Oliver Tambo: Racism, Apartheid and a New World Order
(On 8 May 1986, the African National Congress published a Speech by ANC President O. R. Tambo in Acceptance of the Third World Prize on Behalf of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5 May 1986).
“The most senior leaders of the oppressed people of South Africa have been in prison for almost a quarter of a century now. They, who would have contributed so enormously to the making of a prosperous, happy and peaceful society, whose leadership would have moved millions to strive for the achievement of this goal, these have been condemned to commune only with the prison guards for the rest of their natural lives.
“While these titans of freedom pounded rocks and sewed mailbags behind prison walls, those who had issued the command that they should be jailed were busy imprisoning a whole society. They decreed that none shall speak of anything except what the gaolers permitted to be said; that none shall act according to their consciences except with the authorisation of the gendarme. They proclaimed that the truth shall not be told except that which the regime of repression deemed to be the truth. They, on the other hand, would have the right to designate oppression as liberty; those who are enslaved would be described as free men and women, while he or she that dared to fight for genuine freedom would be categorised and treated as a criminal.
“We are meeting here today to honour two South Africans,
