James H. Read
Professor of Political Science
College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University
Models of Leadership and Power in Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom
Nelson Mandela in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom describes his risky
decision in 1985 (while still incarcerated) to begin secret talks with the National Party
government, without the foreknowledge or approval of the Executive Committee of the
African National Congress (ANC). The ANC’s policy all along had been to seek
negotiations with the South African government, but none of the ANC’s preconditions
for talks – unbanning the ANC, releasing all political prisoners, allowing free and open
political opposition – had been met. Under the circumstances, for Mandela to agree to
talks could easily be seen as capitulation. Nevertheless he made the decision to go
forward:
My solitude gave me a certain liberty, and I resolved to use it to do something I
had been pondering for a long while: begin discussions with the government. I
had concluded that the time had come when the struggle could best be pushed
forward through negotiations. If we did not start a dialogue soon, both sides
would be plunged into a dark night of oppression, violence, and war…It simply
did not make sense for both sides to lose thousands if not millions of lives in a
conflict that was unnecessary. They [the government] must have known this as
well. It was time to talk.
This would be extremely sensitive. Both sides regarded discussions as a sign of
weakness and betrayal. Neither would come to the table until the other made
significant concessions…Someone from our side needed to take the first step, and
my new isolation [in Pollsmoor Prison] gave me both the freedom to do so and
the assurance, at least for a while, of the confidentiality of my efforts.
I chose to tell no one of what I was about to do. Not my colleagues upstairs or
those in Lusaka [the ANC leadership in exile]. The ANC is a collective, but the
government had made collectivity in this case impossible. I did not have the
security or the time to discuss these issues with my organization. I knew that my
colleagues upstairs would condemn my proposal, and that would kill my initiative
even before it was born. There are times when a leader must move out ahead of
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Convention