South Africa | The End of Apartheid
NELSON MANDELA
A Photo-Journalism production by Mark D Phillips and Andrea Peyser
It was THE Election of 1994. Mandela was running for President of South Africa.
Mark D Phillips and Andrea Peyser, a married columnist and photographer for The New York Post, traveled to South Africa to witness the true end of apartheid.
For the first time in their lives, people born with black skin – the majority in this proud and beautiful nation – would be casting their votes.
The long, emotionally arduous trip to South Africa led us to Soweto – short for “South Western Townships” – the epicenter of the fight against apartheid.
We spent the night in the neat, brick house of Agnes Nyamende and her family in the sprawling township populated almost exclusively by black citizens. .
This was the time for which South Africans born with black skin had struggled, gone to prison for and died. Starting at 4 a.m., proud citizens lined up in the sun to commit an act we, as Americans, too often neglect to do.
“Today, I become a grandmother for the first time,” Agnes, a customer-service rep for a supermarket chain, cried.
“And today, I will vote!”
Agnes Nyamende slowly worked her way to the front of the voting line. She picked up a ballot and marked an X in the box next to Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress party. After the votes were counted, the fighter-turned-statesman won.
Mandela left office in 1999 and died in 2013 at age 95. Some of the leaders who followed were not nearly as forgiving as Mandela about past injustices. South Africa has struggled with high rates of unemployment and crime.
But on that magic night, with a new baby, a new nation, and enough happiness to blot out the past, we ate and drank and sang as one.
We are rooting for South Africa to succeed.
MORE STORIES from South Africa
Our Meeting with Nelson Mandela — Every Picture Tells A Story, markdphillips.com
