Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Turnley spent 28 years photographing South Africa’s struggles of apartheid. Having documented the life of Nelson Mandela and his people, Turnley reflects for LightBox on his memories of Mandela on the day of his release from prison.
I go to sleep early on Feb. 10, 1990, as the next day will be one of the most important historic days of my career. I receive a call from a dear friend and photojournalist colleague. He tells me that he is sorry to inform me but the South African photographers association has decided to make Nelson Mandela’s release from prison a pool event and that only five photographers would be allowed in front of the prison. I respond that, respectfully, I can guarantee him that I would be the next morning in front of that prison — this was a moment of importance for the whole world to see.
I arrive in front of Victor Verster prison with my twin brother photojournalist Peter Turnley at 5:30 am the next morning. A handful of our colleagues also arrive. We go to the two Afrikaaner Prison guards at the gates of the prison, introduce ourselves and ask for their help. We explain that this day is an important day for South Africa, and for the world to witness. We propose that they allow us to create a roped off area in front of the prison, where photojournalists from around the world would stand, and that we would make sure that the decorum of this event was respected. These prison guards decide that they too want to be magnanimous on this historic day, and give us the mandate to set up our area. Hundreds of photographers and reporters began to arrive, and as we explain our plan, everyone takes their one foot of space, where we stand shoulder to shoulder in anticipation for what would inevitably be just a few seconds that we will get to see Nelson Mandela before the crowds will break and obscure the next leader of South Africa.
After approximately 11 hours of holding our ground, at 4:20pm with t.v. helicopters whirring overhead, we see an entourage making its way towards the prison gate. Adrenaline surged — suddenly the prison gate opened, and marching towards us is Nelson Mandela, fist in the air, holding Winnie’s hand, as roars sound around the world. I had time to make three frames in focus — the happiest three frames of my life — before the crowd breaks and Mandela’s motorcade heads towards the center of Capetown.
I drive frantically to keep up with their motorcade as it makes its way to Capetown an hour away. When the motorcade arrives, the crowd of more than one hundred thousand South Africans excitedly shakes Madiba’s car. The motorcade escapes the crowd and races away. For the first time, I felt that I might be crushed by a crowd. I climbed over the shoulders of this sea of humanity and make my way to the balcony of city hall. I felt the urgency that I was now out of position to see Madiba if he appears. I ran down the corridor of City Hall, looking for a window to peek out of.
In front of me I saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Reverend Allan Boesak, Walter Sisulu, Madiba’s prison mate of 27 years, Jesse Jackson and a handful of others. I have landed serendipitously in the reception committee. They all know me and smile, telling me to come in and wait patiently.
No one knows where Madiba has fled, and as the crowd outside screams with anticipation and euphoria, a phone rings. Tutu grabs the phone. It is Madiba explaining that they have driven outside of town, shaken by the surging crowd after sitting alone in a prison cell for 27 years. The archbishop says, “Baba [in South Africa xhosa, papa], you have to come and at least show your face or they will tear the city down tonight. And then following a silence, the Arch puts down the phone and smiles. “He’s coming.” Minutes later, unbeknownst to any of us including the crowd, he is driven to the rear of City Hall. The door opens and in walks Nelson Mandela. He greets each person in the room, with the charm and confidence of someone who has never been gone.
Madiba is tall and in unbelievable shape. His presence is so powerful. He gives everyone a bear hug. Smiles stretch across our faces. And Archbishop Tutu clings a glass with a spoon. Directly in front of Madiba, the crowd outside is frantic with excitement, unaware that Madiba is with us. Archbishop Tutu looks into Nelson’s eyes, and with tears streaming down his face, says, “I have to tell you what you have meant to my life….” And then each person in the room follows. Madiba stands proudly receiving each heartfelt word. It is as if you can palpably see the dignity of Nelson Mandela, of each second of 27 years, proudly and clearly contained to be ready for this moment. And then, he looks at all of us.
“You will have to forgive me. I have something I have to take care of.” He proceeds to walk to the window, stepping out onto the balcony to address his South African people, and the world, for the first time in almost three decades. As the sun sets, the Mandela family and friends stand at the window, everyone’s fists raised in the air, tears streaming down their cheeks as the crowd greets their leader with the African National Anthem Nikosi Sikelela. He finishes his speech with the same words that he spoke at the end of the treason trial that sent him to prison for life in 1964.
“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 and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
David Turnley is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, the Robert Capa Gold medal for courage and two World Press Pictures of the Year. Turnley is highly recognized for his coverage of South Africa over the last twenty-eight years. He is also a successful documentary filmmaker, having just completed his most recent film, SHENANDOAH (available shortly on Netflix), and is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan.
