Long Walk to Freedom

In this chapter, Mandela acknowledges Winnie’s superlative dedication and resolve as he was transferred to Pretoria and she still managed to visit him several times a week. He also addresses rumors that the CIA engineered his capture, stating he has never seen good evidence to support this claim.

Sisulu is also housed in Pretoria Local, and although Mandela is prevented from speaking to him directly, they manage to communicate. They agree that Sisulu should seek bail and go underground while Mandela remains in prison.

Mandela contemplates escape and makes a rough map of the prison that is smuggled out. In the end, however, he decides that the risk of failure is too great and would endanger the entire MK command structure.

The first hearing takes place on October 15, 1962. Mandela chooses to wear traditional Xhosa dress, including a leopard skin, in court, and Winnie does the same. Before giving his plea, Mandela is permitted to address the court, and he makes clear that he considers this a political trial and will put the state on trial.

The prosecution calls more than 100 witnesses. Every time Mandela is asked how many witnesses the defense plans to call, he only replies, “‘I plan to call as many witnesses as the state, if not more’” (327). When the prosecution rests its case, Mandela surprises the court by announcing that he will call no witnesses and mount no defense.

For his plea in mitigation, Mandela tells his life story to explain why he became an implacable freedom fighter and why it is necessary to take up arms. After a 10-minute deliberation, the magistrate sentences Mandela to five years with no possibility of parole. As he is led from the courtroom, Mandela raises his fist in salute to his supporters, and they sing a patriotic African song in response.

Concurrent with the trial’s conclusion, MK commits acts of sabotage in Port Elizabeth and Durban, and the UN General Assembly votes in favor of sanctions on South Africa for the first time.

At Pretoria Local, Mandela is stripped of his African clothing and forced into demeaning prison clothes–African prisoners are permitted only shorts. He refuses to wear the shorts or eat the cold, bland porridge brought to him. The warden permits Mandela long pants and better food but puts him into solitary. After several weeks, Mandela submits and agrees to wear the shorts in exchange for release from solitary.

When he is placed among the other political prisoners, he attempts to mend relations with Robert Sobukwe, the imprisoned leader of the PAC. They are friendly but fundamentally disagree on strategy. 

Meanwhile, the ANC formally declares its relationship with the MK, and the apartheid regime brutally imposes the bantustan system on the Transkei province. Sabotage and terrorism against the Bantu Authorities Act increases. On May 1, 1963, the government enacts The General Law Amendment Act, better known as The Ninety-Day Detention Law. It effectively gives legal cover to a police state. Reports soon emerge of the widespread adoption of torture by South African security forces.

In late May 1963, Mandela is roused from his cell in the night and transferred to Robben Island, the notorious colonial-era offshore prison. Previous African freedom fighters, such as Makanna and Autshumao, had been imprisoned there.

At the island, Mandela and the other prisoners are spoken to as if they are cattle being driven to market. The political prisoners are put to hard labor doing repairs on the island, but their special status allows them to make some displays of dignity without fear of reprisal. A group of young PAC prisoners hear that Mandela joined the PAC while he was traveling in Africa, but Mandela disabuses them of the idea.

The authorities abruptly transfer him back to Pretoria, and Mandela senses something has gone seriously wrong. In July, he learns that the Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia was raided and the MK high command were arrested. The captured evidence includes plans for an escalation of the armed conflict. It seems likely that they will all hang for treason.

On October 9, 1963, Mandela and the other MK leaders are taken to Pretoria for the beginning of the Rivonia Trial. The defendants are charged under the Sabotage Law because it allows the government to obtain a conviction and death sentence with lower evidentiary standards.

After a three-week recess for the defense to prepare, Bram Fischer, their lawyer, immediately moves to dismiss the indictment as “shoddy, poorly drawn, and containing absurdities” (354). The prosecutor is unable to answer the judge’s questions, and Judge De Wet quashes the indictment. The prisoners are immediately rearrested while the government prepares a new indictment.

The trial reconvenes under a new indictment, and there is substantial evidence against Mandela and his compatriots. Bruno Mtolo, an ANC saboteur, is a particularly damning witness; he claims he became disaffected by the ANC and MK’s friendliness to the Communist Party.

The prospects are grim, but the defendants maintain a type of gallows humor by making each other laugh with passed notes. 

The prosecution rests on February 29, 1964. Mandela is certain to be convicted, but the case is very weak against some of the other defendants. It is decided that, instead of testifying, they will make statements from the dock, allowing them to speak without cross-examination by the prosecution.

On April 20, 1964, Mandela delivers his defense. As in the previous trial, he describes how he has come to his beliefs and why he formed the MK. He addresses the common accusation that he, the MK, and the ANC are puppets of international communist influence by insisting he only ever acted out of his own, personal conviction. He repeatedly argues that the state’s use of force compelled the ANC to abandon its nonviolent strategy, and he is completely open about the MK’s plans to prepare for racial civil war.

Mandela also explains the alliance with the Communist Party as a convergence of political interest in South Africa rather than ideological harmony. He finishes his speech by looking De Wet straight in the eye and avowing his willingness to die for his cause if necessary. (Mandela notes that De Wet was never able to look him in the eye again.)

The prosecutor’s final speech is a garbled mess, and De Wet informs the prosecutor that he failed to prove MK planned to engage in guerrilla warfare. De Wet also concedes that the indictment includes acts of sabotage committed by other groups and that the MK and ANC are distinct organizations. The defendants begin to have some hope.

The trial has drawn international attention, and the South African government is urged to grant the defendants amnesty. While De Wet deliberates on the verdict, Mandela finally completes his law correspondence degree.

On June 11, De Wet convicts the main defendants, including Mandela, on all counts but does not pronounce their sentences. Mandela steels himself for the possibility of a capital sentence. The next day, Mandela is brought to court for sentencing. De Wet sentences the defendants to life in prison. Looking back, Mandela believes De Wet was caught between his Afrikaner upbringing and the intense international pressure the case garnered, so he split the difference between the death sentence and acquittal.