Umkhonto we Sizwe
The battle flag of the Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Active	1961-1990
Country	South Africa, Angola
Allegiance	African National Congress of South Africa, Left-wing nationalism
Type	Guerrilla
Nickname	MK
Commanders
Notable commanders	Joe Slovo Nelson Mandela

Umkhonto we Sizwe (or MK), translated "Spear of the Nation," was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), co-founded by Nelson Mandela, which fought against the South African apartheid government.^[1] MK launched its first guerrilla attacks against government installations on 16 December 1961. It was subsequently classified as a terrorist organization by the South African government and the United States, and banned.

For a time it was headquartered in Rivonia, a suburb of Johannesburg. On 11 July 1963, 19 ANC and MK leaders, including Arthur Goldreich and Walter Sisulu, were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia (26°2′36″S 28°3′15″E / 26.04333°S 28.05417°E / -26.04333; 28.05417 (Liliesleaf Farm)). The farm was privately owned by Arthur Goldreich and bought with South African Communist Party and ANC funds, as individuals who were not deemed "White" were unable to own such a property under the Group Areas Act. This was followed by the Rivonia Trial, in which ten leaders of the ANC were tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to "foment violent revolution". Wilton Mkwayi, chief of MK at the time, escaped during trial.

The MK carried out numerous bombings^[2] of civilian, military, industrial and infrastructural sites. The tactics were initially geared solely towards sabotage, but eventually expanded to include urban guerrilla warfare.^{[citation needed]} Notable among these were the 8 January 1982 attack on the Koeberg nuclear power plant near Cape Town, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the formation of the ANC, the Church Street bombing on 20 May 1983, killing 19, and the 14 June 1986 car-bombing of Magoo's Bar in Durban, in which 3 people were killed and 73 injured. The total number of people killed or injured in the 30 years of MK's campaigns is not known exactly. MK alone was not a military threat to the apartheid state,^{[citation needed]} but the ANC leadership saw MK as the armed component of a strategy of "people's war" that was primarily geared towards mobilizing mass political support.

MK suspended operations on 1 August 1990 in preparation for the dismantling of apartheid, and was finally integrated into the South African National Defence Force by 1994.

Motivation for formation of the MK[link]

According to Nelson Mandela, all of the founding members of the MK, including himself, were also members of the ANC. In his famous "I am prepared to die" speech, Mandela outlined the motivations which led to the formation of the MK:^[3]

"Firstly, we believed that as a result of Government policy, violence by the African people had become inevitable, and that unless responsible leadership was given to canalize and control the feelings of our people, there would be outbreaks of terrorism which would produce an intensity of bitterness and hostility between the various races of this country which is not produced even by war. Secondly, we felt that without violence there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy. All lawful modes of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the Government. We chose to defy the law. We first broke the law in a way which avoided any recourse to violence; when this form was legislated against, and then the Government resorted to a show of force to crush opposition to its policies, only then did we decide to answer violence with violence."

In 1961, MK published a manifesto entitled Umkhonto we Sizwe (Military wing of the African National Congress): We are at War!'

"Our men are armed and trained freedom fighters not terrorists."

"We are fighting for democracy—majority rule—the right of the Africans to rule Africa. We are fighting for a South Africa in which there will be peace and harmony and equal rights for all people."

"We are not racialists, as the white oppressors are. The African National Congress has a message of freedom for all who live in our country."

Umkhonto we Sizwe manifesto.^[4]

Military campaign[link]

Units of ANC exiles had MK camps in the "frontline" states neighbouring South Africa, most prominently Angola where MK was allied to the MPLA government, and fought alongside Angolan and Cuban troops at the critical engagement in Cuito Cuanavale.^{[citation needed]} MK fighters were also allied with ZAPU (rival to Robert Mugabe's ZANU) in then-Rhodesia, with FRELIMO in Mozambique, and with SWAPO in Namibia.