‘Madiba’ Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was raised in the rural Transkei, born into the Xhosa Thembu Royal family. At age 22, after studying at the prestigious Fort Hare University when the portrait in this photograph was made, ‘Madiba’ returned to the village to find that his Chieftan father had arranged marriages for him and his adopted brother, Justin. It was at this moment that Mandela, resisting, took a train to Johannesburg and was quickly catapulted into a leadership role to end apartheid. The young man in this photograph, holding the portrait of ‘Madiba’ in college, is a distant relative who lives in the village of Mqhekezweni, in the Transkei, where this original portrait still sits on the mantel of the family home.David TurnleyUnder the tenants of apartheid, every South African of color was stripped of South African citizenship, obligated to carry a passbook at all times and relegated to their tribal identities — all in order to ensure governance at the hands of a white minority. 1994.David TurnleyHistorically under apartheid, it was common for even middle-class white South Africans to have at least one black domestic worker and a man referred to as a "garden boy." 1986.David TurnleySouth African blacks throughout the country were obliged to live in townships, ghettos on the outskirts of urban centers inhabited by whites. Soweto, where this photograph was made, became home to 1.3 million black South Africans on the outskirts of Johannesburg and also the home where Nelson and Winnie Mandela lived when first married.David TurnleyA worker plays the guitar with his daughter on a Sunday morning before he goes to work as a field hand. The father works 60 hours a week for a salary of $30 a month. Orange Free State, South Africa. 1986.David TurnleyA South African mother travels with her children in a segregated train car. 1986.David TurnleyA young woman mourns the death of her brother, killed in confrontation with white South African military and police in a township in the heart of the country. 1987.David TurnleyAs their leader Nelson Mandela was sent to prison for life for his aspirations of a non-racist, non-sexist democratic South Africa, it was common that hundreds of thousands of black South Africans would congregate in a township somewhere in the country each weekend to protest apartheid and to mourn the deaths of loved ones killed protesting. David TurnleyNelson Mandela was sent to Robben Island with a life sentence for treason for his participation in the African National Congress (ANC) in 1964. He spent 19 of his 27 years in this prison cell on Robben Island, and the remaining years on the mainland on the edge of Cape Town in Pollsmoor Prison.David TurnleyWinnie Mandela fell in love with and married Nelson Mandela when she was 24 years old. They had two children — both girls — during the two years before Mandela went to prison. Winnie herself was placed in solitary confinement for 18 months and was banished for nine years under house arrest in Brandfort. Through it all, Winnie remained the public persona of her husband. 1986.David TurnleyBlack South Africans mourn the deaths of anti-apartheid protestors in Duncan Village, a township outside of East London, South Africa. 1986.David TurnleyThe world looked on as international hero Mandela walked out of prison after 27 years on Feb. 11, 1990, with his wife, Winnie. At 6'3" tall, "Madiba" and his presence met the stature that the world had expected. David TurnleyArchbishop Desmond Tutu leads Mandela through the neighborhood in Soweto where Mandela lived before going to prison — the same neighborhood home to Archbishop Tutu — on the first day of his release from prison.David TurnleySitting with Walter Sisulu, who had spent 27 years in prison with Mandela, just minutes after his release, they confer seconds before Mandela made his first public speech to the world. David TurnleyMandela is greeted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Cape Town City Hall, among the first group of people that Mandela celebrated with after his release. David TurnleyThe morning after Mandela's release from prison, he returned to his one-bedroom, cinder-block home that only recently had indoor plumbing, where he and Winnie had started their life with two daughters 27 years earlier, Zinzi and Zni.David TurnleyNelson Mandela shares his first meal at the Mandela home in Soweto with his family and fellow inmate of 27 years, Walter Sisulu. The man pouring champagne, Cyril Ramaphosa, who many believe could be the next President of South Africa.David TurnleyMadiba sits in the backyard in front of the international press corps with his beloved wife, Winnie, the day after his release from prison. David TurnleyFollowing Nelson Mandela's release from prison, he circulated through the country. Everywhere he went, millions of South Africans came out to celebrate their leader and to support him in his quest to become the first President of a democratic South Africa. 1993.David TurnleyNelson Mandela visits the mud rondavel in which he was raised as a child in the rural Transkei. In his years following his Presidency, he moved back to this area that represented for him his roots and his love for the beauty of his South African land. With his classic charm and a smile on his face, he remarked upon exiting the dwelling that he had become a man in this rondavel. David TurnleyHaving been adopted at age nine by a Thambu chief and raised in this village, Mandela has said that it is underneath this tree where he learned the value of consensus politics, as each Wednesday evening the community would gather with the village elders to discuss the issues at hand. Everyone was given an opportunity to speak.David TurnleyMandela campaigns for the presidency of South Africa in the Zulu area of KwaZulu-Natal. 1994.David TurnleyNelson Mandela, surrounded by his ever-loyal bodyguards, campaigns in the northern Transvaal. 1994. David TurnleyMinutes after Mandela was inaugurated as the first President of a democratic and free South Africa, David Turnley managed to earn access to an exclusive luncheon. During his first speech in front of heads of state, the wife of the former President F. W. De Klerk couldn't bring herself to turn and listen to the new President.David TurnleyJust after Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech, he introduces Cuban President Fidel Castro to the former South African President F. W. De Klerk.David TurnleyFor those familiar with the movie Invictus, in real life, these are the two sons of the 1996 South African World Cup Rugby champion's captain, Francois Pienaar. Sitting on his lap, the boy on the right asked innocently, "Madiba, how could they have put you in prison for 27 years when you didn't steal anything?"
Madiba responded, "Sweetheart, I did steal something. I stole freedom for our people."David TurnleyMandela sits with his new wife, Graca Machel, in their home outside Qunu, in the Transkei where Mandela was raised. 2007.David TurnleyOn a hillside outside of Qunu in the Transkei, a man who referred to himself as one of Mandela's brothers, stands in front of the family cemetery where it is commonly thought Mandela will be buried. 2007. David TurnleyNelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison and two administrations as South African President of a newly-democratic nation, sits enjoying a braai (or BBQ), listening to singing in the backyard of a friend as he relishes his graceful years in a free nation.David TurnleyTo understand Nelson Mandela is to understand the love and reverence he holds for the rural Transkei, acknowledging the African history and the peacefulness of traditional Khosa-speaking, agrarian culture — still largely bereft of material wealth but rich in human dignity and natural beauty.David Turnley
