Africa National Congress Quotes

One of the reasons for the survival of the ANC (African National Congress) over such a long period, is their ability to steal other people's programs, and to adapt to situations. As extraordinary adaptation to a policy which previously they opposed, and then they realize its merits, and then adjust and it comes out as a different policy. That has been the characteristic of the ANC, for which they've been criticized historically, as being inconsistent. But it's that which enabled them to survive to a ripe old age, and they are still doing it.

It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division based on color is entirely artificial and when it disappears, so will the domination of one color by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism; when it triumphs, it will not change that policy.

My father’s contemporaries, the white ones…had made laws that he must carry a reference book. They also made a law that an Alsatian dog must have a certain ticket on his neck (a dog license) and he must also carry a ‘reference book’. That Alsatian dog was going to die without ever deciding a law that governs his life. So was my father…The discomfort of prison cells is better than the emptiness of walking in the streets as if you were free when you are a dog in the land of your birth.

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and ‘I have fought against black domination. 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 which I am prepared to die for.

Africans must stand up for themselves and that the strategies and tactics of the struggle should be determined by the African people themselves, and not by others.

Mandela always came forward and presented himself as a leading figure in the ANC. He ignored office as the criterion of leadership and very often he did and said things which should have been said by those who held office. Yet, he would say it. It was perhaps a kind of supreme confidence. I don't know if one could call it arrogance, but he was very confident, maybe over confident in himself. He was regarded as fearless. It was known that he was fearless as a person. He was always ready to volunteer to be the first to do something, anything that had to be done, Mandela would volunteer to do it.

At the end of the day, violence was the only weapon that would destroy apartheid.

It was easy to kill in South Africa –- to throw a bomb in a movie theatre, for instance - and create panic. But the leaders of the ANC rejected hatred of whites and violence against civilians. They were listened to

The possibility of a liberal capitalist democracy in South Africa is exactly nil. The racialist propaganda amongst the whites and their desire to maintain what they imagine to be a profitable situation makes it utterly unthinkable that there can be a political alignment that favours a liberal white group. In any case the political immorality, cowardice and vacillation of the so—called progressives amongst the whites render them utterly useless as a force against fascism.

Who will deny that thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door? What have been the fruits of moderation? The past thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws restricting our rights and progress, until today we have reached a stage where we have almost no rights at all.

The deepening political crisis in our country has been a matter of grave concern to me for quite some time, and I now consider it necessary in the national interest for the African National Congress and the government to meet urgently to negotiate an effective political settlement. Two central issues will have to be addressed at such a meeting: firstly, the demand for majority rule in a unitary state; secondly, the concern of white South Africa over this demand, as well as the insistence of whites on structural guarantees that majority rule will not mean domination of the white minority by blacks. The most crucial task which will face the government and the ANC will be to reconcile these two positions.