<p>As it appears that the Lion of Africa is leaving this life, there will no doubt be retrospectives regarding the struggle against apartheid. So I want to open this debate. </p> <p>What did Nelson Mandela actually do?</p> <p>So he spent 27 years in prison for activities that most reasonable people wouldn&#8217;t consider criminal, but. Did he go on a hunger strike or a dirty protest as the IRA prisoners did? He might have been a figurehead, but it was the young South Africans boycotting the schools and demonstrating in the streets that did far more to galvanise world opinion against apartheid. Even then, it wasn&#8217;t the actions of the ANC that lead to the changes in society, but a shift in the geopolitcal situation. </p> <p>With the collapse of the communist block there was no longer any risk of a &#8216;communist&#8217; ANC taking over South Africa, with the risk that South Africa would be used as a base for spreading isurrection throughout the continent, or that Russia would be able to use South African ports to interdict shipping passing around the Horn of Africa.</p> <p>Wasn&#8217;t it in the end the western corporations seeking to stabilise their access to South Africa&#8217;s coal and minerals, who quietly spoke the word that some accomadation needed to be made?</p> <p>So where was Mr Mandela?</p>