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Nelson Mandela, statement from the dock at the opening of his trial, Pretoria Supreme Court, 20 April 1964.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. The African National Congress was formed in 1912 to defend the rights of the African people. For thirty-seven years it followed a policy of non-violence. It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle. The Government had left us with no other choice. I do not deny that I planned sabotage. I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness nor because I have any love of violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation after many years of tyranny, exploitation and oppression.

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British editorial cartoon published in a national newspaper, 1985, showing a large prison wall with "Robben Island" written on it. Behind the wall, a raised fist is visible above the top. Outside the wall, a crowd of supporters holds signs reading "Free Mandela" and "ANC Lives." A guard on the wall looks nervous.

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Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, speech in KwaZulu, 1986.

The ANC does not speak for all black South Africans. It never has and it never will. The people of KwaZulu have their own traditions, their own leadership, and their own aspirations. We reject the armed struggle. We reject the call for sanctions which will destroy the livelihoods of the very people the ANC claims to represent. We believe in negotiation, in dialogue, in building bridges rather than burning them. The ANC's campaign of violence and intimidation in the townships is not liberation: it is the replacement of one tyranny with another. Inkatha will continue to seek a peaceful settlement that respects the diversity of South Africa's peoples.

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Historian William Beinart, Twentieth-Century South Africa, second edition, 2001.

The anti-apartheid struggle was never a monolithic movement led by a single organisation. The ANC, despite its dominance in the international imagination, shared the political landscape with the Pan Africanist Congress, the Black Consciousness Movement, the trade unions, the United Democratic Front, and the Inkatha Freedom Party. The relationship between the ANC and Inkatha was particularly destructive: in the late 1980s and early 1990s, political violence between supporters of the two organisations killed over 14,000 people in KwaZulu-Natal and the Witwatersrand townships. This violence, which the apartheid security forces actively encouraged and armed, complicated the transition and threatened to derail the negotiation process. Mandela's personal authority and his willingness to engage with both de Klerk and Buthelezi were critical in preventing the violence from escalating into civil war.

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Speech by South African President F.W. de Klerk to the South African Parliament, 2 February 1990.

The prohibition of the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, the South African Communist Party and a number of subsidiary organisations is being rescinded. The media emergency regulations as well as the education emergency regulations are being abolished in their entirety. The epoch of colonialism, paternalism and apartheid cannot be reconciled with the dynamic demands of our time in the rest of the world. We must honestly admit that our international isolation is a burden we can no longer afford to carry. I am placing a new South Africa on the negotiating table. I am inviting all leaders who commit themselves to peace and to renounce violence to come to the negotiating table. Together we must devise the constitution of the new South Africa.

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Press photograph taken outside Victor Verster Prison, Paarl, 11 February 1990, showing Nelson Mandela walking free with his fist raised, surrounded by ANC supporters.

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Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, published 1994.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison. I had been walking for a long time and I was tired, but I walked with the awareness that I was entering a new era in the life of my country and the life of our struggle. I raised my fist to the crowd. The emotion was overwhelming. I had not been in contact with the outside world for twenty-seven years. I did not then know that the world had changed so profoundly. I knew only that the tyrant I had fought had now agreed to share power. But I also knew that the hard work of building a new South Africa lay entirely ahead of us. Liberation had arrived; the real work of freedom had not yet begun.

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Historian Patti Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle: The End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa, published 1997.

De Klerk's speech of 2 February 1990 was the single most dramatic moment in modern South African history. Yet it was not an act of moral conversion. De Klerk had concluded, after taking office in 1989, that apartheid was economically and politically unsustainable: the costs of the security state, the isolation of the economy, and the internal revolt made the status quo untenable. He also calculated (wrongly, as it turned out) that the ANC was sufficiently weakened by years of exile and internal repression that it could be brought into a managed transition in which the National Party would remain a dominant force. What de Klerk did not foresee was that the moral authority of Mandela and the ANC's organisational resilience would make the transition to majority rule unavoidable rather than negotiated on National Party terms.