Following the suppression of MK inside South Africa in the late 1960s the organisation's cadres undertook military actions against the Rhodesian army (in, it was hoped, a prelude to crossing into South Africa itself).^{[citation needed]} In 1965 MK formally allied itself with ZIPRA and in July 1967 a joint MK/ZIPRA commando crossed into Rhodesia. The mission was a failure at both tactical and strategic levels, though the joint MK/ZIPRA detachment engaged the Rhodesian army in heavy firefights over the next year and academic sources have suggested that the cadres of the revolutionary armies acquitted themselves well enough for the Rhodesians to ask for South African assistance.^{[citation needed]}

The early 1970s were a low point for the ANC in many ways, and that included in the military fields. Attempts to rebuild MK inside South Africa resulted in many losses though some, including Chris Hani, were able to remain undetected for a long period.^{[citation needed]} The Soweto Uprising of 1976 led to a large exodus of young black men and women. Anxious to strike back at the apartheid regime, they crossed the border to Rhodesia to seek military training. While Umkhonto we Sizwe were able to build a new Army - one capable of attacking prestigious targets such as the refineries at Sasolburg^{[citation needed]} - the force also suffered from appalling breakdowns of discipline and there were many accusations that some new recruits were being tortured or killed by a physical training regime that was out of control, such as forcing recruits to run 45 kilometres without resting or lifting weights as heavy as 150 kilograms.

By the mid 1980s MK was concentrating on propaganda of the deed- namely high profile attacks on prestige targets to demonstrate to the world the depth of resistance to apartheid as well as display to the majority population that resistance was possible (see below for a discussion of the controversies that followed) - and on building liberated zones inside the townships.^{[citation needed]}

Bombings[link]

Landmark events in MK's military activity inside South Africa consisted of actions designed to intimidate the ruling power. In 1983, the Church Street bomb was detonated in Pretoria near the SA Air Force Headquarters, resulting in 19 fatalities and 217 persons injured. During the next 10 years, a series of bombings occurred in South Africa, conducted mainly by the military wing of the African National Congress. In the Amanzimtoti bomb on the Natal South Coast in 1985, five civilians were killed and 40 were injured when MK cadre Andrew Sibusiso Zondo detonated an explosive in a rubbish bin at a shopping centre. In a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the ANC stated that Zondo acted in anger at a recent SADF raid in Lesotho.^[5]

A bomb was detonated in a bar on the Durban beach-front in 1986, killing three civilians and injuring 69. Robert McBride received the death penalty for this bombing which became known as the "Magoo's Bar bombing". Although the subsequent Truth and Reconciliation Committee called it a "gross violation of human rights", McBride received amnesty and became a police officer.

In 1987, an explosion outside a Johannesburg court killed three people and injured 10; a court in Newcastle had been attacked in a similar way the previous year, injuring 24. In 1987, a bomb exploded at a military command centre in Johannesburg, killing one person and injuring 68 military personnel.

The bombing campaign continued with attacks on a series of soft targets, including a bank in Roodepoort in 1988, in which four were killed and 18 injured. Also in 1988, in a bomb detonation outside a magistrate’s court killed three. At the Ellis Park rugby stadium in Johannesburg, a car bomb, killed two and injured 37. A multitude^{[citation needed]} of bombs in "Wimpy Bar" fast food outlets and supermarkets occurred during the late 1980s, killing and wounding many people. Wimpy were specifically targeted because of their perceived rigid enforcements of many Apartheid-era laws, including excluding people of colour from their restaurants. Several other bombings occurred, with smaller numbers of casualties.

The TRC later found that in the case of the Durban beach front and Magoo's Bar bombings, these acts constituted "gross violations of human rights".^[6]

Landmine campaign[link]

From 1985 to 1987, there also was a campaign to mine rural roads used by security forces in what was then the Northern Transvaal. In submissions to the TRC, the ANC described the strategy and how they abandoned it due to the high rate of civilian casualties—especially amongst black labourers. The ANC estimated 30 landmine explosions resulting in 23 deaths, while the government submitted a figure of 57 explosions resulting in 25 deaths.^[7] The TRC found that it could not condone the use of landmines because of the indiscriminate nature of the weapon which inevitably resulted in gross violations of human rights, but gave the ANC credit for abandoning the strategy.^[8]

Torture and executions[link]

The TRC found that torture was "routine" — even though it was not official policy— as were executions "without due process" at ANC detention camps particularly in the period of 1979—1989.^[9]

MK's popular influence[link]

In 1984, musician Prince Far I's album Spear of a Nation: Umkhonto we Sizwe was released (posthumously) in an act of solidarity with the MK.

