Nelson Mandela, a quiet lawyer who has become a symbol of triumph over oppression, swept into Chicago Tuesday to ask that backers put their money where their good wishes are.
His message was clear: If the African National Congress fails to raise enough money to prepare for the country’s first non-racial elections next year, the country’s slow and fragile march toward democracy may stall.
“We appeal to our friends,” he said. “You have brought democratic forces to the verge of taking over. . . . A defeat of democratic forces will be your defeat.”
With consummate fundraiser Jesse Jackson orchestrating the effort, Mandela raced through the city Tuesday, raising at least $200,000 from crowds who gathered at Operation PUSH headquarters on the South Side, at the downtown Palmer House Hilton and at the Harold Washington Library.
The money, Mandela said, will go for a massive voter education campaign before the country’s first non-racial elections, scheduled for next April 27. Such an effort is critical in a country where nearly 60 percent of the population has never voted and many in rural areas have little idea what voting means or what it could accomplish.
The money will pay for election literature to be translated in 11 African languages, Mandela said, for voting instructors to go into the countryside, and for rides for millions of black first-time voters to the polls.
“This is the most decisive moment in our fight for democracy,” said the international hero, introduced as the “moral leader of the world today,” told more than 1,000 listeners at a Palmer House luncheon hosted by Daley and church leaders.
He called the recent slating of the country’s first open elections “a breakthrough” and said next April 27 is “a day when the history of South Africa is going to change.”
“We want freedom and we are going to get it,” he said, to roars from the crowd, some of whom had contributed up to $10,000 to the effort.
The donations came after a nearly hourlong fundraising appeal by Jackson, who cajoled members of the throng, including Cook County Board President Richard Phelan, into handing over checks worth $100,000. Phelan gave $1,000.
“If (Mandela) could give 27 years of blood and flesh, could we not give some money?” Jackson asked the crowd. “What greater purpose for money?”
Mandela, on an eight-day tour of the United States, started his two-day tour of Chicago Tuesday at City Hall, where he was greeted by a throng of aldermen and politicians of all colors eager to be seen with South Africa’s unofficial leader.
“All of us have high expectations of Mandela,” said former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, watching the jockeying. “We think he can lead the world because he reaches out to all races and all ethnic groups.”
Flanked by Jackson and Daley, Mandela stopped on his way into the building to accept a check a woman in the crowd had proferred in an outstretched hand. He thanked her with a handshake and a kiss, as the crowd of about 200 shouted “Mandela, Mandela” and whistled and cheered.
Those watching said they came away impressed with the African National Congress leader’s quiet power.
“It’s once in a lifetime for something like this,” said Darryl Johnson, a young Southeast Side resident who works for a title firm in the building. “I wasn’t going to let history pass me by.”
Mandela “has everything to teach everybody across the world, about peace and how we all can live as one,” Johnson said. “And I like how he does it without violence.”
Ruby Anthony, another South Sider in the crowd, marveled at how Mandela, who is now 74, had weathered without becoming bitter during his 27 long years in South Africa’s prisons after his conviction on treason charges in 1964.
“He’s a great man with great courage,” she said. “(All those) years in prison and now look at him. It didn’t affect him at all. He’s still willing to fight for his people.”
Mandela, who began fighting for black rights in South Africa even before apartheid was formally created in 1948, was released from prison in 1990, following international pressure and fears by some South African officials that the charismatic leader might die in prison and become a martyr.
Since then, Mandela, who is widely respected by whites and blacks in South Africa, has played a key role in the country’s constitutional negotiations toward a new non-racial government. He is widely expected to become the country’s first black president.
Three years ago, shortly after his release, he toured the United States without stopping in Chicago. But Tuesday he made up for that omission, saying he has always “looked forward to the day that I could visit this city.”
Mandela drew the largest crowds of his Chicago visit Tuesday afternoon at PUSH headquarters, where nearly a thousand people waited in the heat for nearly four hours to hear him, and hundreds more packed the steps and spilled out onto Drexel Boulevard, listening to his speech on a loudspeaker.
Inside, Mandela shed his navy suit coat and spoke to the adoring crowd in shirt sleeves, raising his fist with them as Africa’s anthem, Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrica (“God Bless Africa”) was sung.
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“Our future is your future,” Mandela told listeners, speaking beneath a banner in the African National Congress’ red, black and green colors.
“The love you’ve shown us,” he added, “will drive us to a position where we will be able to take over the government of our country.”
The crowd answered with cries of “Viva Mandela!” and “Amandla awethu,” or power to the people.
“This is history, to see a man of this caliber,” said Deborah Broyles, a West Side teacher obviously moved by the event, who remained in her seat long after Mandela had left the podium.
“To be in the same room, it’s amazing,” she said. “And to know through tolerance you can prevail.”
Outside, however, members of Chicago’s small South African community, many of whom had not seen their sentimental leader since he left prison, were worrying about how he was withstanding the heat rather than discussing what he said.
“I was worried constantly about the heat, whether he was drinking enough water,” said Thubi Kolobe, who just finished a degree in physical therapy.
Later Tuesday, Mandela attended a fundraising dinner sponsored by Daley at the Harold Washington Library, where he delighted the brie and pate crowd by donning a black and red Bulls jacket and cap the mayor presented him.
Mandela also met Tuesday with a variety of Chicago residents from the Cook County Bar Association and area churches, some of whom have already been in South Africa to help with organizing efforts toward the new constitution and majority rule. Many plan to return to help with the elections next year.
“As lawyers, we don’t have any higher duty than to see to the liberation of our people. Nelson Mandela is a lawyer. He’s one of our own,” said Muzette Hill, president of the Cook County Bar Association.
The group has raised about $100,000 toward the election education effort, she said.
South Africa, she said, is “just like the U.S. right after slavery ended. Only now we have an African-American community with the resources to help educate our people.”