May 1961 NM hiding in Kodesh’s flat
May 1961 South Africa becomes republic
June 26, 1961 NM releases statement on Freedom Day; historic talks soon follow
July 1961 historic talks re founding of MK
September 22, 1961 Liliesleaf Farm bought by Communist Party; used by MK
October 1961 NM moves to Liliesleaf
December 11, 1961 Luthuli receives Nobel Peace Prize
December 16, 1961 first MK bombs go off
January 8, 1962 NM goes to see Luthuli
January 9, 1962 NM leaves South Africa for tour
April 27, 1962 NM in Accra in Ghana
June 7, 1962 NM in London to see Tambo
June 14, 1962 NM still in London
end June NM leaves London and returns to Ethiopia for military training
July 13, 1962 NM in Ethiopia on military training
late July NM is summoned home by ANC
July 30, 1962 NM driven to Liliesleaf by Williams
August 5, 1962 NM arrested at Howick with Cecil Williams and will not be free again for more than 27 years
October 15, 1962 first day’s hearing of Rivonia Trial, Joburg
October 22, 1962 trial restarts in Pretoria
November 1962 NM sentenced to 5 years
[May 2] 1963 General Law Amendment Act passed (90-day law)
June 26, 1963 Freedom Day: Sisulu’s broadcast
June 26, 1963 some arrests connected to Rivonia
July 10, 1963 night before Rivonia arrests
July 11, 1963 last meeting at Liliesleaf at which everyone arrested
July 11, 1963 NM’s papers found at Liliesleaf
August 11, 1963 Arthur Goldreich escapes
October 8, 1963 defendants in Rivonia arrests reunited with NM
December 1963 Rivonia Trial begins
April 20, 1964 NM gives long speech at Rivonia Trial
June 11, 1964 Rivonia verdicts given
1967 Luthuli killed by train
1968 mother, Nosekeni Fanny, dies at 75
1978 Cecil Williams dies
1969 Thembi killed in car crash, aged 23
1990 NM released from prison
2004 Makgatho dies
Notes
ONE
“Wolfie Kodesh, was assigned the unenviable duty…” Oral history interviews with Wolfie Kodesh conducted by John Pampallis, 1989. Held at the Mayibuye archive, University of the Western Cape.
“—but Winnie herself says that Kodesh had come, not to her place of work…” Author interview with Winnie Madikezela-Mandela, 2009.
“Winnie had given a long series of interviews a quarter of a century ago…” Winnie Mandela, Part of My Soul Went with Him (interviews conducted by Annie Benjamin).
“Kodesh was at the Johannesburg magistrates’ court…” Pampallis interviews, ibid.
“Mandela favored Khan’s…” Author interviews with George Bizos and Ahmed Kathrada, 2008; Bizos, Odyssey to Freedom.
“Kodesh had never seen anything like it…” Pampallis interviews, ibid.
“According to Winnie, his costume had been her idea…” Author interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 2009.
“Kathrada remembered, when going with Slovo to see Mandela in jail…” Author interview with Ahmed Kathrada, 2008.
“Slovo and his colleagues wondered whether they could get a mask made…” Joe Slovo, Slovo: The Unfinished Biography.
“‘If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,’ said Mandela…” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom.
“Hepple was happy to be Mandela’s adviser…” Author interview with Bob Hepple, 2008.
Description of court hearings from the digital archive of The Times, London.
“An observer from the British embassy…” Viscount Dunrossil’s dispatches are contained in Dominions’ Office records, DO 119/1478 in the UK National Archives.
“They clearly regarded the tribal costume as inflammatory…” Mandela, ibid.
“Louis Blom-Cooper, then a young lawyer for Amnesty…” Author interview with Bob Hepple, 2008.
“As they talked there was a knock on the cell door…” Author interview with Bob Hepple, 2008.
“In fact, as Mandela later described it…” Mandela, ibid.
