The State vs. Nelson Mandela
The Trial that Changed South Africa
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The only account of this seminal trial, written by Mandela's defence attorney
The only account of this seminal trial, written by Mandela’s defence lawyer and with a new foreword by Denis Goldberg, accused alongside Mandela and sentenced to life imprisonment.
On 11 July 1963, police raided Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia near Johannesburg, arresting alleged members of the high command of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Together with the already imprisoned Nelson Mandela, they were put on trial and charged with conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government by violent revolution. Their expected punishment was death. In this compelling book, their defence attorney, Joel Joffe, gives a blow-by-blow account of the most important trial in South Africa’s history, vividly portraying the characters of those involved, and exposing the astonishing bigotry and rampant discrimination faced by the accused, as well as showing their incredible courage under fire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1963, Nelson Mandela, along with nine other leaders and friends of the African National Congress, were tried on multiple charges that included sabotage and conspiracy. When his boss was swept up in the charges, attorney Joffe put his plans to escape South Africa on hold to manage the defense. In his play-by-play, Joffe recounts tremendous obstacles, among them a parade of witnesses slapped with 90-day prison stints in order to drive them to the prosecution's side, and a judge who harbored no doubts about the legitimacy of white supremacy. Another difficulty: most of his clients were indeed guilty as charged and weren't going to deny it. Joffe, who wrote this book in 1964, draws heavily on the original transcripts and his own experience. Unfortunately, he has little to say about Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Arthur Goldreich as people, and assumes readers already know the trial's implications for South Africa; he doesn't offer any big-picture conclusions beyond the verdict and sentencing (one acquitted, all others spared the death penalty). Anyone hoping for an inside look at the personalities of the ANC leadership will come away disappointed, but Joffe devotes considerable care to his account of the trial and those who conducted it, crafting a dramatic indictment of apartheid justice.
