Nelson Mandela & F. W. de Klerk

Nelson Mandela 
President of the African National Congress 
July 4, 1993 
Independence Hall 
Philadelphia, PA

Master of Ceremonies, Honorable Bill Clinton..

It will have seemed strange to some that two South Africans, with respective histories as different as those of this year’s honorees, should share the honor of receiving the eminent Liberty Medal.

Equally, it will have seemed strange to some that we as fighters for liberation, are – together with those who have been captains of the apartheid – involved in processes leading to the democratic transformation of South Africa.

Some who know have also made the point that it was strange, 200 years ago, that those who designed the world’s first democratic constitution in this very city should have permitted slavery to continue.

Strange though all these things might be, and evocative of different responses, they nevertheless speak to one issue: They speak to the durability of the glorious vision that gave birth to the independence of this country and to the United States Constitution.

They affirm the correctness and invincibility of the truths and the ideals of liberty, equality and pursuit of human happiness contained in that historic document as well as the Declaration of Independence.

It is therefore, with a deep sense of humility that we stand here today to receive a medal which bestows on us – as individuals, as a movement and as a people – the stature of the founding fathers who crafted your Constitution.

The great African American, Frederick Douglass, spoke in Rochester, NY, on July 5, 1852, on the topic “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.” Here is some of what he said:

“Fellow citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic… They were great men, too – great enough to give the frame to a great age… In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests…Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment and stretched away in strength into the distant future. They seized upon eternal principles and set a glorious example in their defense.”

It would be a rare honor to those who will draw up our own constitution that they should thus be described by the democratic commentators and freedom activists of our own age and of the future.

It is a moving thing for us – that we, who represent forces that have still to proclaim that freedom’s day has come, are today being handed the baton in the race to liberty, at whose starting point in Philadelphia stood the great men of whom the freed slave Frederick Douglass spoke with such warmth and charity of spirit.

But we would not be true to Frederick Douglass if we did not recall other things that this great intellect and fighter for freedom said in the same address 141 years ago. Frederick Douglass asked the poignant question:

“Are the great principles of political freedom and natural justice, embodied in the Declaration of Independence, extended to us?

Struck by an almost palpable grief, he went on to say:

“The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me…This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice; I must mourn.”

“Fellow Citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions…My subject, then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave’s point of view.”

This is perhaps the greatest challenge we face as we struggle for the new birth of freedom; that none within our country should in [the] future proclaim that justice, liberty and prosperity are not shared by them, as Frederick Douglass, the black enslaved and the women of this country.

In the struggle for real change and a just peace, we will have to overcome the terrible heritage of the insult to human dignity, the inequalities, the conflicts and antagonisms that are the true expression of the apartheid system.

To overcome them, we will have to succeed to build one nation in which all South Africans will be to one another sister and brother, sharing a common destiny and shorn of the terrible curse of having to define themselves in racial and ethnic terms.

We must therefore negotiate and agree on a constitution and a Bill of Rights that are both truly democratic and fully guarantee the fundamental human rights of all our citizens.

We must engage in the challenging process of the fundamental reconstruction of our country in all spheres of human endeavor, so that the liberation of both the oppressed and the oppressor from the tyranny of racism becomes tangible, the equality of all, actual, and the recognition of the dignity of every human being, real.

So that the emancipation of our people, for which you also struggled, becomes a manifest and genuine continuation of what you sought to achieve when you declared your independence, adopted your constitution, your Bill of Rights and your civil right instruments of what you tried to realize when you went to war for the unity of your country, the emancipation of the slaves and, later, the destruction of fascism.

So that our emancipation becomes a manifest and genuine continuation of the struggles you have waged when you have striven to attain what you thought and think is just, as you grappled with the reality of what is for untold millions, both inside and outside this country, but a dream deferred – the multitudes that are hungry, homeless and jobless; deprived of access to good health and knowledge; caught in the web of violence, drug abuse and hopeless despair; and stand at the city gates with no other possibility to make their voices heard than to put to the torch the rich inheritance which Frederick Douglass denounced – not because it was unworthy in itself, but because it had betrayed itself by excluding others who were as human as those who were the beneficiaries of the vision of freedom and prosperity to which the city is heir.

You, the peoples of the United States of America and of the world, stood with us as we fought for our political emancipation. We urge you to stay the course until freedom is won.

We call on you to invest in the new South Africa, to share with us your expertise and technology so that we come together in a joint venture that will produce the mutually beneficial result of democracy, prosperity, peace and stability for both our countries; friendship and cooperation between our peoples and enable us both to own the liberation of South Africa as a common prize.