TWO
Mandela’s early family history is told by him in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. I am grateful to Richard Stengel, Mandela’s ghost-writer, and to the Nelson Mandela Foundation for allowing me access to a selection of some of the many hours of interviews Stengel conducted with Mandela. They contain a few nuggets of useful unpublished material which appears in this chapter and elsewhere in the book. The paper archive in Mthatha on the Eastern Cape was, so far as I know, first spotted by Anna Trapido, while researching her own book A Hunger for Freedom. She alerted the Foundation who asked the historian Phil Bonner to examine the papers. I am grateful to Bonner and the Foundation for access to Bonner’s discoveries. Fatima Meer’s marvelous first biography of Mandela contains valuable, neglected material from many people who were no longer around to ask by the time I came along. The second biography of Mandela, by Mary Benson, is also an important source of early material.
THREE
Mandela’s schooldays were only briefly dealt with in the biographies of Fatima Meer and Mary Benson. I have relied mainly on Long Walk and on the interviews that Mandela gave to Stengel, where I think you can hear Mandela’s voice, which is not always apparent in the sometimes westernized prose of Long Walk. I was lucky to find Nozolile Mtirara in Mqhekezweni in 2008. She had known Mandela and had her own version of the events surrounding his 1941 flight from his homeland to the big city.
FOUR
The early days, following his arrival, in Johannesburg are detailed in Long Walk and, in some instances, in even greater detail in the interviews Mandela gave to Richard Stengel. He described the knobkerrie and whistle he used as a night watchman to Mary Benson, as she recorded in her memoir A Far Cry. Walter Sisulu’s life was meticulously recorded by his daughter-in-law, Elinor Sisulu, for her biography of Walter and his wife Albertina, Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime. The first meeting between Mandela and Sisulu was described by Mandela to Fatima Meer.
“Alexandra! That is a remarkable place…” Nelson Mandela letter to Mrs. Onica Madshigo, November 1970.
“Gladys was only six or seven…” Author interview with Gladys Xhoma, 2008.
“Bregman did not even remember this moment; to him it meant nothing. He was not a racialist…” Author interview with Nat Bregman, 2008.
History of the ANC taken from various sources, most notably the Karis and Carter volumes, From Protest to Challenge.
Formation of the Youth League from Karis and Carter, Fatima Meer, Elinor Sisulu, Long Walk, Walter Sisulu interview conducted by Wolfie Kodesh in 1995.
Historical description of the Bantu Men’s Social Centre from the Centre’s archive held at Wits University, Johannesburg.
FIVE
“As one of his granddaughters said, ‘I feel that men like him…’ ” Author interview with Ndileka Mandela, 2008.
Elinor Sisulu’s biography of Walter and Albertina Sisulu describes the links with the family of Mandela’s first wife, Evelyn Mase. Fatima Meer knew Evelyn and interviewed her for Higher than Hope. Evelyn gave one newspaper interview at the time of Mandela’s release to reporter Fred Bridgland. It appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, London, on February 25, 1990. These sources may be weighed against Mandela’s own account in Long Walk.
“One possible clue is a surviving file of correspondence…” Mandela’s revealing exchange of letters with the Bantu Welfare Trust, regarding his loans, are kept at the Historical Papers Library of Wits University in Johannesburg.
“After the sudden death of Thembi in a car crash…” Mandela described his memories of an earlier loss in a letter to Mrs. Irene Buthelezi, the wife of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi on August 8, 1969.
“We were just courting at th
e time…” Author interview with Fatima Meer, 2008.
“When Ruth First wrote to invite the Youth League…” Correspondence in Karis and Carter, From Protest to Challenge, Volume 2.
“… his loss creating a ‘gaping wound in one’s soul for a lifetime…’” Comment on Anton Lembede’s death in a letter written by Jordan Ngubane, quoted in Sisulu, Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime.
“Mandela later reflected that he hardly ever went out with his wife…” Mandela interview with Ahmed Kathrada, during research for Long Walk.
“However, when he was at home he changed nappies…” Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope.
“Apparently she once answered the door to one of his Indian colleagues… ” Letter Nelson Mandela to Amina Cachalia, April 8, 1969.
“Ruth Mompati… remembered Evelyn in the ANC Women’s League…” Author interview with Ruth Mompati, 2008.
