South African History Online

Address by Nelson Mandela, President of the ANC,
Winner of the 1991 Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization. First Ceremony for the Award of the Felix Houphouet-Boigny
Peace Prize
Paris, 3 February 1992

Mr. Master of Ceremonies,
Mr. Director-General of UNESCO,
Your
Excellencies,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished
Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Firstly, permit me to express my profound and heartfelt appreciation of this
honour that the Jury of the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Foundation for Peace Research
has deemed fit to bestow on me. I accept this esteemed prize in all humility and
in full knowledge that it is not the individual, Nelson Mandela, who is being so
honoured, but rather the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa,
with which my life has been so intertwined.

It is a hopeful sign of the potential of my country that this year this prize
is shared by two people who trace their respective political ideals to opposing
poles on our national political spectrum. It is the hope of all South Africans
that this joint award signifies the convergence of our aims and a growing
consensus that has begun to emerge amongst the overwhelming majority of South
Africans about the future direction of our country. That developing national
mood finds expression in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa which has
placed before all of us the imperative that collectively commence the task of
building a non-racial democracy.

It has been no easy assignment to build that consensus. Our country has
finally arrived at it by a route that was extremely painful and which entailed
great costs amongst which we must count human lives lost and broken. Perhaps
history will one day record and enumerate the many lost opportunities.

South Africa is distinguished as a country to which history bequeathed two
divergent nationalisms. These two, African and Afrikaner nationalism, embody
fundamentally different perspectives on the character and the future of our
country.

Because both nationalisms lay claim to the same piece of earth, our common
home South Africa, the contest between them was bound to be both heated and
brutal.

We are confident that the progress we are making in the CODESA talks will lay
the basis for an end at least to the more violent aspects of that contest.

The shared commitment to democracy of all the participants in the Convention
for a Democratic South Africa is indicative of a considerable narrowing of the
distance that formerly separated Black from White in our country. It requires
courage and vision on the part of all our political leaders to grasp the
challenge presented by this unique moment. Posterity will not forgive us if we
let slip this opportunity to move as painlessly as possible towards the goal of
a country that is free and at peace with itself and its neighbours.

Eighty years ago, when the founders of the African National Congress gathered
in the city of Bloemfontein, our movement embraced certain universally accepted
core principles that form the basis of modern human rights culture. We have
waged struggle and nursed the tender shoots of this culture in our country
against great odds.

Reduced to their essentials these principles are that: - governments must
derive their authority from the consent of the governed;

• no person or group of persons should be subjected to oppression,
  domination or discrimination by virtue of his/her race, gender, colour or
  religious belief;
• all persons should enjoy security in their persons and their goods against
  intrusions by secular or clerical authorities;
• all persons shall enjoy the right to life, unfettered by impositions from
  either the secular or clerical authorities;
• all persons should have the untrammelled right to hold and express
  whatever opinions they wish to subscribe to as long as the exercise of that
  right does not infringe on the rights of others.

In accepting this prize today we feel that the Jury is acknowledging the
abiding value of these principles and endorses them as sound.

The past 12 months have witnessed many earth-shaking developments in various
parts of the world. The march to greater democracy has not left the African
continent behind. In every part of our continent the search for greater
democracy and to inject real meaning into freedom and democracy is proceeding
apace. We wish to associate ourselves and our movement with this great tide of
freedom in the conviction that responsible government is a function not of wise
rulers but rather of a people who are politically engaged.

The commitment of ANC to these values derives from our understanding of their
essential purpose, that is the empowerment of the individual citizen,
irrespective of his/her status, by equipping him/her to cope vvitl1 the
complexities of life. South Africa cries out for peace and for democracy. It is
our considered judgement that we shall not have the one without the other. What
we seek to build in South Africa is a society centred on human needs and
aspirations. This requires that we eschew the misanthropic ideology of racism
and apartheid. We as South Africans must part company with policies that render
human beings the objects of manipulation by political and economic powers for
the benefit of a privileged few. Our country must develop a national commitment
to create conditions that shall enhance the dignity of all those living within
it.

The oppressed majority in South Africa have waged struggle to capture for
themselves the right to determine their own destiny, including the right to
determine for themselves what to do with their future. The indispensable
condition for that is the achievement of democracy. We consider that a goal that
is worthy of the support of the entire international community. This prize to us
has meaning because it symbolizes that support.

Thank you.