The legacy of a man is as much in the people he inspires as what he does.

120613-HectorPietersonMuseum-wiki-TOB.jpg
Hector Pieterson Memorial, Soweto

On June 16, 1976, I was in Soweto as the first mass uprising erupted against apartheid. It was ignited by black school children who poured out of classrooms and onto Soweto’s streets to protest a government edict changing the language of education—in all subjects and virtually overnight—to the white settlers’ Afrikaans.

Nelson Mandela had been in prison for 14 years by then. But these little kids in their jumpers and jerseys—many still in grade school—were brave beyond description as riot police chased them down with live ammunition. Mandela’s message was always to confront injustice, to stand for your rights. 

And by then these kids had a sense of their rights, with Mandela as their model for defiance. This unlikely flashpoint triggered the wider anti-apartheid uprising that eventually led to Mandela’s release in 1990 and the end of white rule.

The first child to die on that first day was Hector Pieterson. He was 12. He was shot by apartheid’s police. His sister Antoinette ran screaming at his side as another student carried Hector to Soweto’s only clinic. A photo of him ran on the front pages of newspapers around the world—and ended up on a wall at the U.N.

I later became friends with Antoinette. Her son is named Hector, her daughter is Nhlanhla Robin, my godchild.

I went back to South Africa to watch Mandela walk to freedom—the other bookend of the struggle—and was lucky enough to talk to him a few times in the 1990s. Few contemporary leaders have inspired as many people in as many places as the beloved “Madiba”— for what he did to end an odious ideology but even more for his courage in healing deep hatreds afterwards.

What an extraordinary life to celebrate. What a legacy!

Robin Wright is a journalist and a distinguished scholar at USIP. She covered the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa for seven years for The Washington Post and CBS News.


Related Research & Analysis

What’s Driving a Bigger BRICS and What Does it Mean for the U.S.?

What’s Driving a Bigger BRICS and What Does it Mean for the U.S.?

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) will gather in Kazan, Russia, next week for the group’s annual summit, along with an expanded roster of members. This is the first BRICS summit since Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined earlier this year. Russia, which holds the BRICS presidency this year, has also invited over two dozen other countries, which have expressed interest in joining the group, for the first “BRICS+” summit. For President Vladimir Putin, hosting this summit is an opportunity to show that Western efforts to isolate Moscow for its illegal war on Ukraine have not been successful and that Russia has friends around the globe.

Type: Analysis

India’s BRICS Balancing Act

India’s BRICS Balancing Act

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Leaders of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) will meet in Kazan, Russia from October 22-24 for the 16th BRICS Summit. BRICS will welcome its five new members (Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), with at least 24 other prospective members joining the summit. As BRICS expands and looks to become a more influential player in world affairs, India faces the increasingly complicated task of continuing to deepen ties with the United States and play a leading role in Russian- and Chinese-dominant global forums, like BRICS.

Type: Question and Answer

How Nelson Mandela’s Legacy Still Resonates for Youth Movements

How Nelson Mandela’s Legacy Still Resonates for Youth Movements

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

As December marks 10 years since the passing of Nelson Mandela, an icon of 20th-century struggles for justice and peace, a new generation of activists is building from his legacy to counter our 21st-entury crises of rising global violence. Among the signs of Mandela’s vital relevance for us now is a global, online conference to bolster nonviolent social action in pursuit of justice and peace that opens December 7, hosted by the Stanford University-based World House Project with partner groups from South Africa, India, Mexico and elsewhere.

Type: Analysis

Sameer Lalwani on the G20 Summit

Sameer Lalwani on the G20 Summit

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

At the G20 summit, the United States should focus on engaging with the Global South. “A lot of these countries are worried about bread-and-butter issues,” says USIP’s Sameer Lalwani. “In the absence of U.S. leadership at an institutional level … there’s going to be other actors that fill that vacuum.”

Type: Podcast

View All Research & Analysis