No Easy Walk to Freedom

In Chapter 5, Mandela defines baasskap as a policy of white overlordship “based on the supremacy in all matters of the Whites over the non-Whites” (31). He identifies baasskap as the policy of the apartheid government in his argument aligning the fascist Nationalist government with the policies of Hitlerite Germany.

The Bantu Authorities Act was an apartheid law South Africa passed in 1951. In an editorial note for Chapter 4, Quayson explains that it “established local ‘tribal authorities’ in the African reserves” (27), replacing partially elected representatives. Mandela discusses the Bantu Authorities Act extensively in Chapter 4 when he identifies it as one of the coercive measures designed to keep Black South Africans in a perpetual state of servitude by making the reserves a source of cheap labor. He also asserts that it aimed to “isolate democratic leadership from the masses” (27), diverting attention away from the Nationalist government as the arbiter of the rehabilitation scheme, tax collection, and other oppressive measures (28).

The Bantu Education Act was an apartheid law South Africa passed in 1953. It enforced segregated education facilities in South African primary and secondary schools, and it included a special type of education for Black Africans designed “to relegate the Africans to a position of perpetual servitude in a baasskap society” (31). Mandela devotes Chapter 5 to a discussion of the Bantu Education Act to illustrate the alignment between the policies of the Nationalist government and Hitlerite Germany. He also discusses the indignation and protests that debates about the bill and its passage prompted, especially after the parliament introduced plans to extend the Bantu education scheme to higher education institutions. 

“Bantustan” refers to the 13% of South African land that the Nationalist government set aside for Black South Africans as part of the regime’s apartheid scheme. In Chapter 8, Mandela identifies the eight ethnic groups who constituted the so-called Bantustan. He discusses the policy extensively, identifying it as another measure designed to create a perpetual cheap Black labor force and relegate Black South Africans to impoverished and segregated conditions. 

Boycotting is a form of protest in which a collective withdraws support from an organization, institution, or commercial establishment. Mandela discusses boycott in Chapter 7 as a tactical weapon that resistance movements can use when concrete conditions call for it. However, he is clear that boycott is not a matter of principle; there are times when it is not the most effective resistance tactic and when other tactics should be adopted.

Communism, sometimes referred to as Marxism, is a social, political, and economic ideology that advocates state ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Communism plays a role in Mandela’s discussion and analyses because the South African Communist Party was an ally in the resistance movement against the Nationalist government. Although Marx’s philosophy influenced Mandela’s politics, Mandela did not identify as a communist, and he emphasized throughout his speeches and writings that the ANC was distinct from the Communist Party. Mandela discusses the Communist Party and its relationship to the ANC, the ANC Youth League, and Umkonto in Chapter 9 and Chapter 15.

The Congress of the People (COP) refers to the alliance of South African political organizations that convened in Kliptown in 1955 to draft and adopt the Freedom Charter. In Chapter 6, Mandela describes the COP as “2,844 elected delegates” who united “irrespective of race, ideological conviction, party affiliation or religious belief” to denounce racialism and define their aims, objectives, and strategies in bringing about democracy in South Africa (40).

South Africa’s Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1953 made civil disobedience punishable by a three-year prison sentence and criminalized assisting organized protest against the government (financially or otherwise). In Chapter 1, Mandela writes that the act “provided heavy penalties for those convicted of defiance offences” and “made provision for the whipping of defiers, including women” (5). He also mentions the act in Chapter 15 when he discusses government policy intended to repress nonviolent protests.

The ANC launched the Defiance Campaign in 1952 as a form of mass mobilization against the South African government’s apartheid policies. Mandela discusses the Defiance Campaign in Chapter 1, noting that 8,500 people of all races participated in defying pass laws, curfew laws, and railway apartheid regulations (4). He describes the campaign as “one of the best ways of exerting pressure on the Government and extremely dangerous to the stability and security of the State” (4).

The Freedom Charter was a “programme for the unification of various classes and groupings amongst the people on a democratic basis” (41); the COP adopted it in 1955. Mandela discusses the significance of the Freedom Charter in Chapter 6, where he notes the unprecedented historical and political significance of the solidarity among various political organizations in its adoption.

The General Strike was the first phase of the campaign of noncooperation/non-collaboration against the Verwoerd Republic, launched by the NAC in 1961 after the government refused to call the national convention demanded by the masses. Mandela first mentions it in Chapter 10, identifying it as one of the resolutions adopted at the All-In African conference in anticipation of the government failing to meet the people’s demands. In Chapter 11, Mandela analyzes the impact of the stay-at-home strike.

The Group Areas Act was a measure South African enacted in 1950 to segregate residential and business districts by race. During his 1962 trial, Mandela cross-examined Abdul Moolla on the act’s effects on the country’s Indian population. Moolla admitted that the act barred Indian merchants from trading in white-designated areas and would force Indian families to leave their homes. Moolla also testified that the South African Indian Congress, the Transvaal Indian Congress, and the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress opposed the act.

Imperialism involves a nation imposing political and economic rule over another sovereign nation, typically through military force. Mandela’s discussions emphasize the opposition of the ANC and associated democratic organizations to imperialism. When Mandela addressed the PAFMECA assembly (Chapter 13), he noted that national struggles had weakened imperialist rule but that the situation remained dire in South Africa, where the apartheid regime remained in power.

The “M” Plan refers to a collaborative plan of action formulated by the National Action Council and the South African Indian Congress. The Plan’s aim was to consolidate the Congress machinery by mobilizing mass support. Mandela discusses the “M” Plan in Chapter 1, identifying the need for mass mobilization as part of the shifting political strategy in response to government repression of the resistance movement, which rendered older methods of activity ineffective or illegal.