Zimbabwean-born African-American author and filmmaker M.K. Asante, Jr. embraced the initials MK after Umkhonto we Sizwe.

UC Irvine professor Frank B. Wilderson III writes about his experience working with MK in his 2008 memoir Incognegro.[1]

Dave Matthews Band song "#36" is dedicated to Chris Hani, the assassinated chief of staff of the MK and the leader of the South African Communist Party, and includes the refrain, "Hani, Hani, won't you dance with me?"

Well known MK members[link]

• Joe Slovo
• Nelson Mandela, who helped found the organization^[3]
• Chris Hani
• Ronnie Kasrils
• Robert McBride
• Joe Modise
• Marion Sparg
• Jacob Zuma
• Thabo Mbeki
• Govan Mbeki
• Mac Maharaj
• Siphiwe Nyanda
• Solly Shoke
• Anton Fransch
• "Rashid" Aboobaker Ismail
• Dipuo Mvelase
• Tootsie Mamela
• Dipak Teps Patel
• Michael Pillay^[10]
• Jack Hodgson

Death toll[link]

Police statistics indicate that, in the period 1976 to 1986, approximately 130 people were killed by ‘terrorists’. Of these, about thirty were members of various security forces and one hundred were civilians. Of the civilians, forty were white and sixty black. ^[11] One study estimated that 150 cases of armed action took place between 1976 and 1982, "overwhelmingly concentrated on economic targets, the administrative machinery of apartheid, the police and SADF installations and personnel". Note that during this time, the ANC took action to assert policy with regard to the avoidance of civilian targets, which had in some cases become confused with the need to intensify the struggle "at all costs", stating (8 January 1987) that MK: "must continue to distinguish itself from the apartheid death forces by the bravery of its combatants, its dedication to the cause of liberation and peace, and its refusal to act against civilians, both black and white." ^[12]

See also[link]

• History of South Africa
• Military history of South Africa
• Guerrilla warfare
• Freedom fighter
• Partisan
• Paramilitary
• Day of Reconciliation

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Vladimir Shubin (Institute for African Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences), 'Unsung Heroes: The Soviet Military and the Liberation of Southern Africa,' Cold War History, Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2007
• Vladimir Shubin, Moscow and ANC: three decades of co-operation and beyond.
• Rocky Williams, see articles in the Journal of Security Sector Management and others

External links[link]

• Collection of Umkhonto we Sizwe documents - from anc.org, timeline and manifesto.
• The other armies: A brief historical overview of Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), 1961-1994 - The South African Military History Society (Military History Journal - Vol 11 No 5)
• The Question of Violence in Contemporary African Political Thought - PDF document by Kwasi Wiredu

Sizwe
—  Village  —
Sizwe Location in Burma
Coordinates: 23°10′N 94°24′E / 23.167°N 94.4°E / 23.167; 94.4Coordinates: 23°10′N 94°24′E / 23.167°N 94.4°E / 23.167; 94.4
Country	Burma
Region	Sagaing Region
District	Kale District
Township	Kalewa Township
Time zone	MST (UTC+6.30)

Sizwe is a village in Kalewa Township, Kale District, in the Sagaing Region of western Burma.^[1][2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Maplandia World Gazetteer

v t e Kalewa Township of the Sagaing Region Capital: Kalewa Auktawgyi Chaungzon Chingyaung Gaundi Gazet Hintin Hkonbyin Hmangon Indaing Ingon Inmatin Kado Kaing Kaing Shwedaung Kalewa Kanni Kazet Kongyi Kunbyo Kyauktan Kyaunggyigon Kyawdaw Kyawzin Kyudaw Chaungzon Kywegu Kywegyan Kywenan Laungmin Legyidaw Letpannginaung Manpagale Mankaw Masein Matu Mutaik Myittha Nammaw Nanmawke Naungput Nwedan Paga Pagyizu Paluzawa Paunggyaung Pawlaw Sabagyi Segyi Shan-in Shwedaung Shwegyin Shwewagaw Sinaingma Singaung Sizwe Tadichaungwa Taya Thanbaya Thetkegyin Thingan Tunhlaw Webon Welon Wetto Yawzu Ywatha

