Oliver Tambo

“Mandela drafted the M Plan, a simple, commonsense plan for organization on a street basis so that Congress volunteers would be in daily touch with the people, alert to their needs and able to mobilize them.”

“We believe it is comprehensive international sanctions against the white regime that will save us from the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of South Africans, black and white.”

“I can see quite clearly that if there was a single event that launched me on the road to ultimate involvement at the heart of South African politics, it was an assault on an African woman by her white employer in a kitchen in Fort Hare.”

“We were very lucky. My mother and stepmothers were on very, very good terms, and so we, the children, grew up as brothers and sisters.”

“We believe that the world, too, can destroy apartheid, firstly by striking at the economy of South Africa.”

“To go back means defeat.”

“How do you deal with a criminal that will not listen to what you have to say and who continues his policy of violence? Some say you continue to talk and let him tire himself out. But nearly 40 years after the institution of apartheid, is there anyone who still believes that verbal persuasion will work?”

“The A.N.C. is a national movement. We all - Communists and non-Communists alike - want a nonracial, democratic, united South Africa.”

“The people of South Africa are ready to stand up to the oppressions of the Pretoria regime, and they are ready to fight back.”

“The more pressure you bring from without, the less internal pressure is necessary.”

“For decades, we resisted violence - until Sharpeville.”

“Who is a terrorist? Is it not the person who has been persecuting human beings simply because they are black?”

“Using the power you derive from the discovery of the truth about racism in South Africa, you will help us to remake our part of the world into a corner of the globe on which all - of which all of humanity can be proud.”

“It was becoming clear that, from being at the top at Holy Cross, we were at the bottom at St. Peter's. Objectively, this was very good, for it offered us a challenge and an opportunity to grow if we were ready to take it; and we surely were.”

“Our target is not negotiations, it is the end of the apartheid system. There can be no compromise about that.”

“Whites, like ourselves, belong to our country. They are compatriots, fellow citizens... we see them as Africans.”

“In South Africa, I feel I am a stranger, at best an animal.”

“I am convinced that the world-wide protests during the Rivonia trial saved Mandela and his fellow-accused from a death sentence. But in South Africa, a life sentence means imprisonment until death - or until the defeat of the government which holds these men prisoner.”