs be, it is an ideal for which I It wasn’t until 1980 that he was ed for the following spring, and incurred by apartheid regimes, to leader of the Boer rebellion who am prepared to die.” allowed to receive newspapers both Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, guarantee civil servants their later became South Africa’s ...... and, as the ANC marked the 25th the final apartheid-era president, jobs, to protect private property prime minister. They vowed that Banished for life anniversary of the Freedom Char- looked like “exhausted heavy- (thus almost ruling out land one day there would be a statue to South Africa’s Alcatraz ter, a Free Mandela movement weight boxers at the end of a reform) and to make the central honouring them as well, took root, enveloping white liber- long title bout,” The Guardian bank independent of the govern- But it was said half in jest, Man- Rather than die, he was sen- als in South Africa and even the reported that December, when ment (thus protecting it from dela admitted. They never really tenced to spend the rest of his United Nations Security Council. they arrived in Oslo to receive attempts to redistribute the thought that it, like so many life at hard labour and, at 46, was Within five years, successive pro- the Nobel Prize. national wealth). The ANC also things, perhaps, would happen. sent to Robben Island – the Alca- tests and violent reprisals had At 75, an age when most politi- agreed to sign on to the General It did, but only because of a re- traz of South Africa, five square made the country almost ungov- cians have retired to play golf, Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, markable man as well as a monu- kilometres of rock off Cape Town. ernable. But “the most discour- Mandela became a first-time can- the precursor to the World Trade mental change in human and Cut off from the world, he spent aging moments,” Mandela insists didate for public office and was Organization, the World Bank political values.

...... ROMANTIC INSPIRATION

HAPPY TOGETHER: Mandela and Graça Machel on July 18, 1998 – his 80th YOUNG AT HEART: Awestruck youngsters surround the seemingly ageless icon at his home in the Johannesburg birthday and the day they marry. Three decades his junior, she soon comes suburb of Houghton on the eve of his 92nd birthday in 2010. to act as his representative to the world. ASSOCIATED PRESS DEBBIE YAZBEK-NELSON/MANDELA FOUNDATION User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 12:18 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela2) Colour: CMYK

THE GLOBE AND MAIL • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1969 THE EARLY YEARS

HOME AND AWAY ...... Most likely to succeed: An archivist, top right, pinpoints young Nelson in a class photo believed to be the earliest surviving image of him. DENIS FARRELL/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Family sacrifice: Disillusioned with his political activities and frequent absences, first wife Evelyn, top left with sons Thembi and Makgatho, leaves him in 1956.

Wedding Winnie, above left: He is 40 and she is just 22 on their big day in May, 1958. REUTERS

Defiant ones: At far right, he confers with fellow ANC Youth leaders Walter Sisulu, left, and Harrison Motlana in 1952 after a campaign to defy the government’s new policy known as apartheid. JURGEN SCHADEBERG/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Outgunned: A man, right, accused of heeding the ANC call for defiance is bound for prison in the back of Ford pickup. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

...... MANDELA’S MEMORY Every time Nelson Mandela walks into a room, we all feel Man of principles built to last a little bigger. We all want to stand up, we all want to cheer, Nelson Mandela was only human, Globe and Mail correspondent Geoffrey York writes, because we’d like to be him but his core values are universal and enduring. ‘Gloomy predictions of his country’s on our best day. ruination after his departure from the political stage have repeatedly been proved wrong,’ Bill Clinton he reports from Johannesburg, ‘and are likely to be confounded again’ Mandela showed the U.S. president his tiny jail cell during a 1998 visit to Robben Island ...... e knew it could be his last 84,000 cheer like thunder when tion were proved wrong after he and portrayed its hero as naive Hchance to exercise the right he appeared, briefly, at Soccer departed the political stage, and and powerless, someone who he had devoted his life to win- City stadium – an eruption of likely will be confounded again. obediently recited speeches ning, protecting and preserving. gratitude for his vision of a non- His work was flawed, his poli- scripted by others, allowing his Old and too frail to leave his racial South Africa and his fear- cies at times indecisive – yet his country to drift into the hands of I was… an ordinary man house, Nelson Mandela had the less campaign to play host to the fundamental values remain resil- venal political figures. who had become a leader ballot box brought to him. World Cup, an event that in- ient; his struggle has been won. Even his allies said he had A municipal election, it was spired and united people of all Consider Jacob Zuma, one of made errors. “His one weakness because of extraordinary one that South Africans, alienat- races. South Africa was awarded his political heirs. After becom- has been his unshakable loyalty circumstances. ed by the corruption and indiffe- the cup because Mr. Mandela was ing president in 2009, Mr. Zuma to his comrades,” Archbishop rence of their local governments, more than just the man who had was ridiculed in the media for his Desmond Tutu wrote in an intro- Nelson Mandela seemed to care little about. Yet ended the tyranny of apartheid. polygamous habits, his lack of duction to a biography of Mr. From his famous speech to the the TV coverage of Mr. Mandela, He had become a moral beacon formal education, his love of Mandela. This was true. He was crowd in Cape Town on the day fast approaching 93 and going to who inspired the world with the song and dance, and his occa- excessively loyal to the ANC, he was released from prison such lengths to cast his vote, power of possibilities. sional difficulties with the law. even its worst leaders. And he ig- seemed to galvanize the electo- He lived in an age of ideology, But he accepted and promoted nored the human-rights abuses rate. Instead of declining, as yet he floated above politics. the essential Mandela ideas: of countries such as Libya and widely expected, the turnout was While in office, he made mis- courting minorities, learning Cuba because they had support- above average. takes because he knew little of some Afrikaans, building a multi- ed the ANC in its anti-apartheid Nelson Mandela helped to economics or administration, but racial cabinet – and even disco struggle in the 1980s. His one weakness has been create one of the healthier de- his core beliefs – racial reconcili- dancing with the white leader of It was also true that, rather his unshakable loyalty mocracies found in Africa, des- ation, forgiveness, personal sacri- the opposition. than try to conceal his failings, pite the economic inequality and fice, confidence in the goodness If a South African politician can Mr. Mandela often admitted to his comrades. high unemployment that persist. of humanity and a willingness to go to such lengths to avoid con- them. “I was not a messiah, but Here, unlike so many African admit to shortcomings – were flict – with Mr. Mandela virtually an ordinary man who had Archbishop Desmond Tutu nations, voting is peaceful and universal values and struck a absent from the political stage – become a leader because of Mandela tapped the Anglican well-organized, election after profound chord among people it seems clear that the country extraordinary circumstances,” he leader, also an anti-apartheid election – largely because of his everywhere. will survive the great man’s once said. He abandoned his activist, to head his Truth and spirit and his unwavering belief The details of his life, like those death. His values were stronger long-held communist beliefs in Reconciliation Commission in racial co-existence. of the Dalai Lama or Mikhail Gor- than his faltering health, and the 1990s when he realized they ...... bachev, have long been surpassed they will carry on after him. would have destroyed the econo- Fears unfounded by the mythology of a global Demagogues and rogues still my. He had ignored the devastat- icon, the magnetism of celebrity thrive here, as they do anywhere. ing AIDS crisis when it first hit But will this legacy survive, or and the inspiration people took But note what happened in 2011 Africa, yet he later admitted his will South Africans, despite 20 from his legend. He was shrewd when a black government official mistake and led the battle years of nurturing by their liber- enough to recognize this, and to mused that mixed-race South against the disease, even fighting ation hero, stray from the demo- transform it into a force for good. Africans should be relocated so its stigma by revealing that his cratic path now that he has Even in his final years, he chose that they are less numerous in own son had died of AIDS. gone? There are scandals, extre- his public causes wisely, trans- their Western Cape stronghold. This ability to admit mistakes, mists and the occasional race- forming his fame and charisma The suggestion was swiftly shot the most human trait of all, was baiting speech – yet South Africa into a moral movement. People down by a powerful cabinet min- linked clearly to his core belief in has stuck to the path that Mr. called it the “Mandela magic.” It ister, Trevor Manuel, who quoted the power of reconciliation and Mandela blazed. somehow helped people to dis- Mr. Mandela’s famous declara- forgiveness. He invited one of his When I moved to South Africa cover their own goodness. tion that “I have fought against former prison guards, a white at the end of 2008, he was al- As former U.S. president Bill white domination and I have man, to attend his presidential ready retired and living largely in Clinton put it, “Every time Nel- fought against black domina- inauguration. He invited his for- seclusion, his health deteriorat- son Mandela walks into a room, tion.” The fact he was doing so mer apartheid prosecutor to ing. Yet I witnessed how he we all feel a little bigger. We all nearly five decades after they lunch. And he journeyed to the fought to keep democracy alive want to stand up, we all want to were spoken is well worth noting. Afrikaner town of Orania, the in his fractious country. cheer, because we’d like to be ...... symbol of intransigent oppos- At the final rally of the 2009 him on our best day.” Oft-blemished record ition to black rule, to have tea national election, I watched him In his final years, he came up with the widow of Hendrik Ver- struggle painfully up the stairs to with another master stroke: He Mr. Mandela was no saint, but woerd, the architect of apartheid. a stage at Johannesburg’s Ellis transformed his birthday, July 18, somehow became more like one This, in the end, was the great Park Stadium to give his support into an international day of sacri- when his failings were exposed. inspiration for the world. He was to the African National Congress fice. Mandela Day has become a Late in life, his weaknesses the man who suffered and chose (ANC). A few days later, I saw call to everyone in the world to were dissected more aggressively. to forgive. “He took our breath him cast his ballot in Houghton, devote 67 minutes to humanitar- Young Mandela, by British author away with his magnanimity,” the suburb where he lived. I ian work – one minute for every David James Smith, documented Archbishop Tutu said. remember how the voters lining year that he spent struggling to his troubled personal life and ...... up outside the polling station liberate his country. early sexual adventures. Another Geoffrey York is The Globe and burst into song, euphoric at the Today, that country has no one book, by prominent scholar and Mail’s National Newspaper Award- sight of him. of his moral stature to take his journalist R.W. Johnson, winning Africa correspondent, In July, 2010, I heard a crowd of place. But predictions of ruina- denounced the “Mandela cult” based in Johannesburg. 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HEEDING THE CALL

