Long Walk to Freedom

This chapter provides further details of Mandela’s meetings while he is underground. During this period, the ANC debates whether to make the three-day action planned for May 29 a strike or a stay-at-home. Mandela favors the latter because it presents less of a target for the state’s forces, and his view prevails. As Mandela continues to elude the authorities, he develops something of a romantic outlaw image, and the press dubs him the Black Pimpernel. 

The state steps up its repression by raiding opposition leaders, confiscating printing presses, and more. On May 27, armed forces are deployed throughout the country in a show of force. The English-language press initially covers the ANC’s planned campaign, but several days before its start, the same papers begin urging people to go to work. The PAC also attempts to sabotage the stay-at-home by distributing flyers denouncing the ANC as cowards.

On May 29, hundreds of thousands refuse to go to work, but reports come in that the campaign is not effective nationwide. On the morning of May 30, Mandela announces an early end to the campaign. Despite trying to claim the stay-at-home as a success, Mandela tells the press that the government is rapidly foreclosing any possibility of addressing the ANC’s demands through nonviolent means.