Let The Liberty Medal, which we are humbled to receive from the President of the United States, serve as the lodestar which guides us, as South Africans, as we march to freedom. 
Let it be our pledge to you that we shall seize on the eternal principles of justice, liberty and peace and set an example in their defense.

Let it be the seal of an unbreakable treaty of friendship between our people which it will be durable.

Because it responded to a clarion call which Frederick Douglass made.

Because it respected the memory of those who have perished through the ages, in the quest for liberty.

Because it pays homage to those whose sacrifices have enabled us as South Africans to say that freedom is in sight!

We thank you for the honor you have bestowed on your people, both black and white, and will convey to them your noble sentiments of respect, love and solidarity.

F. W. de Klerk 
President of South Africa 
July 4, 1993 
Independence Hall 
Philadelphia, PA

President Clinton, honorable senators and congressmen, Mr. Mayor, other dignitaries.

It is appropriate that two South African leaders should be here in Philadelphia on Independence Day. And it is symbolic that we who are so greatly honored today represent two political forces which have decided to break out of the cycle of conflict and to join hands in the quest for peace and democracy.

Philadelphia was the birthplace of the great democracy of the United States of America. Today, is the birthday of your nation. South Africa congratulates the American nation. At this very moment, we in South Africa are giving birth to a new democracy and a new nation.

Far from here in distance but not in spirit, the representatives of 26 South African parties are locked in negotiations on the future of that new nation. They are wrestling with the same issues that your Founding Fathers negotiated and debated. For almost 11 years, high among these is the question of federalism and the appropriate balance between states and the central government.

Another is the care that should be taken to devise checks and balances which will prevent the misuse of power. Yet another is the role which a bill of rights should play in protecting individuals and minorities, with a constitutional court acting as the watchdog of liberties. These are questions with which the framers of your Constitution wrestled. We intend to succeed, as your forefathers did, in bringing forth a constitution and a bill of rights which can ensure liberty, justice and security for all our people.

It is significant that during the past week, our negotiators have reached substantial agreement on many of these key issues. On this basis, we as a nation are now poised to move forward and to take the next step in the process of the birth of our new nation. The preparations for our first national election in which all South Africans will participate – these preparations will include the establishment of a transitional executive council, an independent election commission, and an independent media commission. Their purpose will be to ensure that the coming elections will indeed be free and fair.

It is also fitting, Mr. President, that this ceremony should be taking place in the City of Philadelphia. This city was founded in the quest for liberty, so that William Penn and his followers could enjoy their right to one of their most precious liberties: freedom of worship. 
We in South Africa wish to expand and protect the freedom of our people in all spheres. We wish to secure them free institutions as their birthright – now and deep into the future. 
It is appropriate for us to be here today because the Liberty Bell which rang in Philadelphia over 200 years ago, has been heard all over the world. The United States was and is an inspiration to democrats wherever they are.

We in South Africa hope that the process which we have begun in our country will, in the same way, ring out across Africa and provide hope and inspiration to the rest of Africa – a continent which is at present struggling to provide greater prosperity and freedom to its people.

Finally it is appropriate and fitting that this ceremony should be taking place in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. This city was founded on the spirit of peace and reconciliation. Ladies and gentlemen, we in South Africa hunger for the spirit, we thirst for reconciliation. After so many decades – indeed, centuries – of confrontation, we are binding up the wounds. 
A new nation is being born. We are laying the firm foundation of mutual respect. The great cultural and ethnic variety that characterizes our nation is becoming a source of pride and strength, instead of a reason for division and enmity. We are making peace.

We need – in the words of my co-recipient, Dr. Mandela – to throw out our weapons into the sea. We need to take a strong stand against the unreasoned passion, the intransigence and the unyielding prejudice represented by radical elements on the left and right. 
We need to reconcile our differences through reason, debate and compromise. All this, the multiparty negotiating forum is achieving slowly but surely.

President Clinton, ladies and gentlemen, it is in this spirit that I accept The Liberty Medal. I want to publicly congratulate the co-recipient, Dr. Mandela. He is worthy of this medal. The two of us have found it possible to work together. And through working together, also with other leaders, we are going to succeed in brining peace, justice and democracy to our country.

In accepting this, I do not do so on my own behalf (but) together with my compatriot and on behalf of all South Africans, who have dedicated themselves to the search for a peaceful and negotiated solution to the problems of our country. I also do so on behalf of eminent leaders of the past and present not with us today…who also sought peaceful paths to freedom, liberty and justice. And as head of state, in all humility, I do so on behalf of all South Africans – supporters and opponents alike – who hunger for the peace, reconciliation and freedom which are symbolized in this ceremony.

I thank you. I thank you all for having made this possible. It is, accordingly, a great honor for me to accept The Liberty Medal.