As Evelyn herself told the reporter…” Sunday Telegraph, London, February 25, 1990.
“Evelyn told Fatima Meer…” Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope.
“When he wrote to the Dean of the Law Faculty…” Mandela’s original letter from December 1949 is retained at the Wits’ Law Library, together with the minutes of the meeting at which his fate was decided.
“George Bizos had first met Mandela…” Author interview with George Bizos, 2008.
“Nelson had not spoken about politics when he courted me…” Evelyn Mandela quoted in the Sunday Telegraph, London, February 25, 1990.
“Paul Joseph, then a young Indian communist…” Author interview with Paul Joseph, 2008.
“Ahmed Kathrada became incensed by the Youth League’s opposition…” Kathrada, Memoirs; author interview with Ahmed Kathrada, 2008.
“Like Paul Joseph and Kathrada, Mosie Moolla had been active…” Author interview with Mosie Moolla, 2008.
SIX
“Joe Matthews, the Professor’s son…” Joe Matthews’ oral history interview 2001, archived at SADET (South African Democracy Education Trust).
“In Mandela’s version of events, he was asked to take the letter…” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom.
“That evening, after the council meeting, there was a farewell dinner…” Joe Matthews’ oral history interview, ibid.
“Mary Benson, a future Mandela biographer, recalled seeing him for the first time…” Benson, A Far Cry.
“But perhaps too, as some members of his own family have articulated,…” Makaziwe Mandela, the daughter of Nelson and Evelyn, has expressed her feelings on the theme of her father’s ambition. See Femina magazine, May 1990.
“Years later, Mandela recalled the incident in a letter to Amina Cachalia…” Letter Nelson Mandela to Amina Cachalia, April 8, 1969.
“Mandela would visit him there during the lunch hour…” Callinicos, Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains.
“When the office opened…” Author interview with Ruth Mompati, 2008.
“Winnie recalled that, when she visited, she would sit reading quietly…” Author interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 2009.
“Ruth Mompati joined the firm later in 1953…” Author interview with Ruth Mompati, 2008.
“Evelyn was, she would say, happy in her love for her husband…” Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope.
“Fatima Meer also remembered those weekends…” Author interview with Fatima Meer, 2008.
“When she questioned him about it… he said, ‘No policeman asks questions like you.’” Sunday Telegraph, London, February 25, 1990.
SEVEN
“Mandela’s autobiography… owes its origins to events on Robben Island twenty years earlier…” Kathrada, Memoirs; O’Malley, Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa; author interviews with Ahmed Kathrada and Mac Maharaj, 2008.
“I could not put my finger on it at first…” Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope.
“Meer has said she believed the neighbors had once had to intervene…” Author interview with Fatima Meer, 2008.
“In fact, it was Evelyn who first began divorce proceedings against Mandela…” Native Divorce Court Case no. 342, 1956, and the Supreme Court of South Africa, Witwatersrand Division Case No. 1579, 1958. Files held at the National Archives of South Africa.
“Winnie has said she was too shy to ask Mandela about his marital status…” Author interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 2009.
“At an ANC conference around 1953/54 a beautiful activist, Mrs. Malopo…” Joe Matthews’ oral history interview 2001, archived at SADET (South African Democracy Education Trust).
“Amina Cachalia describes Mandela as very tight-lipped about these matters… ” Author interview with Amina Cachlia, 2008.
“Ngoyi, according to Fatima Meer, was not among those beautiful women…” Author interview with Fatima Meer, 2008.
“Evelyn’s granddaughter, Ndileka, noted that her grandmother never remarried…”Author interview with Ndileka Mandela, 2008.
“Ruth Mompati took exception to Mandela being described as old-fashioned…” Author interview with Ruth Mompati, 2008.
“As he rose steadily in the world, Mandela was still getting letters from the Bantu Welfare Trust…” Bantu Welfare Trust’s Mandela file held at the Historical Papers Library, Wits University.
“Adelaide Joseph and her husband, who would ride in that car too…” Author interview with Adelaide Joseph, 2008.
