South Africans, yesterday, celebrated the steps that sounded apartheid\u2019s death knell 20 years ago: Nelson Mandela walking to freedom after 27 years in prison.<\/p>\n
Thousands gathered for commemorations near Cape Town at what was known in 1990 as Victor Verster, the last prison where Mandela was held.<\/p>\n
The crowds milled around a 10-foot (3-meter) high bronze statue erected at the prison in 2008 depicting Mandela\u2019s first steps as a free man.<\/p>\n
Exactly 20 years ago, Mandela emerged from Victor Verster on foot, hand-in-hand with his then-wife Winnie, fist raised, smiling but resolute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that his freedom meant that our freedom had also arrived,\u201d Cyril Ramaphosa, a leader in Mandela\u2019s African National Congress who headed a welcome committee for Mandela in 1990, told the crowd at the prison yesterday.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Ramaphosa and other ANC leaders had approached the gates of the prison to re-enact Mandela\u2019s 1990 walk. Arms linked, they stepped through shouting: \u201cViva Mandela!\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, divorced from Mandela in 1996, had been expected to join the re-enactment, but did not, telling the BBC she would have found it too painful.<\/p>\n
Just four years after Mandela\u2019s release, South Africans held their first all-race elections, making Mandela their first black president. Mandela stepped down after one five-year term, helping to entrench democracy in South Africa in contrast to elsewhere on the continent where politicians hung on to power through fraud and violence.<\/p>\n
Mandela also is beloved for championing racial reconciliation, ensuring a peaceful transition that spared South Africa the chaos and destruction of anti-colonial wars elsewhere in Africa.<\/p>\n
Since 1994, his ANC party has reduced the number of people living in poverty, built houses and delivered water, electricity and schools to blacks who had been without under apartheid.<\/p>\n
\u00a0But needs remain great, and impatience has grown along with a gap between the poor and the rich, among them new black entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n
Mvuso Mbali, 37, was in the crowd yesterday and said he was at the prison 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I still remember vividly what happened,\u201d he said. \u201cToday (Thursday) we are reinventing our freedom, and uniting our people to follow the values of Mandela.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others at the prison\u00a0 yesterday said Mandela\u2019s release,\u00a0 triumphant as it was, carried uncertainty, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Mandela was released we did not know what was going to happen,\u201d said Nontuntuzelo Faku, who came to yesterday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
Being at the prison 20 years later, she said, \u201cmakes me realise how far the country has come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mandela\u2019s release was the culmination of an eventful few days for South Africa. On Feb. 2, then-President F.W. de Klerk announced the unbanning of the ANC and other organizations. On Feb. 10, de Klerk announced at a press conference that Mandela would be released the next day.<\/p>\n
Whites conditioned to see Mandela as an enemy who would destroy their way of life were shocked and confused. Blacks were uncertain that Mandela, known affectionately by his clan name, Madiba, was right to trust de Klerk. Civil war seemed possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the imprint of February is deeply etched into the psyche of our nation,\u201d Mac Maharaj, a key ANC leader at the time, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat image of Madiba, Winnie, walking out of Victor Verster, holding hands. Madiba looking quite, quite somber, not celebratory, not pumping the air and jumping about like a victorious boxer, but walking very sternly, and I think I see a sense of bewilderment in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa marked yesterday\u2019s anniversary with speeches, photo exhibits tracing Mandela\u2019s life, radio and TV specials and newspaper supplements across the country.<\/p>\n
Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement captured imaginations around the world, as British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown recalled in an essay in London\u2019s Independent newspaper yesterday.<\/p>\n
Brown, who has often spoken of his admiration for Mandela, said the anti-apartheid struggle \u201cwas the defining political question of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said Mandela has \u201ca generosity of spirit that lifts the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mandela marked the anniversary of his release at home last week, reminiscing with fellow veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle for the camera\u2019s of his daughter Zindzi\u2019s production company, which was preparing a documentary called \u201cConversations About That Day\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mandela, who will be 92 in July, has largely retired from public life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Africans, yesterday, celebrated the steps that sounded apartheid\u2019s death knell 20 years ago: Nelson Mandela walking to freedom after 27 years in prison. Thousands gathered for commemorations near Cape Town at what was known in 1990 as Victor Verster, the last prison where Mandela was held. The crowds milled around a 10-foot (3-meter) high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}