Rivonia Eight

The Rivonia Eight
Denis Goldberg (1933–2020, b. Cape Town, South Africa)
Govan Mbeki (1910–2001, b. Nqamakwe, South Africa)
Andrew Mlangeni (b. 1925, Soweto, South Africa)
Elias Motsoaledi (1924–1994, b. Phokoane, South Africa)
Raymond Mahlaba (1920–2005, b. Fort Beaufort, South Africa)
Walter Sisulu (1912–2003, b. Qutubeni, South Africa)
Ahmed Kathrada (1929–2017, b., Schweizer Reneke, South Africa)
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013, b. Mvezo, South Africa)

During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against White domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
—Nelson Mandela, Rivonia Trial, April 20, 1964

• Leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid resistance groups were arrested at a farm in Rivonia, a suburb of Johannesburg, on July 11, 1963. The ANC had been operating underground since April 1960, after the Sharpeville Massacre of 67 protestors by the police.
• Two defendants managed to escape from prison; the remaining eight faced charges accusing them of planning acts of guerilla warfare, accepting aid from foreign supporters, and promoting communism, among others.
• The United Nations Security Council condemned the trial and began the process of constructing a regime of international sanctions that restricted the South African government on the global stage.
• Mandela’s final speech from the dock, in which he bravely faced the possibility of a death sentence, marked the last time the South African people heard from the resistance leader until his release from prison on Feb. 11, 1990.