The National Action Council was the body of representatives elected to implement the resolutions adopted at the All-In African conference. Mandela first mentions the NAC in Chapter 10, and Quayson’s editorial note for the chapter identifies Mandela as the elected leader of the NAC. Chapter 14 also references the NAC in the context of the letters written to Verwoerd about the people’s demands and the consequences of the government’s failure to meet those demands.

South Africa enacted the Native Labour (Settlement Dispute) Act in 1953, prohibiting strike action by Black South Africans. In Chapter 1, Mandela identifies the law as an attempt to kill African trade unions, which he describes as “the one weapon workers have to improve their positions” (8).

The Nationalist Party was an Afrikaner ethnic party formed in South Africa in 1914, going on to become the governing party of South Africa in 1924. Although South Africa was under white supremacist rule prior to the NP’s ascendancy, the NP’s intensification of the apartheid scheme began in 1948. In 1961, the NP established a Boer Republic, which Mandela identifies in Chapter 14 as one of the two options for political organization that Black South Africans did not support. Throughout Mandela’s essays, speeches, and letters, he discusses the NP, the political and popular opposition to it, and the legislative and violent tactics the NP used to repress the liberation movement. Mandela is particularly critical of the NP under the leadership of Verwoerd (especially its establishment of the Boer Republic).

The Pan-Africanist Congress was an organization founded in 1959 in South Africa. Based on African nationalism, the organization was formed when several members of the ANC broke away in opposition to the adoption of the Freedom Charter and its language of multiracialism. Along with the ANC, the PAC was banned by the Nationalist government in 1960 following the Sharpeville Massacre, and members were charged with treason. In Chapter 11, Mandela devotes a significant portion of the discussion to the PAC, noting their withdrawal from the All-In African conference and their attempt to repress the demonstrations organized by the ANC and allies. He identifies the PAC as a “political organization that is forced by opportunism and petty political rivalries into allying itself with the enemies of the oppressed” (82).

PAFMECA was an organization formed in 1958 under the leadership of Julius Nyerere and Tom Mboya to campaign for the independence of East and Central African countries from colonial and white supremacist rule. PAFMECA later came to include countries of Southern Africa. Chapter 13 consists of Mandela’s address at the PAFMECA conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1962, where he advocated for international support of the South African liberation movement. PAFMECA also features in Mandela’s defense arguments against the prosecution’s charge of leaving South Africa unlawfully (Chapter 14), as well as in Chapter 15, when Mandela discusses the ANC’s decision to send him as the delegate to the conference.

The ANC adopted its Programme of Action in 1949, advocating for a militant approach to resistance against apartheid. It outlined a plan for mass mobilization, boycotts, strikes, demonstrations, and other acts of civil disobedience. In Mandela’s cross-examination during the Treason Trial, excerpts of which are contained in Chapter 9, Mandela explained that the ANC adopted the Programme of Action to “exert pressure to compel the authorities to grant its demands” after little success with constitutional and legal means of protest (66).

South Africa enacted the Public Safety Act in 1953 to allow the government to declare a state of emergency and increase penalties for protests. It was passed in response to the ANC’s Defiance Campaign. Chapter 1 references the act as one of the measures imposed by the government to try to repress the resistance movement. The act also featured in Mandela’s defense arguments, illustrating how government tactics criminalized resistance efforts and closed off legal means of opposition.

South Africa passed the Separate Universities Education Act in 1959; it extended the Bantu Education Act to institutions of higher education. Mandela discusses the act in Chapter 5, citing it as another attempt by the government to repress the resistance movement and maintain apartheid in South Africa. He also calls attention to the indignation and protests that the idea of university segregation prompted among the masses, as well as to the act’s attempt to “destroy the ‘open’ university tradition which is universally recognized throughout the civilized world” (33).

The Sharpeville Massacre was a 1960 incident in which police opened fire on Black South Africans protesting against pass laws, killing 69 people and wounding 180 others (64). The massacre prompted the government to declare a state of emergency, outlaw both the PAC and the ANC, and charge members of both organizations with treason; the Treason Trial excerpted in Chapter 9 was in part a result of the massacre. The massacre was also one of the many acts of violent government repression that led to a shift in the resistance movement’s political tactics, as Chapter 13 and Chapter 15 outline.

The South African Indian Congress was an organization formed in 1921 to advocate for the rights of Indian South Africans. The organization collaborated with the ANC in the formulation of the “M” Plan, as Mandela expresses in Chapter 1. Furthermore, they were among the organizations represented in the COP and the adoption of the Freedom Charter, discussed in Chapter 5.

The Suppression of Communism Act was passed into law in 1950, formally banning the Communist Party of South Africa. The Communist Party of South Africa was among those political organizations agitating for the defeat of the Nationalist government (and apartheid broadly) and the establishment of a democratic South Africa. As Mandela articulates in Chapter 9, the act targeted not only the Communist Party but “all political organizations that condemned the racialist policies of the South African Government” (66); the ANC therefore opposed the legislation.

Umkonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) refers to the armed wing of the ANC established in 1961 in response to the government’s violent repression tactics. In Chapter 15, Mandela identifies himself as a leading organizer of Umkonto who “played a prominent role in its affairs” until his arrest in 1962 (144). His trial defense included justification for Umkonto’s creation, explanation of its organizational structure and tactics, and description of its relationship to the ANC and the Communist Party.