Long Walk to Freedom

Born to a middle-class African family in 1936, Winnie met Nelson Mandela in 1957 and became his second wife the following year.

Mandela describes her as “headstrong” and “determined.” She was a critical source of support during his long imprisonment, but upon his release, the couple found themselves with irreconcilable differences and separated in 1992.

Winnie became a symbol of resistance in her own right while Mandela was imprisoned. Most notably, she advocated for children who went on strike to protest a policy that required half of all secondary school classes to be taught in Afrikaans.

Winnie died in 2018, and some consider her to be a “Mother of the Nation.” However, her connections, both rumored and confirmed, to vigilante killings in Soweto have cast a shadow over her legacy.

Nominated by Nelson Mandela’s father, Jongintaba Dalindyebo served as regent of Thembu until his younger brother, Sabata, came of age. Following the death of Mandela’s father, Jongintaba served as Mandela’s guardian. Mandela learned many lessons about leadership from the regent, but they did not always agree. When Jongintaba arranged a marriage for Mandela, the latter ran away to Johannesburg. 

Alongside Nelson Mandela, lawyer and activist Oliver Tambo provided desperately needed legal services to Africans caught up in petty apartheid restrictions. According to Mandela, Tambo “was a keen debater and did not accept the platitudes that so many of us automatically subscribed to” (47). Mandela also considered Tambo his closest friend.

Once the ANC was banned and Mandela and Tambo’s law office was shuttered, Oliver left the country and became the leader of the exiled ANC members. For decades, while Mandela was imprisoned, Tambo served as the international face of the antiapartheid movement and commander of the MK. 

Like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu was one of Mandela’s closest friends.

In his early antiapartheid work, Sisulu established Sitha Investments, the only black-owned real estate agency in South Africa. He joined the ANC in 1941 and, along with Mandela and Tambo, was one of the principal founders of the organization’s Youth League.

Sisulu was one of the activists caught at Liliesleaf Farm, and he served 25 years as one of the Rivonia political prisoners in the Rivonia prison.

Gaur Radebe was an antiapartheid activist with strong Africanist and Communist leanings. He served as Mandela’s introduction to militant politics when the pair worked as clerks at a law firm together.

Anton Lembede was a charismatic Africanist who was widely seen as the future leader of the ANC until his death in 1947. His influence on Mandela, Tambo, and Sisulu was apparent in their writings and work as antiapartheid activists.

Born in 1898, Albert Luthuli was President of the ANC from 1952 until his death in 1967. In 1936, he accepted the installation as chief of the Christian Zulus but was stripped of his rank in 1953 because of his activism. Still, Luthuli was widely admired and called “Chief” for the rest of his life.

In 1960, Luthuli was the first of three South Africans to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because of his faith-based commitment to nonviolence. There are conflicting accounts on whether he approved of the ANC’s turn to violent resistance in 1961, and it is still a topic of debate to this day. Luthuli died under unusual circumstances in 1967, and many believe he was murdered by the state. 

Chief Kaiser Daliwonga Matanzima was Nelson Mandela’s nephew. From his position as paramount chief of the “Emigrant Thembus,” Matanzima convinced the Transkei tribal assembly to accept the creation of the bantustan system. The system was a product of the apartheid government, which hoped to prove all people should be separated by race and tribal affiliation. Because the bantustan system allowed him to retain his privileged position as chief, Matanzima was a fierce advocate for apartheid.

As secretary of the Native Affairs Department from 1950 to 1958, Dr. Verwoerd was the principal architect of the NP’s vision of a completely racially separated society. He became president of the Union of South Africa in 1958 and was assassinated by a white leftist in 1966.

Robert Sobukwe was the charismatic founder and leader of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). The organization was dedicated to freeing African people from Western influence and therefore shunned the help of any non-African people. This regularly put it at odds with the ANC. Although the two groups remained rivals within the movement, Sobukwe and Mandela were friendly during their joint imprisonment. In Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela repeatedly praises Sobukwe’s commitment to the struggle.

P.K. Botha served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1978 until 1984 and State President of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. Nicknamed “Die Groot Krokodil” (The Great Crocodile), Botha was an aggressive proponent of apartheid and approved many strikes against ANC camps outside of the country’s borders. Due to illness and political maneuvering, Botha steps down as President in 1989.

In his role as Minister of Justice, Coetsee was Mandela’s first contact within the government for conducting backchannel negotiations. Despite his role as an agent of the apartheid regime, Coetsee’s commitment to ending apartheid was widely recognized. As a display of recognition for his role in the negotiations, he is elected president of the Senate by the ANC-led parliament in 1994.