Rivonia Trial and the long silence
The Rivonia Farm Raid
On 11 July 1963, South African security police raided Liliesleaf Farm at Rivonia, a suburb north of Johannesburg. The farm had been used as the ANC’s underground headquarters. Police arrested thirteen people and seized documents including plans for Operation Mayibuye, an outline plan for a nationwide guerrilla campaign. Nelson Mandela, already imprisoned since August 1962 for leaving the country without a passport, was added to the accused.
The trial that followed — formally known as “State v Nelson Mandela and others” — ran from October 1963 to June 1964. Ten men stood trial on charges of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the state by violence. Eight of them were convicted. Percy Yutar led the prosecution, calling for the death penalty; the defence was led by Bram Fischer.
On 12 June 1964, eight defendants — including Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi, Andrew Mlangeni and Denis Goldberg — were sentenced to life imprisonment. They were sent to Robben Island (Goldberg to Pretoria, as a white prisoner).
“I Am Prepared to Die”
On 20 April 1964, Mandela delivered a statement from the dock that lasted about three hours. He acknowledged the ANC’s involvement in sabotage but explained that it was a last resort chosen after peaceful methods had failed. He outlined the ANC’s vision of a democratic, non-racial South Africa. He concluded by stating that he was prepared to die for the ideal of a free and democratic society — words that became one of the most famous statements of the entire anti-apartheid struggle.
Mandela did not fabricate his defence: he acknowledged that MK had carried out sabotage. His argument was that the apartheid government’s violence against its own citizens had made peaceful protest impossible. This is historically significant because it shows the ANC’s leaders were transparent about their methods while insisting on the moral justice of their cause.
Robben Island became a symbol of apartheid repression. Prisoners were forced to do hard labour in a limestone quarry, kept in small cells, denied newspapers and restricted to one letter and one visit every six months. Mandela was held in a single cell in B Section and graded in the lowest class of prisoner, D. Yet the island also became an informal “university” — prisoners educated one another through discussion and secretly circulated texts.
The imprisonment of the ANC’s senior leadership effectively silenced the movement inside South Africa for over a decade. Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and others remained imprisoned throughout the 1960s and 1970s. This “long silence” forced the movement to rebuild around new leadership — most significantly the Black Consciousness Movement that emerged in the late 1960s.
Consequences of the Trial
The Rivonia Trial achieved both sides’ aims — partially. The apartheid government removed the ANC’s top leadership from active politics for at least a generation. But the prosecution unwittingly created martyrs: Mandela’s dock statement was smuggled out and circulated internationally, boosting the ANC’s reputation abroad. The United Nations passed resolutions calling for the release of the Rivonia prisoners.
The Rivonia Trial removed the ANC’s leadership from inside South Africa for decades but simultaneously turned the accused into global martyrs. Mandela’s “I am prepared to die” statement became an iconic text of the liberation struggle, read and discussed internationally.
Mandela remained on the United States’ terrorist watchlist until 2008 — long after the end of apartheid and his presidency of South Africa. This historical fact is a useful illustration of how “terrorism” as a label is politically applied: what one government calls terrorism, another calls legitimate armed resistance. The apartheid government’s designation of MK as a terrorist organisation was a political claim, not a neutral historical judgement.
The Underground ANC and the Continuation of Resistance
The conviction of the Rivonia defendants did not end all resistance inside South Africa. A small underground ANC network continued to operate, though it was severely weakened. Bram Fischer, after successfully defending the Rivonia accused, went underground himself. He was arrested in 1965, convicted under the Suppression of Communism Act, and died in prison in 1975.
The ANC on Robben Island also adapted: prisoners organised study circles, shared knowledge and debated political strategy. The island prison became, in the words of many who survived it, a “university.” Mandela studied Afrikaans, arguing that understanding the language and culture of the oppressor was necessary for the eventual negotiation he believed would come. This strategic patience — the long view — shaped how Mandela approached negotiations when they finally began in the 1980s.
International Solidarity and the ANC’s External Networks
From his Lusaka base, Oliver Tambo built alliances with the Soviet Union, Sweden, the Netherlands and other sympathetic governments, securing funding and logistical support for MK training camps. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) recognised the ANC, alongside the PAC, as a genuine liberation movement. This international recognition was crucial — it meant that when the ANC returned to negotiations in the late 1980s, it came as a recognised political actor with decades of international legitimacy, not merely as a banned underground organisation.