THE FIGHTER AND HIS CAUSE

Above left: Nelson Mandela lends Above: The star defendant flashes a support to women marching to smile as he leaves court in 1958 Pretoria – going to the capital in during his first treason trial. The case 1959 to protest against laws denying grinds on for four years and ends in freedom of travel to non-whites. acquittals for all accused. PETER MAGUBANE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JÜRGEN SCHADEBERG/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Left: Also in 1959, Durban police use Bottom: In a famous 1957 image clubs to disperse rioters after captured by one of the era’s few women set fire to a beer hall black photojournalists, the amateur because the authorities raided their boxer and future president spars home-brewing operations. with national champ Jerry Moloi. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Both train at the same club. BOB GOSANI/NEWSCOM

......

FRAYED ROOTS Geoffrey York finds Mandela’s birthplace trapped in the past -- and in perpetual poverty

...... MVEZO, SOUTH AFRICA ...... elson Mandela’s village lies at the end of a long Nand bumpy dirt road that sees few cars but many cows, donkeys, goats, sheep and rondavels – the tiny round huts that are still the main form of housing around here. Nearly a century has passed since the future anti- apartheid hero was born here in 1918, yet the women still make the long two-hour walk to the Mbashe River to fetch water. Families still sleep on mats on the floor of their huts. Mothers still feed their families by cooking in cast-iron pots over outdoor fires, just as Mr. Mandela described in his memoirs. The region had always been poor. Yet, when his long imprisonment was over in 1990, and he made the trek home to the barren rolling hills of the East- ern Cape, Mr. Mandela was shocked by the poverty he encountered – and little has changed since. South Africa has ended apartheid, but its economic inequalities are as stark as ever. Qunu, the nearby village where his father moved the family when Mr. Mandela was 2, has fared better than most. It is where South Africa’s first demo- cratically elected president chose to build his retirement villa, on the highway to the regional capital, and a new museum has helped to bring in tourist dollars. But communities on the back roads, far from the major thoroughfares, suffer from neglect. Mvezo has electricity and water pumps, but both work only sporadically. There is still no health clinic, no secondary school, no running water. The main de- velopment is the “Great Place” (political headquarters) of Mr. Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, an ambitious young politician who became the village chief in 2007. A descendant of one branch of the Thembu royal family, Mr. Mandela watched proudly as the regal lion skin was draped over the young man’s shoulders. But one of Mandla’s first acts was to tear down the ruins of the rondavel where his grandfather had been born, and put up a collection of replica huts designed to show tourists what it was like back in the old days. The loss of the ruins infuriated the historians at the Mandela Museum in the nearby city of Mthatha, who had wanted the site preserved. How did the voters feel? It didn’t really matter. The traditional king of the Thembu tribe decides who Mvezo’s chief will be, not its people. Tradition and the needs of a modern democracy are often at odds, and as it moves into the future, South Africa is still looking for a way to balance the two. User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 12:23 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela4) Colour: CMYK

THE GLOBE AND MAIL • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1969 SHARPEVILLE AND THE PATH TO PRISON

A TERRIBLE TURNING POINT ...... Mr. Mandela’s road to Robben Island begins on March 21, 1960, in the Township of Sharpeville when police open fire with horrific results: 69 dead, almost 200 wounded. In the aftermath, the government bans the ANC, which then sends him underground to launch the armed uprising that leads to his arrest.

Right: Tending to Sharpeville’s many wounded. AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Above, right: Soon after the massacre, demonstrators march into Durban. Violence sweeps the city and again police open fire, this time shooting over people’s heads. Top left: Six months later, as this poster advocates, white South Africans vote to become a republic and leave the Commonwealth. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ON THE RUN, ON DISPLAY Far right: Mr. Mandela sports a beard in 1962, after returning from abroad and going into hiding. REUTERS

Right, below: Later that year, after his capture, the Xhosa prince dons tribal regalia for a court appearance. CULLEN LIBRARY

...... WITNESS TO HISTORY How South Africa moved NOTABLE NUPTIALS Amid the tumult that led to Mandela’s release, The Globe’s Michael Valpy Groom accused of treason had the thrill of watching a dream come true – and some very close calls. with a best man known Along with the violence and the hate, he encountered bravery, the Bible and as a real ‘Terror’ abundant proof that ‘a society under stress produces greatness’

