The Forgotten Force

The Forgotten Force

A few months before Nelson Mandela's release, we undertook a fascinating news exercise.

We commissioned an artist to paint a portrait of what he might look like based on images that were current before his imprisonment, and also using eyewitness descriptions from the very few who had seen him in prison (notably his then wife Winnie and an opposition member in the whites only parliament, Helen Suzman).

We then took the image into Soweto and asked passers-by whether they recognised this man. Nobody did.

Twenty years after Nelson Mandela's release, it seems unthinkable that at one stage few knew what he looked like.

Draconian regime

This fact is a very strong illustration of how powerful and draconian the apartheid regime really was.

The African National Congress and a number of other organisations were banned in 1960.

The terms of the restrictions imposed were wide: no representation of the movements could be used in any form, and images of the leaders were expressly forbidden.

The punishment for contravention was extreme - literally defined as an act of treason.

I knew of at least one person who was sentenced to a six month prison term because he was found in the possession of a coffee mug on which was printed the image of the ANC flag.

Writings outlawed

The words and writings of the leaders too were outlawed - including the speeches made by Nelson Mandela during the two major trials that preceded his imprisonment for life.

When I was studying politics in Johannesburg in the 1970s, the only copies available were kept under tight security in a highly restricted section of the university library - access dependent on a signed form which was kept on record. No doubt, though never openly stated, for perusal by the state security services so they could keep track of who was reading the documents and why.

It is for all these reasons that the United Democratic Front was formed in 1983.

It was a movement that retained the spirit and political core of the ANC but could operate openly and legally.

Within two years it had a membership of well over three million people throughout South Africa. And it played an absolutely critical role in the mass public opposition to the state that gained in intensity throughout the decade.

Many of its leaders and followers were imprisoned or banned; a large number were killed by the forces of the state.

Time of oppression

Yet the UDF remained strong and, at a time of intense oppression, continued disseminating the policy of non-racial democracy that lay at the core of the African National Congress.

With the unbanning of the ANC and other organisations in 1990, the role of the UDF was ended.

Its leaders returning to the parties of their choice, the final role played by the movement was the pre-planning and co-ordination of events that followed Nelson Mandela's release.

It is fitting at the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release to remember how it came about - to put on record the existence of an organisation that many young South Africans have either forgotten, or never knew existed.