Helen Suzman

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.