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Statement by South African Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger to the South African Parliament, 14 September 1977, on the death of Steve Biko in police custody.

The death of any person in detention is a matter of serious concern to this government. Mr Biko's death leaves me cold. I am not going to cry about it. He died after a hunger strike. Any person detained has the right to hunger strike if he so wishes. The security of the state is paramount, and those who set out to destroy the fabric of our society must accept the consequences of their actions. The Department of Justice has nothing to apologise for. I want to inform the House that all proper procedures were followed. The matter will be investigated.

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British political cartoon published in the Guardian, September 1977, showing a South African police officer standing behind a desk labelled "Official Inquiry," pointing to a certificate that reads "Died Naturally." Behind him, in shadow, is the outline of a prison cell. The officer's expression is one of satisfaction. The caption reads: "Cause of Death."

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Donald Woods, Biko, first published 1978.

Steve Biko had been driven 1,200 kilometres from Port Elizabeth to Pretoria while naked, chained, and already suffering serious brain injuries caused by blows to the head sustained during interrogation. He was dumped on the floor of a cell in Pretoria Central Prison. He died there on 12 September 1977. He was thirty years old. The post-mortem examination revealed brain damage consistent with repeated blows to the skull. The Security Police's claim that he had died as a result of a hunger strike was not merely false: it was grotesque. He had been beaten to death. The government's indifference, expressed in Kruger's infamous remark that Biko's death "left him cold," captured the moral bankruptcy at the centre of the apartheid state.

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Historian Tom Lodge, Politics in South Africa: From Mandela to Mbeki, published 2002.

The death of Steve Biko in September 1977 had consequences that the South African government had not anticipated. Internationally, it transformed the debate about apartheid from a relatively abstract argument about racial segregation into a visceral confrontation with state violence and murder. The banning of eighteen organisations and two newspapers immediately after Biko's death, combined with Kruger's callous parliamentary statement, provided opponents of apartheid with the most powerful propaganda they could have wished for. Within South Africa, the effect on black youth was radicalising: the message drawn from Biko's death was that moderation and internal opposition would be crushed, and that only organised external pressure and armed struggle offered any prospect of change.

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Excerpt from a speech by South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd to Parliament, 1958

“The European has for centuries advanced culturally and economically. The Native has not. Apartheid seeks not to oppress, but to allow each to develop along his own path, without disruption or interference. Petty Apartheid measures, such as the separation of facilities, are necessary to protect the dignity and standards of the White man while safeguarding the identity of the Bantu. If Africans are allowed unrestricted access to White areas, our civilization will erode. The goal of separate benches, buses, entrances, and schools is not humiliation, but harmony. Only through order and separation can peace be preserved. Integration, as proposed by liberal voices, will not uplift the Native. It will simply destroy the foundations of our society.”

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Extract from the Group Areas Act (Act No. 41 of 1950), passed by the South African Parliament.

“In the interests of public order, racial purity, and the development of distinct communities, it is hereby enacted that every racial group shall reside, trade, and operate only within areas assigned to that group by the Minister. The Mixed Use of urban space is deemed unlawful. *

Any contravention, including the occupancy, lease, or ownership of property across racial lines, shall be met with legal expulsion, fines, or imprisonment. These measures are essential for preserving the European character of South African cities and ensuring the safety and development of all races.”

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Excerpt from a speech delivered by Albert Luthuli, President of the African National Congress, at a community rally in Durban, July 1960.

“Apartheid is not just the division of land or the passing of cruel laws - it is the daily insult that reminds every African that he is a stranger in his own country. A sign that says ‘Whites Only’ on a bench or a bus is not petty; it is a wound repeated each day. Our people are told where to walk, where to live, where to die. The Group Areas Act tears apart families; petty apartheid mocks their dignity. Both are crimes against our humanity. To the world, we say: this is not a misunderstanding. This is a deliberate policy of exclusion. And to our oppressors, we say: no nation can endure forever when it is built on humiliation.”