...... he most remarkable wedding I have ever elson Mandela walked out of African National Congress (ANC) While covering all this, I drove Tattended took place on June 19, 1986, in a court- NVictor Verster Prison on Feb. would be legal again – and that wounded children to get help, room in Delmas, a farming community 75 kilo- 11, 1990, to redeem the South Mr. Mandela would be released. one little boy with his face half metres east of Johannesburg. Africa that I had encountered But the darkness had to come torn off by a police shotgun blast Lazarus More, 27, married Golda Maphisa, 25, his just a few years before – one con- before the dawn. (the police fired at random childhood sweetheart and a weeping bride. sumed with hate and stress. During nearly four years as The whereas soldiers stopped and Mr. More was on trial for high treason. He was one That first evening, he stood on Globe’s correspondent, I wit- took aim). His mother and I got of the “Delmas 22,” charged with carrying out an al- the steps of Cape Town’s baroque nessed South Africa’s slide into him to a doctor, but his nurse, leged call from Nelson Mandela and the African City Hall before 50,000 of his fel- bloody chaos. The ANC’s 1985 call standing arms akimbo at the National Congress to “make the townships ungov- low citizens and proclaimed a from its headquarters in Zambia door, said to take him elsewhere. ernable” by igniting violence that had left 2,000 country of reconciliation and sal- to make the black townships un- I was tear-gassed, detained and dead in the Vaal Triangle, a region just south of vation, a country of liberty for governable triggered uprisings, even kidnapped by a gang of South Africa’s biggest city. blacks. “We have waited too long riots, bombings and the violent, teens who had firebombed a li- It was the most important political case since the for our freedom,” he said. “We at times lethal, overthrow of mu- quor store in the middle of a riot trial more than two decades earlier that led to Nel- can no longer wait. Today, the nicipal authorities accused of col- and commanded me to drive son Mandela being jailed for life. Once again, all of majority of South Africans, black laborating with the apartheid them away from the police. the defendants faced the death penalty, although in and white, recognize that apart- state. The government retaliated When they got out of my car, the end none of those convicted was executed and heid has no future.” with a series of states of emer- they raised their fists and shout- most went on to play major roles in post-apartheid “Amandla!”– power, he roared. gency that unleashed a savage ed, “Amandla!” So did I. In fact, I South Africa. I had arrived six years earlier as and deadly counter-assault by would have saluted anything – One of the accused, Geoffrey Moselane, was an The Globe and Mail’s first corre- the army and police. they had threatened to kill me. Anglican priest and assisted in the ceremony. The spondent in Africa since the early It was a compelling story, and I went to funerals, sometimes best man, Patrick Lekota, was also a defendant, 1960s. The continent was my one difficult to cover. as the only white in an ocean of which meant that even his wedding speech could domain, but the main assign- State-of-emergency regulations black faces, and was escorted not be reported. Known as Terror (for his soccer ment was South Africa’s last race required journalists to leave the courteously by marshals to a prowess, not his political activism), Mr. Lekota went war, its civil war over apartheid. scene of any “unrest” immediate- front-row seat. I had rocks and a on to become a cabinet minister. By then, Madiba – his clan ly. Subsequently, the government gasoline bomb (fortunately it Terry Waite, representing the Archbishop of Can- name was Mr. Mandela’s title of imposed censorship, barring the didn’t explode) thrown at my car terbury, global Anglicanism’s titular leader, carried respect – had spent two decades media from reporting “subver- as police pulled me to safety. the wedding cake into the courtroom. (Seven isolated behind bars for treason, sive statements” deemed, among I watched Anglican Bishop months later, he was kidnapped in Lebanon and first on Robben Island and then other things, to encourage for- Simeon Nkoane, fierce like a bib- famously held captive for almost four years.) Arch- in Cape Town’s Pollsmoor Maxi- eign economic sanctions or lical prophet, stride into a crowd bishop Desmond Tutu, then Anglican primate-elect mum Security Prison; he was an weaken the public’s confidence preparing to “necklace” a sus- of South Africa, carried the bride’s bouquet. icon of hope few had ever seen. in government actions. Filming pected informer (by igniting a Rev. Simeon Nkoane, assistant bishop of Johan- ...... or recording the work of security gasoline-filled tire around his nesburg, married the couple. Then he announced ‘Only free men can negotiate’ forces was prohibited. neck) and pull him from harm. that they’d be apart on their wedding night because But the government’s biggest ...... authorities wouldn’t let the bride into Modderbee By the time I left in late 1987, hammer was held over journal- ‘Bleck’ and white Prison, where the groom was confined. When they barred from South Africa by its ists whose employers adhered to were pronounced man and wife, Archbishop Tutu white-supremacist government, a Commonwealth resolution not In this civil war, journalists knew broke into song and boogied toward the cake. Mr. Mandela’s fortunes had risen to base correspondents in South both sides equally well. One day, The police videotaped the entire event. When the significantly. He had been moved Africa, but instead park them I’d be sitting in an anti-apartheid audience stood to sing a hymn, they did, too, and into a private house at min- across the border in Zimbabwe. leader’s living room having tea they didn’t object when the Archbishop sang Nkosi imum-security Victor Verster The downside to this principled and, two days later he’d be gone, Sikelel’ iAfrika (God Bless Africa), the black national- amid the vineyards of the West- stance was that Canadian corre- whisked away by the security po- ist standard that is now South Africa’s anthem. ern Cape and had, in fact, turned spondents in Harare had to apply lice, disappeared for months. Referring to the surveillance, a woman guest said: down an offer of release. It came for a new visa and work permit Then I’d be meeting a cordial “It would be sweet of them to present the couple with a condition – that he reject every three months rather than public servant responsible for with a copy of the video as a wedding gift.” violence as a political weapon – once a year. If the government enforcing apartheid’s high creed: ...... and “only free men can nego- didn’t like what we wrote, the re- the pass laws controlling the Michael Valpy tiate,” he said in a statement newal took longer and longer movement of blacks (“blecks,” as made public by his daughter. until, in my case, I was told there they’d say) in the country. I was there when Zindzi read it would be none. There was noth- The anti-apartheid opstoker, or to a cheering crowd in a Soweto ing to do but go home. troublemaker, vanished into jail football stadium – the first words I returned to Canada with 48 hours after I interviewed him South Africans had heard from memories of battle-zone black in 1984 and didn’t reappear until Mr. Mandela since his 1964 trial. townships and clouds of tear gas the following year, when he Then on Jan. 18, 1989, P.W. and oily smoke from burning became chairman of the newly Botha, known to Afrikaners as tires and the terrifying roar of formed Release Mandela Com- Die Groot Krokodil (The Big Croc- armoured troop carriers, of mass mittee, which was soon banned. odile), suffered a stroke that funerals with white coffins for The public servant was com- eventually forced him from the children, of mothers too angry to missioner of suburban Cape presidency. His successor, F.W. de weep, of Desmond Tutu and his Town’s Langa influx-control Klerk, soon announced that anti- Anglican priests kneeling as mili- court. Five days a week, he pulled apartheid groups such as the tary vehicles bore down on them. his blue Audi up to the yellow User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 12:52 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela5) Colour: CMYK

LIFE AT HARD LABOUR

...... MAN OF HIS PEOPLE ‘I can only be infinitely grateful my soul that he touched my life’ Looking back especially for Globe and Mail readers, Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer describes what her old friend meant – to her and to his country

