A Summary Of Nelson Mandela's Liberation Movement

Mandela emphasized that the major problem regarding the liberation movement was unity, something he spent much time practicing on Robben Island. The secluded prisoners valued news and education. “Newspapers,” wrote Mandela, “were more valuable to political prisoners than gold or diamonds, more hungered for than food or tobacco; they were the most precious contraband on Robben Island.” They fought continually for the right to have newspapers and, when refused, arranged for copies to be smuggled. They scoured over newspapers leftover by the warders. They even managed to arrange access to a daily newspaper for 6 months by befriending, and then outwitting, an elderly night warder. In 1975, the prisoners even staged their own play, Sophocles’ Antigone, in which Mandela played the regal

In response, new opposition forces emerged. Black Consciousness, led by appealing student leader Steve Biko, took off in the late 1960s. Then in 1972–1973, the black labour movement revived again in a sudden, colossal strike wave. Things were getting heated up and with a rigid, inflexible, and intolerant government in control of the state, the country finally exploded in 1976, ignited by student protests in Soweto. Although the 1976 protests were crushed by brutal measures from the state security forces that saw many casualties, popular resistance re-emerged in the 1980s. All across the country these diverse groups voiced their concerns and their support multiplied, with many people aligning themselves with the ideas of the ANC exemplified in the Freedom Charter. One of their major demands was the release of Mandela and all political prisoners. The anti-apartheid movement took a global nature, uniting student, church, labor, and political groups with exclusively antiapartheid organizations in which exiled South Africans often played a vital part. Some governments, mainly those in India, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, provided material aid to the ANC in