Have You Heard From Johannesburg?
Story Two
The Long Walk Of Exile
[1960 - 1977]
This story traces ANC Deputy President Oliver Tambo’s campaign to bring the injustice of apartheid to the world's attention. Forced into exile, the fate of the ANC is now in his hands. He insists that the apartheid regime can be brought to the negotiating table if governments would sanction and isolate the apartheid regime. Allies are found: Africa, Sweden, Norway, the Soviet Union. But he is unable to gain support from the major western powers. His efforts are aided by the Soweto uprising and the murder of Steve Biko as South Africa becomes more than a country; it is a cause, a worldwide emblem for injustice. A significant victory is won: a United Nations mandatory arms embargo, the first in history. But South Africa’s strongest trading partners in the West still will not sanction it economically. Tambo heads to Zambia where he ministers to the ANC’s growing guerrilla army now filled with new recruits forced into exile by the repression following Soweto. By the time the story ends a bloodbath seems inevitable. Although the most powerful western governments will not heed Tambo’s calls for cultural and economic boycotts, the citizens in western nations do and help turn the tide.