A picture taken from a xerox in the National Archives of South Africa March, 10, 2005 shows the front page of South Africa's Sunday Express newspaper from June 6, 1964 during the Rivonia trial that resulted in the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. REUTERS/Radu Sigheti - RTR1LRDX
Nelson Mandela quotes: 12 of his most famous statements
"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." - Statement at the opening of his defence in the Rivonia treason trial, April 20, 1964.
December 7, 2013
Tim Costello
...The 1960s heralded (click here) an enormous change in race relations across the globe and one can only imagine that Mandela must have felt that South Africa's moment was coming.
In the US, the Brown v the Board of Education Supreme Court ruling of 1954 started the slow process of officially dismantling segregation, followed a year later by the brave actions of Rosa Parks and the rise of King. It took several years but, in 1963, President John F. Kennedy declared his administration's commitment to desegregation and the Civil Rights Act - eventually signed into law by Lyndon Johnson - was born.
Australia was also confronting its own race relations, culminating in the 1967 referendum. The two questions put to the people and overwhelmingly passed gave the federal government the right to legislate for Aboriginal people and removed a clause that barred them being counted in any census.
In South Africa, however, there was no such shift. In 1964, instead of conceding the racism of apartheid was abhorrent, the white establishment overwhelmingly remained committed to maintaining it.
In 1960, 69 unarmed protesters were killed at Sharpeville by police and the African National Congress was banned that same year.
In October 1963, Mandela joined nine others on trial for sabotage in what would become known as the Rivonia Trial. It was from that dock that Mandela made clear his determination to champion equality for all the people of South Africa: ''I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.''
Mandela did not have to die for his dream, despite facing capital charges, but he was sentenced to life in jail. Yet, even in what must have seemed like such a hopeless hour, he never faltered....
It had to exist in order to oppose it. Those in power created it and those without power had to find a way to end it.
It had to exist in order to oppose it. Those in power created it and those without power had to find a way to end it.