...... one-storey, building , went inside, Africa upside down and Mr. Man- ow to conceive of a South Mr. Mandela responded – with donned a black robe, and began dela walked out of Victor Verster. HAfrica – no, a world – with- his life – unsparingly to what cul- dispensing justice. Before the But to my surprise, the govern- out Nelson Mandela, our Madiba, tural critic Edward Said called “a laws he administered were ment let me back in, so I could Above: Nelson Mandela as he whose matchless humanity was kind of historical necessity,” the repealed, almost 20 million peo- report on the remarkable wake of appears just before being ent to bountiful enough for us to share radical “spontaneity” that French ple had been arrested, fined, the release: the period in which prison for life in 1964. REUTERS with the world? For myself, I can colonial thinker Frantz Fanon imprisoned or deported to so- hope struggled against fear. only be infinitely grateful that I saw in Africa’s oppressed masses. called independent homelands. The nightmare – total social THE VERDICT: A ONE-WAY TRIP knew him personally, that he He was never afraid of speaking The clergy figured prominently breakdown – failed to material- TO ROBBEN ISLAND touched my life. out when confronted with some- in my South Africa. It was on the ize, of course, but South Africa’s ...... He knew beyond question that thing he considered wrong. doors of priests, Anglican and new dawn didn’t break for every- Top left: Winnie Mandela (in hat), at the struggle for freedom from the Even in his “retirement” after Roman Catholic alike, that I one once Mr. Mandela was free. 27 almost two decades younger subjection by whites, which serving as president, he risked knocked when I went into town- People like young Livingstone than her husband, leaves court in began in the 17th century and appearing disloyal to his country ships then burning and bloodied Zuma had to wait a while. Police Pretoria on June 16, 1964, after he is reached grim culmination as by tearing away the veil of “polit- by “unrest.” They knew it was shot him twice in the stomach in sentenced. AFP/GETTY IMAGES apartheid, could be achieved ical correctness” to decry the against the law, but they still April, 1990, during Natal prov- only by blacks themselves, as government’s inadequate reopened up, introducing me to ince’s bitter war between ANC Above, right: Less than a year later, both a political battle and an sponse to the epidemic of HIV- their communities and letting sympathizers and Zulu leader she is subjected to a long list of inward escape from victimhood. AIDS decimating its population. me use their churches or homes Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Inkatha restrictions, which range from He also recognized the indivisi- A great leader, moral world to interview people. Freedom Party, which the regime being banned from her job as a bility of human freedom, and the leader as Madiba became, is seen, The fierce Bishop Nkoane nakedly backed. social worker and her college dedication to this which con- rightly and in awe, as one who couldn’t remember my name, When paramedics refused to studies to taking her own children firmed the necessity and right of has put the lives of others, his but he never forgot my national- rescue a Mandela supporter, I to school. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS whites to serve within the strug- people, first, before any life of his ity. Once he hid me from security helped another volunteer drag gle for justice against racism. own. All this means that such a police in a church basement in Mr. Zuma, under fire, on a blan- Top, centre: The front page of a There were the greats – leaders man belongs to his people in an Soweto. After the thumping of ket from his house to our car, South African newspaper shows such as Joe Slovo, Helen Joseph, emotional dimension as well. the boots overhead had faded, a then drive wildly through the some of the incriminating evidence Ruth First, Ronnie Kasrils, Beyers Mr. Mandela did this uncom- door opened and he bellowed: dark to Pietermaritzburg in seized from an ANC safe house and Naude – and there were others, promisingly. For example, little is “Come up, Canada. Come up into search of a hospital. He lost con- presented during the trial. like myself, who associated, at known of the immense sorrow the sunshine of the Lord!” sciousness, slumped against me RADU SIGHETI /REUTERS some risk, with the African he endured when, after 27 years Foreign correspondents were and bled silently down my pants National Congress in the move- of imprisonment, he was faced required to report regularly to but lived, I think. Above, left: Irate at the outcome, ment toward the ultimate integ- with the fact that the life with South Africa’s capital to be lec- Years later, the ANC’s Jacob women protest in front of the rity. As George Steiner put it, the woman he so loved and tured by the bureau for informa- Zuma became president and I re- Palace of Justice in “Men are accomplices to that longed for was no longer there to tion (the censors) on objective alized that, like Livingstone, he Pretoria. AFP/GETTY IMAGES which leaves them indifferent.” be taken up. I happen to have and balanced reporting. too came from Natal. I met Nelson Mandela during been with him then, privately Sitting in Pretoria one day, I ...... the first treason trial, which end- one day, and was privy to his des- had an epiphany: How, I asked Lasting impressions ed in 1961, introduced by Antho- olation. Nelson Mandela was a myself, could reporting about ny Sampson, the friend and whole man, who experienced apartheid possibly be objective As well as my journalism, South British journalist who later wrote keenly all of human being. It was or balanced? Unable to come up Africa indelibly touched my soul the first and best biography of part of his strength. with an answer, I soon noticed I and my ideal of humanity. the man. There were some tasks I To remember him, not only in was waiting longer and longer for When I went to Africa, I had could do for him and the ANC, as homage but lovingly and on a my permit renewals. Brian Mul- ceased being a churchgoer. And a writer and as an African whose lighter note, he would not wish roney also may have been to then for nearly four years I saw skin colour was not a definition his indestructible sense of blame; as prime minister, he people like Simeon Nkoane and in his eyes. Seen by me in hind- humour forgotten. On his mar- spoke forcefully in favour of many others commanded by sight, they were never enough. riage to Graça Machel, which sanctions, and was the only West- their beliefs to put their lives at Mr. Mandela was like that for brought him happiness late in ern leader to visit South Africa’s risk. I resumed attending church. South Africans of all colours. He life, he was asked by a journalist ANC-friendly neighbours. And I was struck by how a soci- came from way up in the hierar- whether he objected to her deci- The authorities were no hap- ety under stress can produce chy of traditional African society. sion to keep the name of her late pier with my successor. Oakland greatness – great human beings But, unlike others on that ances- husband, Mozambique’s first Ross waited six weeks for his first such as Nelson Mandela and Des- tral level, he did not see that rev- post-colonial president. visa, then wrote something the mond Tutu, along with the chil- erence and respect for this meant His response? Mock relief: “Oh, regime didn’t like, was barred for dren who confronted police in distorting its relevance by oppos- I’m so glad she didn’t ask me to two years, then allowed back in the townships, the writers, musi- ing the laws of our democratic change my name to hers!” for only two weeks. Before long, cians, lawyers, doctors, priests Constitution with traditional law. A sly bow to the feminists? To he, too, had to return to Canada, and sometimes ordinary people He maintained a deep sense of yet another of human justice? and The Globe closed its bureau – like the women of anti-apartheid the African self in synergy with ...... until the amazing Stephanie Black Sash and bus drivers and an understanding of Africa’s Writer and social activist Nadine Nolen reopened it in 2003, this teachers and librarians who set place in the contemporary world, Gordimer was one of the first time in Johannesburg. aside safety and comfort to serve evolving along with it. You do friends to meet Nelson Mandela All of which meant the paper social justice. not emerge from the isolation of after his release in 1990. A year lat- had no staffer in the country I was angry at being home in racism to confine your country to er, she was awarded the Nobel Prize when Mr. de Klerk turned South comfortable Canada. some other, chosen isolation. for Literature. 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THE LONG WAIT FOR FREEDOM

ONE STEP FORWARD AND ONE STEP … ...... Conservative hotbeds such as Carletonville, right, a gold-mining town near Johannesburg, stand by apartheid’s segregationist policies to the bitter end. This picture could have been taken when Mr. Mandela went to Robben Island, not 1989, the year before his release. ULLI MICHEL/REUTERS ...... Zindzi Mandela, middle, galvanizes LONG-RUNNING BATTLE the anti-apartheid movement at a ...... 1985 rally (attended by The Globe’s Left: Riot police snuff out a 1986 Michael Valpy, see Page 4) in rally at the University of the Soweto by reading a speech her Witwatersrand, beating blacks and father has smuggled out of jail to whites alike. Oddly, the trouble explain why he rejects a conditional began when students and staff offer of release. He will spend six protested against their treatment more years behind bars. by police on an earlier occasion. PETERS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Out of sight, out of mind, above: Determined to make Mr. Mandela disappear, penal authorities allow him few visitors and ban photographs. This one showing him talking to Walter Sisulu, right, in 1966 was taken by a fellow prisoner and smuggled off the island. In the background, inmates can be seen seated and hammering rocks. AKG-IMAGES/AFRICANPICTURES/NEWSCOM

The next day, above, they enjoy a much quieter stroll in Desmond Tutu’s Cape Town garden. WALTER DHLADHLA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Above: In 1977, visiting journalists capture this image of ‘a prisoner working in the garden.’ It shows the future president in his 13th year of incarceration and decades later appears on the cover of a 2005 collection of photographs and diaries chronicling his time on Robben Island.

