TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/062590/0625109.000

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                                                                                NATION, Page 20

The Burden of Being a Superstar



Leaving a host of problems at home, Nelson Mandela is coming to
the U.S. in search of money and renewed pressure on South
Africa

BY BRUCE W. NELAN -- Reported by Julie Johnson/Washington and
Scott MacLeod with Mandela


    If Nelson Mandela had been a dutiful young man, respectful
of tradition and authority, he would have grown up to be a
chief of the Tembu tribe in the South African homeland of
Transkei. Instead he rebelled against tribal ways, an arranged
marriage and the white government's brutal apartheid system.
He eventually became the world's most famous prisoner and,
since his release four months ago, the de facto leader of the
African National Congress.

    He will be 72 next month, but his burdens are at least as
heavy as they were when he led an urban guerrilla band or
sweated out 27 years in prison. He heads a liberation movement
that is striving to turn itself into a political party. At the
same time, he is trying to organize negotiations with the South
African government on a new and just constitution.

    Last week he began a six-week, 13-country swing to persuade
the rest of the world not to reward President F.W. de Klerk too
early for easing up on apartheid. And when he arrives in the
U.S. this week, he will be forced into still another exhausting
role: heroic superstar. One of the most honored and respected
men alive, Mandela is in the spotlight everywhere he goes. But
in the U.S., where media fire storms are an art form, the
visit-as-event will reach its highest stage. He will be
besieged by cameras and jostling admirers, beseeched by myriad
groups seeking his imprimatur, and bemedaled at parades and
stadium rallies for eleven days in eight cities from Harlem to
Hollywood.

    Mandela holds a special place in the feelings of American
civil rights campaigners, liberals and black activists. During
the Reagan years, when such forces were dispirited and often
divided, opposition to apartheid and support for Mandela
provided them with a unifying passion. No leader since the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. has brought together such a diverse
coalition in the fight against racial injustice.

    But Mandela is not traveling as a symbol. "It's a political
visit," stresses Lindiwe Mabuza, the A.N.C.'s chief
representative in Washington. Mandela is seeking two things:
first, reassurance that economic sanctions will not be lifted
until South Africa is headed toward a peaceful political
solution, and second, pledges of funds to rebuild the A.N.C. in
South Africa. The organization was legalized only four months
ago after almost 30 years of outlaw status. Mandela's message
in Washington, says Mabuza, will be, "Why turn off the heat
when the water is about to boil?"

    There is no prospect that Washington will soon cancel the
trade embargoes Congress put in place in 1986, and George Bush
will probably tell Mandela as much during their planned meeting
at the White House. Europe, however, is wavering. Officials of
the European Community say they detect movement toward
"rewarding" the De Klerk government for its reforms.

    One reason for the slight shift toward Pretoria is the skill
with which De Klerk has managed his side of the contest with
the A.N.C. Since his election last year to replace the
autocratic P.W. Botha, he has done more to ease the country's
internal conflict than all his predecessors combined. With the
pace of change increasing, Mandela and the A.N.C. are in danger
of losing the initiative.

    Just after Mandela left the country on his current trip, De
Klerk freed another group of political prisoners and lifted the
four-year-old national state of emergency, except in the
province of Natal, scene of heavy fighting between rival black
factions. Though those steps fulfilled more of the A.N.C.'s
preconditions for negotiations, the congress has delayed a
formal response until July 10. The postponement gave De Klerk
an opening to tweak the A.N.C. "We are on the threshold of the
real negotiation process," he said. "The A.N.C. must now stop
vacillating."

    In fact, the 78-year-old A.N.C. is having trouble making the
transition from revolutionary underground to political party.
To increase its weight at the bargaining table, it has launched
a membership drive. It is also opening 14 offices around the
country and providing for the expected return of 20,000 exiled
members. Completing this expansion, A.N.C. officials estimate,
will cost $100 million or more.

    Mandela's style is leadership by example, and he has not
found it easy to take over day-to-day control of the A.N.C. He
has had to carry out his onerous public duties while being
distracted by a family crisis. Last month the reputation of his
controversial wife Winnie was further damaged when her former
chief bodyguard was convicted in a Johannesburg court of
murdering a teenage black activist. The judge found that the
youth had been beaten at the Mandelas' Soweto home in Winnie's
presence. Mandela said the government was smearing his wife in
court without giving her a hearing.

    Many worried blacks and whites do not understand why Mandela
has not used his nonpareil status to end the fighting between
his supporters and the Inkatha organization, led by Chief
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, which has killed thousands since 1985.
During his years in prison, Mandela indicated that a top
priority after his release would be to restore black unity by
mending the rift. But when he proposed a meeting with Buthelezi
last March, militants inside his organization vetoed the idea.
"They nearly throttled me," said Mandela, who insists that he
must accept such decisions because he remains "a loyal and
disciplined member of the A.N.C."

    Theoretically, Mandela and his organization also advocate
continuing "armed struggle" against the government, but in
practice that option faded when the A.N.C. agreed to operate
as a legal party. In any case, the congress has demonstrated
its ineffectiveness at guerrilla warfare over three decades.
Violence is not politically useful in South Africa; the white
security forces contain it easily. Change there has become
inevitable mostly because blacks outnumber whites about 5 to
1 and are becoming stronger politically and economically.

    All the antiapartheid movement's tasks at home and abroad
have come to rest squarely on Mandela's shoulders. He embarked
on his journey only a week after removal of a cyst from his
bladder, and in recent years he has also had tuberculosis and
prostate surgery. There were reports -- promptly denied by
A.N.C. spokesmen and Mandela -- that he felt faint last week
in Geneva and had to cancel a meeting. Out of concern for his
health, planners in the U.S. tried to schedule free time
between large events so Mandela would be able to rest. But
Mandela does not have to try to do everything on this trip.
Demand for the international superstar is so intense that the
A.N.C. intends to arrange a second coast-to-coast American tour
before the end of the year. By then he may have maneuvered his
party and his country onto a path toward a more peaceful
future.