10 President Mandela

Chapter 10 President Mandela On February 11, 1990, at 4:15 p.m., Nelson Mandela stepped out of prison. He was seventy-one years old, and had spent ten thousand days behind bars. Outside Cape Town City Hall fifty thousand people gathered to hear him speak. He chanted, "Amandla!" ("Power!") which meant "The power is ours!"

Older people hadn't seen Mandela in so long, they didn't know what to expect. Younger South Africans had never seen him. They expected an old man too tired to get involved in politics.

They were wrong. Freedom had recharged Mandela. He took a trip around the world where he was greeted with cheering crowds. In his own country, he argued with many black South Africans who still did not want to work with white South Africans or hear about forgiveness. Violence had been part of their lives for so long, it seemed like the only answer. Nelson still believed that black people and white people should work together. He thought they could put their problems behind them. White South Africans wanted Mandela to praise the

government and be grateful for being let out of prison. Instead he encouraged foreign countries to keep refusing to trade with South Africa until apartheid was truly gone for good. He demanded nothing less than one person, one vote. He said, "When I was sent to prison twenty-seven years ago I had no vote... when I came out I still had no vote. That is due to the color of my skin." President de Klerk dragged his feet when it came to real change. He may have been hoping that in time Mandela's influence would fade. Black South Africans were frustrated at the lack of change. In August 1992 the ANC led a nationwide general strike, the largest in South Africa's history. In their demand to end apartheid, people all over the country refused to go to work. A month later in Bisho, South Africa, soldiers opened fire on an ANC rally, killing twenty-eight people and wounding almost two hundred more. On September 26, 1992, Mandela and de Klerk signed a Record of Understanding. It said that they would try to come to an agreement about the government. In 1993 Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE ALFRED NOBEL WAS A SWEDISH SCIENTIST AND THE INVENTOR OF DYNAMITE. HE ALSO MANUFACTURED WEAPONS. BUT AS HE GOT OLDER, HE DID NOT WANT TO BE REMEMBERED FOR DESTRUCTIVE THINGS. SO IN HIS WILL HE LEFT ENOUGH MONEY TO AWARD ANNUAL PRIZES FOR EXCELLENCE IN FIELDS THAT MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. THE PRIZES ARE FOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, MEDICINE, AND LITERATURE. A FIFTH PRIZE IS ALSO

GIVEN TO SOMEONE WHO WORKS HARD TO BRING ABOUT PEACE IN THE WORLD. IN TRYING TO BRING SOUTH AFRICA TOGETHER, MANDELA AND DE KLERK EARNED THAT HONOR.