In 1989, a sombre Makgatho Above: A year earlier, Zindzi marks Mandela carries a decorative fruit the occasion in a lighter vein, sport- On his second day of freedom, A few weeks later, he is visited at basket to the ferry to Robben ing a pair of autographed boxing he salutes well-wishers with ANC his Soweto home by parliamentar- Island, where he, stepmother gloves, a 70th-birthday gift to her secretary-general Walter Sisulu, for ian and long-time supporter Helen Winnie, right, with other family and fight-loving father from Mike Tyson, 50 years a friend, ally and fellow Suzman. First elected in 1953, she friends will celebrate his father’s then world heavyweight prisoner on Robben Island. Set free has come to see him in prison since birthday. Sixteen years later, his champion. AFP/GETTY IMAGES four months earlier, the diminutive 1967 and recently given up her seat AIDS-related death (recalled by Sisulu is six years Mandela’s senior after 36 years in office. One of the Stephanie Nolen on Page 9) adds and passes away in 2003. few white politicians to oppose great poignancy to Madiba’s belated WALTER DHLADHLA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES white rule, she dies at 91 in 2009. campaign against the disease. ‘Amandla!’ Shortly after his release, his signature salute is captured during a photo session in JOHN PARKIN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS THE CAPE ARGUS/TRACE IMAGES/REUTERS Stockholm that later wins awards but lasts all of 10 minutes. HANS GEDDA/SYGMA/CORBIS User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 12:32 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela8) Colour: CMYK

FROM PRISON TO POWER

THE TRANSFORMATION A tour to mark his long-awaited release takes him to Ottawa, top left, to thank apartheid foe Brian Mulroney. MOE DOIRON/REUTERS

... and then New York, top right, where the famed amateur fighter meets pro greats Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard and boxing impresario Don King, rear. DAVID TURNLEY/CORBIS

Back home, he makes peace with, above left, Zulu rival Mangosuthu Buthelezi ... PATRICK DE NOIRMONT/REUTERS

.... and a power-sharing accord with F.W. de Klerk, with whom he shares the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, right. GUNNAR LIER/SCANFOTO REUTERS

At 75, he hits the campaign trail, middle, with two incredulous bodyguards. ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS

On April 26, 1994, his niece in New Zealand, far right, is the first black person to cast a vote, hours before polls open at home. ASSOCIATED PRESS

...... THE NATION-BUILDER

I told them that whites were Africans as well and that… He took vengeance off the table the majority would need the minority. Stephanie Nolen explains Mandela’s dogged insistence on forgiving injustices so many of his fellow black South Africans couldn’t forget. ‘We were practical,’ Nelson Mandela an old ally tells The Globe’s former Africa correspondent. writing in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom ‘You are not going to drive three million whites into the sea’

...... hen Nelson Mandela live for and to achieve. But if prison years, says even “the con- won the world title. He kept Mr. Warrived on Robben Island at needs be, it is an ideal for which I cession that there should be an de Klerk’s fractious personal We were practical. dawn on a frigid, rainy morning am prepared to die.” interim government [involving assistant as his own, always You are not going in July, 1964, it fast became clear From the outset, Mr. Mandela the old regime] – that was a Nel- speaking to her in Afrikaans he to the Afrikaner prison officials treated his time on Robben son Mandela-inspired decision.” had learned from his jailers. He to drive three million that he commanded great re- Island like a project – which Of course, it was the whites – made gestures rich in symbolism, whites into the sea. spect among the inmates, that he friend and cellmate Ahmed Kath- the invaders, colonizers and rul- determined to live the policy. You can’t do it ... was a natural leader. As a conse- rada said in an interview helped ers – whom Mr. Mandela empha- In the five years of his presiden- quence, they singled him out. him to survive such lengthy sized. They were most in line for cy, there was no slaughter of Other prisoners later described imprisonment with so little bit- forgiveness, and the ones he whites, none of the black upris- Ahmed (Kathy) Kathrada, how, a few years into his incar- terness. To him, time in jail was most needed to persuade that ing that had so long been evoked longtime friend, colleague and ceration, guards ordered him to just another aspect of the battle, they, too, had a future under as the outcome of giving blacks cell-mate of Nelson Mandela dig and then climb into a grave- comparable to being in the exiled democratic (thus black) rule. the vote. Nervous foreign inves- shaped trench. He must have ANC headquarters in Lusaka or Few whites believed him, while tors were soothed, and then wondered whether this was the the military camps in Angola. many black South Africans flooded into the country as the end. Then, as he lay in the dirt, Finally, when a mass uprising of chafed at the suggestion that economy grew. The guerrilla they unzipped their trousers and South Africans rendered the there would not be immediate force Mr. Mandela had founded urinated on him. country ungovernable in the and dramatic changes. But Mr. was folded into the white army, Suffering can embitter Many years later, an aide asked mid-1980s, its rulers secretly Mandela insisted there could be a and South Africans told their sto- and it can ennoble Mr. Mandela to provide a list of opened talks with him and in happy medium; black South Afri- ries, often stark, before the Truth those he wished to invite to his 1987 demanded to know how an cans would soon see their lives and Reconciliation Commission. – and we were very fortunate inauguration dinner as president ANC government would protect improve and whites, whose skills “Suffering can embitter and it that, in Madiba, of South Africa. The great figures the interests of a white minority. and capital were needed desper- can ennoble,” explained Arch- it did the latter. of the liberation struggle would “I told them,” he wrote in his ately, could be dissuaded from bishop Desmond Tutu, who pres- be there, of course, but the sole autobiography, “that whites were making the inelegantly labelled ided over the commission at Mr. name he’s said to have insisted Africans as well and that, in any “chicken run.” Mandela’s request, “and we were Archbishop Desmond Tutu on was that of a former jailer. future dispensation, the majority “We were practical,” Mr. Kathra- very fortunate that, in Madiba, it Anglican leader and anti-apartheid Mr. Mandela lived an extraor- would need the minority. ‘We do da said. “You are not going to did the latter. … Because you activist asked by Nelson Mandela dinary life that showed him to be not want to drive you into the drive three million whites into have forgotten, Madiba went into to preside over the Truth and a skilled tactician, a ruthless sea,’ I said.” the sea, you can’t do it. ... You jail an angry, militant young Reconciliation Commission adversary, an able politician, an ...... accepted that they are here to man, quite rightly upset at the incisive and catholic thinker Free at long last stay, this is their country.” travesty of justice that he had about liberation and oppression. He remembered vividly his first experienced with his comrades, But he will be remembered for The government balked but then day in government, as a minister and the 27 years were quite cru- one quality above all others: his three years later, felt it had no in the president’s office, present- cial in helping him mellow.” capacity to forgive, and to turn choice, and Mr. Mandela walked ed with an empty desk. “Who do ...... that forgiveness into a visible rec- free. Within months, the newly I turn to? I turn to the white civil Did he leave office too soon? onciliation. He not only had a legitimate ANC held a conference servant and say, ‘I want a pen, I phenomenal ability to rise above in Durban and, Mr. Kathrada want paper, I want a computer, I Indeed, so inextricably was the bitterness, but clearly had made recalled, renewed its commit- want this, that or the other.’ … idea tied up with Mr. Mandela a conscious decision that this ment to non-racial democracy We don’t even know how to run a that many asked, after he passed was the best route for the liber- and explicitly emphasized the little village, we’ve never had the the presidency to Thabo Mbeki – ation of black Africans. importance of reconciliation. vote – so, from a practical point who often made plain his resent- But, as well as being a deeply All members had to embrace it, of view, in addition to policy, we ment of whites – whether he felt principle, his singular focus whether they had learned about just had to go out with a policy of should have served a second on reconciliation was carefully it from the secret education cells reconciliation, forgiveness.” term, whether he left a country calibrated, part of a canny strate- on Robben Island or in the mili- And yet he and Mr. Bizos both uncertain, full of people who did gy when South Africa was held tary camps in Angola. emphasized that much of what not yet know or trust each other. together by promises and prayer. Mr. Mandela seemed possessed Mr. Mandela did was a question Another question is whether Not only did it redouble interna- of an uncanny understanding of of his personal style. Any other friends like Mr. Kathrada are cor- tional fascination with him, all what it would take to maintain ANC leader who became presi- rect that he truly harboured no South Africans began to be credi- peace. In the first days of his dent would have had non-racial- bitterness or had such self-con- ted with the same miraculous ca- presidency, he took pains to ism and reconciliation as policy, trol that no one ever saw it. He pacity for forgiveness. stress that the power of the mas- but the difference lay in how Mr. never offered an answer. The drive to reconcile was not a sive majority he suddenly con- Mandela lived it. He went to see “Although he was … a staunch new strategy. In 1962, when he trolled would be used rarely, if at Betsie Verwoerd, widow of apart- Africanist,” Mr. Bizos mused, “it was convicted of plotting to over- all. He promised that non-black heid designer Hendrik Verwoerd, was in the modified definition – throw the state, Mr. Mandela told South Africans would retain their sitting down to tea with her in that anyone who lives in South the court: jobs in government, that apart- the whites-only community Africa, living through its joys and “During my lifetime, I have … heid-era agents would be par- hard-liners had carved out for sorrows, is an African.” cherished the ideal of a demo- doned, and F.W. de Klerk, the last themselves. He donned a jersey ...... cratic and free society in which apartheid leader, would have an to support South Africa’s rugby Now based in New Delhi, Stephanie all persons live together in har- active role in the cabinet. team in this whitest of sports and Nolen was The Globe and Mail’s mony and with equal opportuni- Another close friend, George embraced the brawny white correspondent in Johannesburg ties. It is an ideal which I hope to Bizos, his lawyer through his players when they improbably from 2003 to 2008. User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 12:35 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela9) Colour: CMYK