This Kale District location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

His Excellency Nelson Mandela OM AC CC OJ GCStJ QC GColIH RSerafO NPk BR MRCSI
Mandela in 2008
President of South Africa
In office 10 May 1994 – 14 June 1999
Deputy	Thabo Mbeki Frederik Willem de Klerk
Preceded by	Frederik Willem de Klerk As State President of South Africa
Succeeded by	Thabo Mbeki
19th Secretary General of Non-Aligned Movement
In office 2 September 1998 – 14 June 1999
Preceded by	Andrés Pastrana Arango
Succeeded by	Thabo Mbeki
Personal details
Born	Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-07-18) 18 July 1918 (age 93) Mvezo, South Africa[1]
Nationality	South African
Political party	African National Congress
Spouse(s)	Evelyn Ntoko Mase (1944–1957) Winnie Madikizela (1957–1996) Graça Machel (1998–present)
Children	6
Residence	Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Alma mater	University of Fort Hare University of London External System University of South Africa University of the Witwatersrand
Religion	Methodism[citation needed]
Signature
Website	Mandela Foundation

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918) is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first ever to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before being elected President, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist, and the leader and co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela went on to serve 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to the establishment of democracy in 1994. As President, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa.^[2][3]

In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata (Xhosa: father).^[4] Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades.

Early life[link]

Nelson Mandela belongs to a cadet branch of the Thembu dynasty, which reigns in the Transkei region of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province.^[5] He was born in Mvezo, a small village located in the district of Umtata.^[5] He has Khoisan ancestry on his mother's side.^[6] His patrilineal great-grandfather Ngubengcuka (who died in 1832), ruled as the Inkosi Enkhulu, or king, of the Thembu people.^[7] One of the king's sons, named Mandela, became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname. However, because he was only the Inkosi's child by a wife of the Ixhiba clan (the so-called "Left-Hand House"^[8]), the descendants of his branch of the royal family were not eligible to succeed to the Thembu throne.

Nelson Mandela circa 1937^[9]

Mandela's father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, served as chief of the town of Mvezo.^[10] However, upon alienating the colonial authorities, they deprived Mphakanyiswa of his position, and moved his family to Qunu. Despite this, Mphakanyiswa remained a member of the Inkosi's Privy Council, and served an instrumental role in Jongintaba Dalindyebo's ascension to the Thembu throne. Dalindyebo would later return the favour by informally adopting Mandela upon Mphakanyiswa's death.^[11] Mandela's father had four wives, with whom he fathered thirteen children (four boys and nine girls).^[11] Mandela was born to his third wife ('third' by a complex royal ranking system), Nosekeni Fanny. Fanny was a daughter of Nkedama of the Mpemvu Xhosa clan, the dynastic Right Hand House, in whose umzi or homestead Mandela spent much of his childhood.^[12] His given name Rolihlahla means "to pull a branch of a tree", or more colloquially, "troublemaker".^[13][14]

Rolihlahla Mandela became the first member of his family to attend a school, where his teacher Miss Mdingane gave him the English name "Nelson".^[15]

When Mandela was nine, his father died of tuberculosis, and the regent, Jongintaba, became his guardian.^[11] Mandela attended a Wesleyan mission school located next to the palace of the regent. Following Thembu custom, he was initiated at age sixteen, and attended Clarkebury Boarding Institute.^[16] Mandela completed his Junior Certificate in two years, instead of the usual three.^[16] Designated to inherit his father's position as a privy councillor, in 1937 Mandela moved to Healdtown, the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort which most Thembu royalty attended.^[17] At nineteen, he took an interest in boxing and running at the school.^[12]

After enrolling, Mandela began to study for a Bachelor of Arts at the Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo. Tambo and Mandela became lifelong friends and colleagues. Mandela also became close friends with his kinsman, Kaiser ("K.D.") Matanzima who, as royal scion of the Thembu Right Hand House, was in line for the throne of Transkei,^[8] a role that would later lead him to embrace Bantustan policies. His support of these policies would place him and Mandela on opposing political sides.^[12] At the end of Nelson's first year, he became involved in a Students' Representative Council boycott against university policies, and was told to leave Fort Hare and not return unless he accepted election to the SRC.^[18] Later in his life, while in prison, Mandela studied for a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London External Programme.

