Amandla! roared the front page of Sowetan published a day after Nelson Mandela's release from prison 31 years ago today.
This was a rallying call that every black South African could identify with to represent resilience, resistance and struggle against oppression. On the day, however, the slogan lived up to its true meaning of power to the people!
On February 11 1990, a tall, trim and grey-haired Mandela stepped out of the Victor Verster Prison in Paarl in the Western Cape to elated SA and the world. That's where Mandela was confined in for part of the 27 years he spent in prison.
His wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was holding his hand for the first time since they were separated in 1962.
Sowetan was leading the charge in covering the historic moment living up to its billing as a liberation newspaper. Not many people had seen Mandela's face as many had no television sets where they could watch him walkout of prison.
But it was on the front page of Sowetan that millions of black people across the country could finally meet their black president. Asimbonanga, sang Johnny Clegg, but millions finally did that on this day.
The iconic Sowetan edition that came after the jubilation was already understood by the editors then that it would be one of the most important editions of our time. Nothing else mattered, not features, or top columns that Sowetan was known for and not even football.
“In recognition of the historic events that gripped the country's imagination yesterday, Sowetan has postponed the publication of your favourite columns and features. The sports pages also had to be given less prominence for this, you souvenir copy of Sowetan,” the iconic front page blurb read.
Of course advertisements of cigarette were given prominent space with Benson and Hedges taking prime spot next to Mandela's pictures. The ban on cigarette advertising came 10 years later.
In the lead story, reporters Sello Rabothatha and Themba Molefe penned a story of how Mandela wanted the armed Struggle to continue.
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Mandela had also affirmed his membership of the ANC just days after President FW de Klerk had unbanned all liberation movements and taken the ANC off SA's terrorist list.
The piece was accompanied with the iconic image of Madiba proudly brandishing his clenched fist of defiance against the apartheid regime.
A Charlie Parkers advert, which featured strongly in the edition with Herman Mashaba's hair brand 'Black Like Me', was a reflection of the time. Who knew that a few decades later Mashaba would become a prominent politician?
Mandela: Free at last, screamed the tag on some of the pages, providing wall to wall coverage of the day. One can only imagine how long it took the newsroom to come up with the perfect mix of stories to reflect the historic moment before print deadline.
Photographs of elated black South Africans filled the edition, proving that indeed Sowetan has been the real paper for the people for decades. Putting the people's stories front and centre is what this publication has been better known for in its 40 years of existence.
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