MAN OF THE WORLD

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS From top left: South Africa’s first black president proves to be a chameleon, playing nation builder in 1995 by persuading apartheid holdout P.W. Botha to accept the idea of Truth and Reconciliation. MIKE HUTCHINGS/REUTERS

He’s also at home in the limelight, whether hobnobbing with the Queen, far left, or having a close encounter in 1997, centre above, with Prince Charles and the Spice Girls, pop princesses of the day. JOHN STILLWELL/REUTERS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

But the former rebel refuses to shun the renegades who helped the ANC through the lean years, such as, top right, Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland. JUDA NGWENY/REUTERS

Or controversial American activist Louis Farrakhan (in bow tie) of the Afrocentric and isolationist Nation of Islam. PATRICK DE NOIRMONT/REUTERS

And, left, the ultimate bad boy, Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, whom he awards South Africa’s highest honour for a foreigner. REUTERS

...... THE AIDS FIASCO ‘Sit down, old man’ CHANGE OF HEART Painfully slow to realize that a mass killer was preying on his people, Mandela strove to make up for lost time, Stephanie Nolen explains, He wasn’t always even if doing so meant breaking tribal tradition and exposed him such a forgiving soul to ridicule at the hands of his own party

...... elson Mandela is renowned for his conciliatory he words were stark and taut peculiar to HIV, in which infected Africa’s international reputation. Napproach to reshaping South Africa, but few Twith pain. On Jan. 6, 2005, people take as much as a decade For the first time in 65 years as know what it took for him to choose this path. Nelson Mandela shocked the to become very ill. The effects a member, he was driven to chal- He was recruited to the African National Congress world by summoning reporters were imminent but not evident. lenge the ANC, according to Mark in 1943 by Walter Sisulu, the cherished friend des- to his home to announce: “My The new republic’s health min- Gevisser, author of an exhaustive tined to occupy a cell next to his on Robben Island. son has died from AIDS.” istry had the mammoth job of biography of Mr. Mbeki. Soon, Mr. Mandela and others, such as Oliver Tam- By disclosing just what had trying to deliver basic care to a “He was deeply distressed by bo and Anton Lembede, were chafing within the killed 54-year-old Makgatho, his vast majority that had been de- his perception of the inability of ANC and joined forces to form its Youth League, the sole surviving son, that morning, nied it under white rule. AIDS serving ANC members to take small band that would transform the struggle. Mr. Mandela tried to rectify – to was just one of many challenges, Mbeki on, and was determined to They realized that South Africans of both South atone, some said – for what had and Mr. Mandela knew too little set an example …,” Mr. Gevisser Asian and mixed-race, or “coloured,” descent also emerged as the singular failure of about it to foresee the impact. said. “He believed Mbeki was were fighting for their rights, and some in the ANC his time as South Africa’s leader. His wife, Graça Machel, wrong, morally and politically.” were quick to see the value in working together for Then, at the funeral, his grand- explained in a 2006 interview He tried to get his successor, a “non-racial” society. son, Mandla, revealed, with Mr. that Mr. Mandela was focused on now aloof and dismissive, to dis- Mr. Mandela, however, still harboured suspicions Mandela beside him, that a few keeping the country’s tenuous cuss AIDS, but gave up in 2001, of the other races that were fostered by the apart- months earlier the virus also had peace. “Everything was so frag- declaring him derelict in his duty. heid government; to him, non-racialism was un- killed Makgatho’s wife. ile,” she said. “We have a tenden- A new generation of ANC lead- workable. With these public statements, cy to read history afterward. … ers rebuked him for meddling. One night in the late 1940s, Mr. Sisulu broke ranks Mr. Mandela defied the stigma Now, because things are much Heckled at a national executive over the issue as he, Mr. Mandela and others from and shame that kept AIDS deaths better, they say, ‘Oh, why he meeting, he left despondent after the Youth League were walking home after meeting cloaked in euphemism across didn’t do this, why didn’t he do being told, “Sit down, old man.” South Asian students at the University of the Wit- Africa – because, even though by that?’ – that’s human nature.” He no longer held a key party watersrand, where Mr. Mandela studied law. that point 800 people were dying Neither was Mr. Mandela com- position – he hadn’t wanted to “He said, ‘Look, chaps, we must work together, of AIDS in South Africa every day, fortable, as a Xhosa elder, with overshadow his successor – but we’re all oppressed people,’ ” recalled Ahmed no one would say so out loud. talking publicly about a sexually there was still much he could do. (Kathy) Kathrada, who had been among the South “Let us give publicity to HIV- transmitted infection – only very Under the auspices of his well- Asians at the meeting. AIDS and not hide it, because the late in life did he speak frankly endowed charitable foundation, Outraged at his betrayal, Mr. Mandela crossed the only way to make it appear like a about condoms and fidelity. he gathered prominent AIDS sci- road, refusing to walk with Mr. Sisulu. Only after a normal illness … is always to As president, he delegated the entists and activists to discuss a pivotal event in 1950 did he finally come around. come out and to say somebody handling of HIV to Thabo Mbeki, plan for South Africa. He had the ...... has died because of HIV,” Mr. a brilliant deputy and clearly his foundation pay for the first sub- South Asian leader hauled off stage Mandela said that morning. “And successor. But Mr. Mbeki, a pas- stantive surveillance research people will stop regarding it as sionate champion of “an African into South African HIV infection, The South African Communist Party (SACP) and something extraordinary.” renaissance,” emerged as the then put up the money for two the Indian Congress had called for a strike to mark This was an act of courage, al- world’s most prominent HIV de- public antiretroviral-treatment May Day, but Mr. Mandela didn’t want the ANC to though the near-sanctity accord- nier: He questioned whether the programs. He met the govern- get involved. ed Mr. Mandela insulated him virus really causes AIDS and ment’s bête noire – treatment ac- “They were not racist," Mr. Kathrada explained, from approbation. It was also an called life-saving antiretroviral tivist Zackie Achmat – and "but exclusivists who felt this must be an African act of generosity, the most inti- medication toxic, promoting tra- publicly donned the highly politi- struggle, not in unity with the other groups.” mate way he had to reach out to ditional remedies instead. cized “HIV-positive” T-shirt. The ANC even tried to sabotage the strike, which, the 26 million Africans living When Mr. Mandela left office in As well, he and Ms. Machel said the man who wound up sharing his cell on with HIV-AIDS. And it was an act 1999, otherwise lauded for his started a charity for HIV aware- Robben Island, “is where I had my first and only of political retribution: In a land performance, the infection rate ness, called 46664 after his Rob- serious clash” with Mr. Mandela, who hauled an In- whose government – which he had grown monstrously – beyond ben Island prison number, that dian Congress leader off the stage during a rally. had fought for – denied that 20 per cent, and still the country held high-profile benefit con- But the walkout went ahead, and Mr. Mandela AIDS existed, he said in the most had no coherent response. certs, and he mentioned AIDS and Mr. Sisulu were on the edge of a huge crowd in irrefutable of ways that it did. The situation got worse, as Mr. nearly every time he spoke. Soweto when, unprovoked, police opened fire on Mr. Mandela was famous for his Mbeki’s administration went to Finally the government agreed the peaceful throng, killing 18. foresight, but it failed him on court to fight activists seeking to provide treatment, but Mr. This was the turning point. “Clearly the repres- HIV-AIDS, which has done more treatment, turning AIDS into a Mandela never saw the rate of sion of any one liberation group was a repression than anything to undermine the political battleground – and the new infections even slow down. against all liberation groups,” Mr. Mandela wrote in bright future he envisioned for dominant issue of Mr. Mandela’s “This is unfair,” Ms. Machel said his autobiography. South Africa. He spent much of retirement. Ms. Machel was an of the shadow AIDS cast over Thus united, the ANC, coloured and Indian his retirement in an impassioned impassioned anti-AIDS cam- South Africa. “We deserved to groups, and the communists (mostly Jewish) soon and largely unsuccessful effort to paigner, but most of all, he sud- have a good time, in terms of formed a war council and mounted a national day reverse the damage. denly realized the disease wasn’t putting all our energy, all our ca- of mourning. And because the ANC had adopted When he took office in 1994, just another health problem. pacity into building our nations, non-racialism, Mr. Mandela did, too. the infection rate already had Mr. Mandela felt “genuine dev- to rebuilding our lives, to putting “Once convinced of the correctness of a certain reached 10 per cent of sexually astation at the way people were the troubles of the past to rest.” position,” Mr. Kathrada explained, “he internalized active adults. Yet, he never made dying,” Jakes Gerwel, who ran his ...... it and adopted it – with passion.” the illness a priority. This over- presidential office, recalled in an Stephanie Nolen, a former Globe ...... sight is hard to fathom today, but interview. He also grew increas- correspondent in Johannesburg, is Stephanie Nolen South Africa was still relatively ingly alarmed at the impact Mr. the author of 28: Stories of AIDS in early in the “death curve” that is Mbeki’s position had on South Africa (Random House, 2007). User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 14:21 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela10) Colour: CMYK

