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It was in 1984 that TransAfrica, a 13-year-old Washington-based lobbying organization, concocted a strategy for broadening the antiapartheid campaign. On Thanksgiving eve, TransAfrica's Robinson; Walter Fauntroy, congressional delegate for the District of Columbia; and Mary Frances Berry, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, paid a visit to the South African embassy in Washington and refused to leave until Mandela was released and apartheid dismantled. They were arrested.
Over the next five years, more then 4,000 protesters, including Amy Carter, daughter of former President Jimmy Carter, then Senator Lowell Weicker and singer Stevie Wonder, would follow them to jail. Another 5,000 were arrested at South African consulates around the country. By that time the movement had developed powerful friends on Capitol Hill, including Kennedy and his fellow Democratic Senators Alan Cranston of California and Paul Simon of Illinois. They saw in the antiapartheid movement an opportunity to strike a blow against the otherwise unassailable Reagan.
Their triumph came in 1986, with the passage of sanctions. The law banned new U.S. investments in South Africa, prohibited imports of ore and farm products and revoked the landing privileges of South Africa Airways. The sanctions must remain in effect until South Africa releases all political prisoners, repeals the state of emergency in all provinces, legalizes all democratic political parties, establishes a timetable for eliminating apartheid and begins talks with black leaders.
The American coalition's victory was made sweeter because the law was passed over Reagan's veto. It effectively destroyed Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement," which was designed to quietly prod South Africa into making changes without cutting the economic links between the two countries.
Mandela's freedom was for so long the focus of America's antiapartheid movement that some people fear the euphoria over his release will dissipate concern over what remains to be done. Talks between the A.N.C. and Pretoria are not expected to resume until mid-July. In the meantime, whatever hope there may have been in South Africa that Mandela's release would quickly usher in a new multiracial democracy has begun to fade. Now activists say it is important to draw attention to De Klerk's failure to take such steps as lifting the Internal Security Act, which permits thousands of South Africans to be imprisoned without trial. "We have to think about civil disobedience again," says Robinson. "Our challenge is to help Americans distinguish between what is important and what is not."
Still, De Klerk's skillfully orchestrated reforms have stolen some of Mandela's momentum. Just as the black leader headed for North America, the South African President lifted the state of emergency from all provinces except Natal, the site of fierce fighting between A.N.C. militants and supporters of the rival Inkatha movement. Then, on the eve of Mandela's arrival in New York, De Klerk made good on his promise to revoke the Separate Amenities Act that for nearly four decades had legalized segregation. The South African Parliament repealed the law, opening the country's parks, beaches, swimming pools, services and public buildings to the black majority. Though they fail to undo the main structures of apartheid, the reforms are plainly more than mere window dressing.