“He must be wearing a suit from Alfred Khan…” Author interview with Ahmed Kathrada, 2008.
“No, nothing is going to deprive Mandela of his evaluation of himself…” Author interview with George Bizos, 2008.
“There is a story Winnie once related to Paul Joseph…” Author interview with Paul Joseph, 2008.
“Then one night in the early 1950s he was out in a car with Sisulu…” Author interview with Amina Cachalia, 2008.
“Some people won’t hear a word against him…” Author interview with AnnMarie Wolpe, 2008.
“One weekend Mandela called on Bizos for his advice…” Author interview with George Bizos, 2008; George Bizos, Odyssey to Freedom.
“Ruth Mompati remembered another occasion, closer to home, when an African bellboy…” Author interview with Ruth Mompati, 2008.
“A future comrade, Denis Goldberg would listen to Mandela recounting tales from the bench too…” Author interview with Denis Goldberg, 2008.
“Bizos remembered Tambo expressing his concerns…” Author interview with George Bizos, 2008.
EIGHT
“No easy walk was Nehru’s phrase, not Mandela’s…” Sampson, Mandela.
“Meanwhile, some eight years ahead of the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Mandela was already anticipating the necessity for armed conflict…” Sisulu, Walter & Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime.
“A quiet, studious young academic from Fort Hare…” Pogrund, How Can Man Die Better: The Life of Robert Sobukwe.
“Professor Matthews brought the idea to the organizers of the regional ANC…” Z. K. Matthews, Freedom for My People.
“But first the raw material of the charter had to be collected…” Rusty Bernstein, Memory Against Forgetting.
“Abigail Kubeka, who sang with Makeba in the Skylarks…” Author interview with Abigail Kubeka, 2008.
“Makeba also sang with the jazz vocal group, the Manhattan Brothers,…” Author interview with Joe Mogotsi, 2008.
“Forty years later Mandela was giving a round of additional interviews…” Material held at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Sisulu remembered a meeting of senior figures…” Sisulu, Walter & Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime, ibid.
“As Anthony Sampson said, that did not deter…” Sampson, Mandela, ibid.
“Perhaps because he had never been consulted, Chief Luthuli did not mind acknowledging…” Luthuli, Let My People Go.
“At some point, late in the proceedings, the records tell us that the organizers announced…” Karis, Carter, Gerhart, From Protest to Chall
enge, Volume 3.
“Some city friends gathered at number 8115 to mark the occasion…” Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom.
“But Mandla, the son of Makgatho…” Author interview with Mandla Mandela, 2008.
“According to Evelyn…” Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope, ibid.
“The idea was also expressed in simple, traditional terms…” Author interview with Sitsheketshe Mandela, 2008.
“During the additional interviews he conducted with Ahmed Kathrada…” Material held at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“The young woman claimed not to know she was beautiful…” Author interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 2009.
NINE
“According to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, she was a country girl from Pondoland…” Author interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 2009.
“Esme Matshikiza, whose husband Todd…” Author interview with Esme Matshikiza, 2008.
“Z. K. Matthews wrote regularly to his wife, Frieda,…” Frieda Matthews, Remembrances (Mayibuye, 1995).
“Further confirmation is to be found in the 1970 letter from Robben Island…” Nelson Mandela letter to Winnie Mandela, August 1, 1970. Held at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“Fatima Meer has written how Winnie’s boyfriend, Barney Sampson, took it badly…” Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope.
“Mandela sent Winnie to meet the Meers in Durban…” Author interview with Fatima Meer, 2008.
“Ruth Mompati has said that she did not detect any shyness in Winnie…” Author interview with Ruth Mompati, 2008.
“The journalist and activist Joyce Sikhakhane…” Author interview with Joyce Sikhakhane, 2008.
“In spite of everything that happened later, everything Winnie might have done or been involved in…” Author interview with Adelaide Joseph, 2008.
“Amina Cachalia suspected that it took Winnie a while to get used to Mandela’s interracial world…” Author interview with Amina Cachalia, 2008.
Young Mandela Page 40