The International Free Mandela Movement

Building a Global Symbol

When Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, world attention was brief. The Cold War dominated international politics, and Western governments — particularly the United States and Britain — saw the apartheid government as an anti-communist ally. For a decade, Mandela's imprisonment received relatively little global attention.

The turning point came in 1976, when the Soweto Uprising — in which police killed hundreds of students protesting the forced use of Afrikaans in schools — shocked the world. Images of young people gunned down in the streets, including the iconic photograph of 12-year-old Hector Pieterson being carried by a fellow student, galvanized international opinion. Suddenly, apartheid was front-page news again, and Mandela became the focal point of a growing global campaign.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement Goes Global

By the 1980s, the Free Mandela campaign had become one of the largest international solidarity movements in history. The British Anti-Apartheid Movement, founded in 1959, organized boycotts of South African goods, disrupted sporting events, and lobbied Parliament relentlessly. In the United States, the Free South Africa Movement led protests at the South African embassy in Washington, resulting in the arrest of prominent figures including Congressman Walter Fauntroy, civil rights leader Mary Frances Berry, and TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson.

University campuses became a critical battleground. Student movements demanding that universities divest from companies doing business with South Africa spread across the United States, Britain, and Europe. By 1988, 155 American universities had divested. Cities and states followed: 26 US states, 22 counties, and over 90 cities enacted some form of sanctions or divestment against South Africa.

The cultural boycott was equally significant. Artists including Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, and Harry Belafonte refused to perform in South Africa. The 1985 Artists United Against Apartheid single 'Sun City,' organized by Steven Van Zandt, featured 49 artists and drew massive attention. In June 1988, a concert at Wembley Stadium celebrating Mandela's 70th birthday was broadcast to 67 countries and watched by an estimated 600 million people.