Beatnik

I still remember the day that Nelson Mandela was released from prison. It was a rather ordinary day sometime back in February of 1990. I was studying Theatre Technology at the Durban Polytechnic in Durban, South Africa. In studying towards a three year National Diploma I was training to become a sound and lighting technician in the hope that one day I would be able to work in a recording studio. That morning, as I sat in front of my portable black and white television set, I had no idea that my whole world was about to change! The National Party government had just lifted its ban on political parties and South Africa was on the cusp of radical reform; but at the time I had absolutely no idea as to what was going on. My family had arrived in South Africa two weeks after the Soweto riots of 1976. I had grown up in a small coal mining town in the Transvaal and like most white South Africans I had very little understanding of the apartheid regime. For a small town boy like me, politics was considered a dirty word, Communists were all in cahoots with the devil and the word “apartheid” simply didn’t exist.

I had heard the name Nelson Mandela mentioned a few times in relation to Robben Island where South Africa’s most dangerous political prisoners were kept. It was a name that didn’t really hold any significance for me and appeared to be associated with acts of terrorism and township violence. I knew that Mandela was some kind of criminal because a boy in my high school history class had once asked Mr Vorster if Mandela would ever be released from prison. “Not in my life time my boy…not in my lifetime,” declared Mr Vorster. But despite the fact that this declaration was obviously not based upon any real understanding of political developments, we all breathed a sigh of relief. The week before Mandela’s release there had been an article in the Sunday Times newspaper informing readers that Mandela was currently being detained on a farm somewhere down in the Cape. Out of the twenty-seven years that Mandela was in prison he spent eighteen years on Robben Island before being moved back to the mainland. Since 1988 Mandela had been living at the Victor Verster Prison in the Cape Province; but at the time everybody had been under the impression that he was safely locked up on Robben Island with no possibility of ever being released! However, it now transpired that he was living in a small two roomed apartment, complete with a kitchen and a swimming pool. According to the newspaper he was allowed to correspond with the outside world and even had access to a radio and a television set. The news article also provided a detailed description of how Mandela would spend his time at the prison house. Well looking back, this “story” was probably a carefully crafted piece of government propaganda, preparing the public for Mandela’s imminent release, but at the time, I could not see the connection.

I continued looking at the television screen anxiously waiting to see what was going to happen next. As the minutes slowly ticked by I sat looking at a small crowd of people who had gathered in front of a large metal gate. This metal gate sealed off an entrance to a dirt road which simply disappeared into the distance. In the distance there appeared to be a few trees and cluster of buildings which simply remained in the distance. A rather bland news reporter holding a microphone provided a rather dull and dreary commentary. I can still remember him saying that “Mr Mandela will be released any minute now,” but nothing appeared to happen! The news reporter kept on repeating his announcement for the next thirty minutes but still nothing appeared to happen. As I sat looking at the small black and white television screen I was unaware that this dreary programme was being broadcast all around the world. As the minutes slowly crept by the reporter kept on saying that “Mr Mandela will be released any minute now,” but still nothing appeared to happen! I was beginning to wonder if the government had suddenly changed its mind and had decided to keep Mandela locked up for another twenty-seven years.

Today Nelson Mandela is regarded as an icon of liberation, a man of great integrity who fought for the freedom of South Africa; a noble individual who would go on to liberate South Africa from the tyranny and oppression of the apartheid regime. But for ordinary people like me, who were actually living in South Africa during the 1980’s, Nelson Mandela and the ANC were a group of terrorists. Just like the PLO or the IRA, the ANC was a terrorist organization which sought to destabilize the country through mindless acts of destruction. As the leader of the ANC’s military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (the spear of the nation), Mandela had begun a campaign of armed resistance since the early 1960’s. During this time Mandela was responsible for coordinating a campaign of sabotage and violence against a series of military and government targets. Mandela was later arrested in 1962 and charged with the capital crimes of treason, sabotage and plotting a foreign invasion. Since 1976 the ANC had been actively engaged in a campaign of armed resistance and by the end of the 1980’s this campaign had escalated into a catalogue of mindless violence in which car bombs exploded in city centres killing and maiming dozens of people. The ANC was also responsible for organizing campaigns of civil disobedience designed to undermine South Africa’s economy. During a series of planned strikes called “stay away” the workers on the townships would be ordered to remain in their houses and not go into work. Anyone caught disobeying these orders would be severely dealt with by the ANC’s militant youth. It was not unusual for a gang of teenage thugs to attack an ordinary working man who had defied the “stay away” and sentence him to a “necklace.” This would involve placing a car tyre over the victims head, dowsing them in gasoline and setting them alight. The militant youth would then break into a frenzied chorus of song and dance as the victim burned to death at their feet. The charred body would later be seen on the television news and the victim would become just another statistic in the catalogue of township violence.