Shortly after leaving Fort Hare, Jongintaba announced to Mandela and Justice (the regent's son and heir to the throne) that he had arranged marriages for both of them. The young men, displeased by the arrangement, elected to relocate to Johannesburg.^[19] Upon his arrival, Mandela initially found employment as a guard at a mine.^[20] However, the employer quickly terminated Mandela after learning that he was the Regent's runaway ward. Mandela later started work as an articled clerk at a Johannesburg law firm, Witkin, Sidelsky and Edelman, through connections with his friend and mentor, realtor Walter Sisulu.^[20] While working at Witkin, Sidelsky and Edelman, Mandela completed his B.A. degree at the University of South Africa via correspondence, after which he began law studies at the University of Witwatersrand, where he first befriended fellow students and future anti-apartheid political activists Joe Slovo, Harry Schwarz and Ruth First.^[21] Slovo would eventually become Mandela's Minister of Housing, while Schwarz would become his Ambassador to Washington. During this time, Mandela lived in Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg.^[22]

Political activity[link]

After the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party, which supported the apartheid policy of racial segregation,^[23] Mandela began actively participating in politics. He led prominently in the ANC's 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People, whose adoption of the Freedom Charter provided the fundamental basis of the anti-apartheid cause.^[24][25] During this time, Mandela and fellow lawyer Oliver Tambo operated the law firm of Mandela and Tambo, providing free or low-cost legal counsel to many blacks who lacked attorney representation.^[26]

Mahatma Gandhi influenced Mandela's approach, and subsequently the methods of succeeding generations of South African anti-apartheid activists.^[27][28] (Mandela later took part in the 29–30 January 2007 conference in New Delhi marking the 100th anniversary of Gandhi's introduction of satyagraha (non-violent resistance) in South Africa).^[29]

Initially committed to nonviolent resistance, Mandela and 150 others were arrested on 5 December 1956 and charged with treason. The marathon Treason Trial of 1956–1961 followed, with all defendants receiving acquittals.^[30] From 1952–1959, a new class of black activists known as the Africanists disrupted ANC activities in the townships, demanding more drastic steps against the National Party regime.^[31] The ANC leadership under Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu felt not only that the Africanists were moving too fast but also that they challenged their leadership.^[31] The ANC leadership consequently bolstered their position through alliances with small White, Coloured, and Indian political parties in an attempt to give the appearance of wider appeal than the Africanists.^[31] The Africanists ridiculed the 1955 Freedom Charter Kliptown Conference for the concession of the 100,000-strong ANC to just a single vote in a Congressional alliance. Four secretaries-general of the five participating parties secretly belonged to the reconstituted South African Communist Party (SACP).^[32][33] In 2003 Blade Nzimande, the SACP General Secretary, revealed that Walter Sisulu, the ANC Secretary-General, secretly joined the SACP in 1955^[34] which meant all five Secretaries General were SACP and thus explains why Sisulu relegated the ANC from a dominant role to one of five equals.

In 1959, the ANC lost its most militant support when most of the Africanists, with financial support from Ghana and significant political support from the Transvaal-based Basotho, broke away to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) under the direction of Robert Sobukwe and Potlako Leballo.^[35]

Armed anti-apartheid activities[link]

In 1961 Mandela became leader of the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (translated Spear of the Nation, and also abbreviated MK), which he co-founded.^[36] He coordinated sabotage campaigns against military and government targets, making plans for a possible guerrilla war if the sabotage failed to end apartheid.^[37] Mandela also raised funds for MK abroad and arranged for paramilitary training of the group.^[37]

Fellow ANC member Wolfie Kodesh explains the bombing campaign led by Mandela: "When we knew that we [sic] going to start on 16 December 1961, to blast the symbolic places of apartheid, like pass offices, native magistrates courts, and things like that ... post offices and ... the government offices. But we were to do it in such a way that nobody would be hurt, nobody would get killed."^[38] Mandela said of Wolfie: "His knowledge of warfare and his first hand battle experience were extremely helpful to me."^[14]