LIFE AFTER POLITICS

BUILDER OF BRIDGES ...... As the 1990s wind down, he reaches MANDELA AND THE MAPLE LEAF out across the political spectrum.

Clockwise from top left: In 1998, he rubs shoulders with The honorary Canadian Cuba’s Fidel Castro, by now one of the few communist leaders still in His fondness for far-off Canada wasn’t surprising, as prime ministers from Diefenbaker to Mulroney power, at a conference in Geneva … PATRICK AVIOLAT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE and Chrétien did so much for his cause. And the feeling seemed mutual: He was made an honorary citizen, after all. Yet, according to political scientist and Africa specialist Linda Freeman, Canadian Shows U.S. president Bill Clinton the cell on Robben Island where support wasn’t universal. The business community was in no hurry to jump aboard the ANC bandwagon he spent so much of his life … STEVE JAFFE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ...... And has a private audience at the elson Mandela’s passing is ter Margaret Thatcher over the The prime minister also made sponded warily to the uncertain- Vatican with Pope John Paul II. Nespecially poignant for Cana- question of South Africa. In 1985, it clear that, while his govern- ty and turbulence of the trans- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS da. It is hard to think of another Mr. Mulroney had made a deep ment could not condone vio- ition period. However, on the key world leader shown the respect impression in Africa by pledging lence, “we understand the ANC’s issue of sanctions, despite strong The following year, he visits his and affection he enjoyed here at the United Nations to break contention: ‘You ask us to drop pressure from the private sector Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, after his release from prison. economic and diplomatic rela- our arms to do what? Accept to end them, Ottawa maintained who engineered the final collapse of During two of his three visits to tions if South Africa did not more repression? Accept more its commitment. Canadian sanc- Soviet communism. Canada, he addressed the joint abandon apartheid. His battles brutality from the apartheid state tions weren’t lifted until Septem- JAPARIDZE/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Houses of Parliament to great with Mrs. Thatcher over Com- that is armed to the teeth?’ ” ber, 1993 – at Mr. Mandela’s acclaim. On the first, just four monwealth sanctions against Many in Mr. Mulroney’s own request. Canada’s government’s Even after leaving office, he months after being freed in 1990, South Africa were legendary. party, as well as the bureaucracy participation in the international maintains warm relations with he said he was deeply moved to In official Canada, Mr. Mulro- and private sector, opposed this battle against apartheid was late, Canada’s Jean Chrétien, here be in a place where, unlike apart- ney’s approach was pivotal in new policy. The wife of one Pro- limited and overblown, but in arriving in Johannesburg in 2002 heid South Africa, people were causing a shift in thinking about gressive Conservative MP even this respect it kept the faith. … FRED CHARTRAND/THE CANADIAN PRESS free to determine their destiny. South Africa and the ANC. For circulated South African propa- Mr. Mandela’s rise to the presi- In 1998, he became the first for- most of the postwar period, in- ganda calling ANC members “im- dency in 1994 marked a high A year earlier, Mr. Mandela makes eign leader awarded the Order of cluding the Trudeau era, Cana- moral, non-Christian, Marxist- point in his and South Africa’s re- his third and final visit to Canada, Canada, the nation’s highest hon- dian policy had been paradox- Leninist revolutionaries.” markable journey. As he walked once again addressing Parliament. our, and 45,000 Toronto children ical: to trade and condemn si- In 1987, these circles mounted a his country through its transi- DAVE CHAN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE treated him to a rapturous wel- multaneously. Canada resisted ef- campaign against ANC president tion, he became an icon of toler- come when he launched the Ca- forts to interfere with its dip- Oliver Tambo, Mr. Mandela’s ance and forgiveness; one of the Finally, he also sparks a commit- nadian Friends of the Nelson lomatic and commercial rela- friend and colleague, on his first great figures of our time. His de- ment to the children of South Africa Mandela Children’s Fund. tions with South Africa, but then official visit to Canada. Mean- cision not to cling to power by from a U.S. media icon, here in Despite his age and stiff joints, tried to soften the impact by reg- while, Mr. Mulroney turned to seeking a second term set an Johannesburg in 2002 to watch Mr. Mandela joined the dancing. ularly denouncing apartheid in more pressing matters, such as example for leaders everywhere. work begin on the Oprah Winfrey A magical moment. “When you international forums. Until well the Constitution and free trade, ...... Leadership Academy for Girls. will be my age,” prime minister into the 1980s, the ANC had diffi- and some public figures made no Lifted the human spirit ALEXANDER JOE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Jean Chrétien told the crowd, culty getting a hearing in Ottawa, secret of preferring Mangosuthu “you will tell your grandchildren: dismissed as an insignificant Buthelezi, chief minister of the The price he and others paid for ‘I was there when Nelson Mande- band of “communist terrorists.” Kwazulu homeland and leader of ending apartheid, in personal la came to Canada.’ ” On his last The tide began to turn only in the Inkatha Freedom Party. and family terms, was steep. visit in 2001, he became the first the mid-1980s, after a major up- Two years earlier, The Globe However, his ability to rise above Meet Nelson Mandela? living person made an honorary rising in South Africa and the re- and Mail had called Mr. Buthelezi the worst the apartheid regime You have got to be kidding! Canadian citizen. alization among Western banks, as “authentic a black leader as could throw at him and emerge Competition to hear Mr. Man- corporations and governments Nelson Mandela” and then in free of bitterness and the desire dela and to meet him on these that apartheid’s days were num- December, 1986, “the best hope, for revenge lifted the human A Canadian bank chairman occasions was fierce. No one, it bered. In 1985, the Common- if not the only hope, for the spirit everywhere. As one observ- in response to a request from seemed, had ever supported Can- wealth appointed an Eminent emergence of a moderate black er put it, he reminds us that Roy McMurtry, then Canada’s ada’s trade and diplomatic rela- Persons Group to visit the region leadership from the ashes of injustice has a long and hurtful high commissioner in London tions with the apartheid regime and assess the prospects for apartheid.” As late as 1988, a say but never the last word. that had imprisoned him. Nor peace. One of its high points was Globe editorial stated unequivo- Mr. Mandela’s significance for had they ever harboured reserva- a meeting with Mr. Mandela, the cally that there would “never be Canada is clear. He stands as a tions about his party, the African first of its kind during his long a President Mandela.” testament to the dangers of National Congress. incarceration. The historical record shows Mr. knee-jerk prejudice and hazy un- In his 1990 speech, Mr. Mandela Anglican archbishop Ted Scott, Buthelezi was a destructive force, derstanding; proof positive that How would you know he’s paid tribute to the people of Can- one of the eminent persons, a collaborator who waged a one person’s terrorist is another a communist? He’s been ada for helping to overthrow returned to give Canada a first- bloody campaign to eliminate person’s freedom fighter. apartheid: Canadian trade hand account of the man. The the ANC. But it wasn’t until 1993, The lessons for today – now in jail for 27 years. unions, churches, universities, EPG report concluded unequivo- a year before Mr. Mandela’s presi- that the word “terrorist” is used human-rights and solidarity cally that he was a nationalist, dential inauguration, that The indiscriminately and anti-terror- Prime minister Brian Mulroney groups, and the International not a communist, and had adopt- Globe realized its “best hope” ist legislation criminalizes many challenges critics who question Defence and Aid Fund for South ed armed struggle only because was instead a “spoiler” who activities used in the battle Nelson Mandela’s political beliefs Africa had spent decades in the he had no other option. could wreck the whole process. against apartheid – are evident. trenches. In particular, the Task ...... The antipathy and distrust of Above all, the story of Canada Force on the Churches and Cor- ‘Has he spoken to you lately?’ Mr. Mandela in the private sector and Mr. Mandela should alert us porate Responsibility had weath- lasted well after his release. Roy to the enduring importance of ered the ridicule of the business Mr. Mulroney agreed, and faced McMurtry, Canada’s high com- imagination, as well as precision, community and state officials in down his opponents, “How missioner in London, supported in Canadian foreign policy. its battle against business ties would you know he’s a commu- Mr. Mulroney’s policy but found ...... with apartheid South Africa. nist? He’s been in jail for 27 years. it almost impossible to raise the Linda Freeman is a political scien- He also had come to thank Mr. Has he spoken to you lately? ... ANC’s profile in the business tist at Carleton University and au- Chrétien’s predecessor, Brian “If I were a young black man community. “Meet Nelson Man- thor of The Ambiguous Champ- Mulroney, for his willingness to imprisoned in South Africa,” he dela?” said one bank chairman. ion: Canada and South Africa in break with U.S. president Ronald added, “I would support those “You have got to be kidding!” the Trudeau and Mulroney Years Reagan and British prime minis- who supported me.” Canadian governments re- (University of Toronto Press). User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 14:19 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela11) Colour: CMYK

