Key figures in the British anti-apartheid movement have spoken of their sadness at the death of Nelson Mandela, whom they described as a reluctant poster boy of a campaign that ended up focusing the world's attention on the horrors of apartheid South Africa.
As their grieving began in earnest, they told how their campaign, derided and pushed to the periphery of British politics in the 1970s and early 1980s, was rebuilt in the U.K. around Mandela, almost against his will.
Mandela wanted to highlight the suffering of all the apartheid regime's political prisoners, but a conscious decision in 1978 to personalize the campaign was made by Mac Maharaj, a friend of his and formerly a fellow prisoner on Robben Island. And it was from Britain, home to a number of South African exiles, including the then-president of the African National Congress Oliver Tambo, who lived in Muswell Hill, north London, that the personal story of Mandela was to be propagated around the world. In Mandela's own words, it made Britain "the second headquarters of our movement in exile," as uncomfortable about the focus as he was.
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