Mandela described the move to armed struggle as a last resort; years of increasing repression and violence from the state convinced him that many years of non-violent protest against apartheid had not and could not achieve any progress.^[14][39]

Later, mostly in the 1980s, MK, the organisation co-founded by Mandela, waged a guerrilla war against the apartheid government in which many civilians became casualties.^[37] For example, the Church Street bomb in Pretoria killed 19 people and injured 217. After he had become President, Mandela later admitted that the ANC, in its struggle against apartheid, also violated human rights, criticising those in his own party who attempted to remove statements mentioning this from the reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.^[40]

Until July 2008 Mandela and ANC party members were barred from entering the United States—except to visit the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan—without a special waiver from the US Secretary of State, because of their South African apartheid-era designation as terrorists.^[41][42]

Arrest and Rivonia trial[link]

Mandela Capture Site near Howick, KwaZulu-Natal

On 5 August 1962 Mandela was arrested after living on the run for seventeen months, and was imprisoned in the Johannesburg Fort.^[43] A large number of groups have been accused of tipping off the police about Mandela’s whereabouts including the South African Communist Party, Mandela’s host in Durban GR Naidoo, and the CIA, but Mandela himself considers none of these connections to be credible and instead attributes his arrest to his own carelessness in concealing his movements.^[14] Of the CIA link in particular, Mandela's official biographer Anthony Sampson believes that “the claim cannot be substantiated.”^[44]

Three days later, the charges of leading workers to strike in 1961 and leaving the country illegally were read to him during a court appearance. On 25 October 1962, Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison.^[45]

While Mandela was imprisoned, police arrested prominent ANC leaders on 11 July 1963, at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, north of Johannesburg. Mandela was brought in, and at the Rivonia Trial they were charged by the chief prosecutor Dr. Percy Yutar with four charges of the capital crimes of sabotage (which Mandela admitted) and crimes which were equivalent to treason, but easier for the government to prove.^[46] They were also charged with plotting a foreign invasion of South Africa, which Mandela denied.^[46][47] The specifics of the charges to which Mandela admitted complicity involved conspiring with the African National Congress and South African Communist Party to the use of explosives to destroy water, electrical, and gas utilities in the Republic of South Africa.^[48]

Bram Fischer, Vernon Berrange, Joel Joffe, Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizos were part of the defence team that represented the main accused.^[49] Harry Schwarz represented Jimmy Kantor, who was not a member of the ANC or MK; Kantor was acquitted long before the end of the trial. Harold Hanson was brought in at the end of the case to plead mitigation.^[47]

In his statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the trial on 20 April 1964 at Pretoria Supreme Court, Mandela laid out the reasoning in the ANC's choice to use violence as a tactic.^[50] His statement described how the ANC had used peaceful means to resist apartheid for years until the Sharpeville Massacre.^[51] That event coupled with the referendum establishing the Republic of South Africa and the declaration of a state of emergency along with the banning of the ANC made it clear to Mandela and his compatriots that their only choice was to resist through acts of sabotage and that doing otherwise would have been tantamount to unconditional surrender.^[51] Mandela went on to explain how they developed the Manifesto of Umkhonto we Sizwe on 16 December 1961 intent on exposing the failure of the National Party's policies after the economy would be threatened by foreigners' unwillingness to risk investing in the country.^[52] He closed his statement with these words: "During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."^[39]

All except Rusty Bernstein were found guilty, but they escaped the gallows and were sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 June 1964.^[47]

Imprisonment[link]

Robben Island prison yard

Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island

Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island where he remained for the next eighteen of his twenty-seven years in prison.^[53] While in jail, his reputation grew and he became widely known as the most significant black leader in South Africa.^[1] On the island, he and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry.^[54] Prison conditions were very basic. Prisoners were segregated by race, with black prisoners receiving the fewest rations.^[55] Political prisoners were kept separate from ordinary criminals and received fewer privileges.^[56] Mandela describes how, as a D-group prisoner (the lowest classification) he was allowed one visitor and one letter every six months.^[57] Letters, when they came, were often delayed for long periods and made unreadable by the prison censors.^[14]