THE FLAME DIES DOWN

...... THE TWILIGHT YEARS ...... Leaving office in 1999, he stays re- markably active for an octogenar- NELSON OF THE NORTH ian, touring the world to promote his causes and rubbing shoulders Brief encounter on Baffin with celebs at home and abroad.

...... Top: He shares a joke with New York t was after 2 in the morning of a northern Canada Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, and IDay when I shook Nelson Mandela’s hand. actors Robert DeNiro, Hugh Grant The story actually begins in the 1980s when, influ- and Whoopi Goldberg at the 2002 enced by my left-leaning parents, I boycotted grapes Tribeca Film Festival launch. for Cesar Chavez and learned about apartheid. So, STAN HONDA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES when I was in London and spotted a protest outside South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, I traded a Second row: At home, he has an small donation for a “Free Mandela” pin. especially busy year in 2005. Fast-forward to the summer of 1990: I was in Iqa- From left: Civil-rights activist Jesse luit working two jobs, and my nighttime gig at the Jackson pays his respects. RCMP detachment included answering the phone. He and wife Graça Machel celebrate One night, I started getting calls from reporters his 87th birthday (as well as their wanting to know if Mr. Mandela, out of prison just a seventh wedding anniversary). few months, really was planning a Baffin Island A sadder occasion is the memorial stopover after his North American tour. The staff ser- for biographer Anthony Sampson geant said it was true and swore me to secrecy. he attends with friend and Nobel But I didn’t keep it completely under my hat laureate Nadine Gordimer. (See her because I had my then-wife and friends with me as I exclusive tribute to him on Page 5). drove to the airport to watch Mr. Mandela’s private SIPHIWE SIBEKO/MIKE HUTCHINGS jet land. We were behind the chain-link perimeter AND RADU SIGHETI/REUTERS fence, a good distance away, as a group of Africans ...... wrapped in blankets started toward the terminal. Third row: In 2010, having turned 90 We jumped on the bumper of the car, shouting his two years earlier, he shrinks his name. We thought maybe he would wave. But then, itinerary, emerging from seclusion to everyone’s surprise, two figures started walking only for special occasions, such as toward us: Nelson and Winnie Mandela. South Africa’s global coming-out We were all mesmerized by the presence of this in- party as host to soccer’s World Cup. credible, venerable man, but I just started talking. Left: He and Ms. Machel take in the “Welcome to Canada did you ever think you’d end rollicking finale in Johannesburg. up in the Arctic what are your plans for the future Right: Before year’s end, soccer what do you think about aboriginal peoples?” puts him back in the spotlight when He spoke eloquently for almost half an hour, even the U.S. and South African national though shivering and probably short on sleep. Even- squads come to call. As cameras tually, an aide came over. Local dignitaries had been snap, he joins home-team captain waiting to meet him the whole time we were talking. Steven Pienaar, left, and Bradley “They tell me I really have to go,” he said. Guzan of the visitors, who win the So I turned to my wife who had been holding the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge. Free Mandela pin from Trafalgar Square and handed MICHAEL KOOREN/REUTERS it to him, saying I didn’t need it any more. And then DEBBIE YAZBEK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES – I’m not making this up – we reached down and shook hands under that chain-link fence...... PUBLIC SHAME, PRIVATE PAIN Sean Maloney as told to Guy Nicholson ...... Left: Rapped for ignoring AIDS ...... while in office, he defies his own party and tackles the great scourge after retiring, in 2002 joining controversial HIV activist Zackie MANDELA’S ACCOUNT Achmat, top, to fight for treatment. But the cruellest blow comes three ...... years later when, grief-stricken, he A passage from Long Walk To Freedom, the autobiog- calls reporters to his home, middle, raphy of Nelson Mandela. (see Page 9 for Stephanie Nolen’s account) to reveal that the virus has efore crossing the Atlantic, our plane, a small jet, claimed his only surviving son. Bstopped for refuelling in a remote place above The following week finds the family the Arctic Circle. I felt like having a walk in the brisk back in the Eastern Cape when air, and as I was strolling on the tarmac, I noticed … Makgatho is laid to rest in Qunu. by the fence a dozen or so young people, in their late ANNA ZIEMINSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE teens, who had come out to the airport because they ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES had heard our plane was going to stop there. OBED ZILWA/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS In talking with these bright young people, I learned that they had watched my release on TV and were familiar with events in South Africa. “Viva ANC!” one said. What struck me so forcefully was how small the planet had become during my decades in prison; it was amazing to me that a teenaged Inuit living on the roof of the world could watch the release of a political prisoner on the southern tip of Africa. Television had shrunk the world, and …become a great weapon for eradicating ignorance. User: DSlater Time: 12-18-2012 12:07 Product: Standard PubDate: .Bank Zone: Common Edition: 1 Page: ( Mandela12) Colour: CMYK

THE GLOBE AND MAIL • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1969 AN INDELIBLE IMPRESSION

‘THERE WERE MANY DARK MOMENTS WHEN MY FAITH IN HUMANITY WAS SORELY TESTED, BUT I WOULD NOT – AND COULD NOT – GIVE MYSELF UP TO DESPAIR.’

HEART OF PALM: Africa itself appears to emerge from Nelson Mandela’s palm in this lithograph of his right hand, part of a limited edition depicting his thoughts and feelings behind bars for nearly 30 years. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS