It is one of the supreme ironies that on 11 February 1990, the day that Nelson Mandela was released after 27-and-a-half years in prison, the event that much of South Africa and the rest of the world had been waiting decades for, the country was not ready for him.
The iconic image of that moment – a lean, beaming Mandela in a dark suit emerging from Victor Verster prison holding hands with Winnie, both raising triumphant clenched fist salutes – belied the chaos around them.
The first person to shake Mandela's hand as he exited the prison gates was John Battersby, a journalist with the Christian Science Monitor, who had arrived on the scene five minutes before only to walk straight into Mandela, who greeted him with his trademark bonhomie (much to the chagrin of the rest of the journalist pack, who had been waiting outside the gates for 11 hours).
The release, at 5 pm, was an hour late. Mandela had not been seen in public in almost three decades, and that was in 1962, 14 years beforeSouth Africa got television. He had been absent all that time. Yet in his absence he had grown ever more present.
The convoy stopped a few times so that Mandela could get out and speak to ordinary South Africans along the route. People stared dazed and disbelieving as the convoy made its slow, 40-mile journey to downtown Cape Town.
In the city centre, the expectant crowd of more than 60,000 crushed into the Grand Parade in front of the City Hall, and in the extreme heat, grew restless. Late afternoon gave way to evening and hundreds of people fainted and had to be treated by the first-aid ambulances. Skirmishes broke out and a number of people were shot by police.
All eyes were on the balcony where Mandela was to make his appearance. Familiar faces showed themselves to polite cheering, but people had not come to see Allan Boesak or Jesse Jackson. When Mandela and entourage finally arrived, some time before midnight, he appeared stiff and serious. He read from a prepared speech, carefully spelling out each word.
Many South Africans were not pleased on that balmy evening with what he had to say. Mandela reaffirmed his dedication to the cause of the struggle and the African National Congress, and called for disciplined mass action. This disappointed many whites and those in the business community who, somewhat stupidly, had not expected him to sound so militant.
But he also declared that President FW de Klerk was a "man of integrity", legitimating the Afrikaner leader in the eyes of the black majority, and thereby validating negotiations with the regime as the route to liberation.
This perplexed many of his young followers who were gearing up for the final assault on the apartheid state.
His voice becoming extraordinarily powerful, Mandela closed by repeating his pledge from the Rivonia dock, before he was taken off to life imprisonment on Robben Island, that he was prepared to die in the struggle against white and black domination.
Remembering the euphoria of that night, where Mandela stood tall, reunited with his wife and family, and ready to start building the new South Africa, we could not have known that it would take four more years and many thousands of deaths to reach the promised land.
在1990年2月11日，被囚禁27年半的的曼德拉终于获释，这真是个极大的讽刺。因为大部分南非人和世界上其他人民都等这一刻数十年了，这个国家还没有准备好迎接他的变革。
瘦弱却神采奕奕的曼德拉穿着深色套装，和妻子温妮手拉手从维克多·韦斯特监狱走出来成为了这一刻的标志性形象，他们举起握拳的双手，与周围混乱的场面有些不符。
在他走出监狱后第一个和他握手的是《基督教科学箴言报》的记者约翰·巴特斯比，他提前五分钟来这里，径直走向曼德拉，后者向他投以标志性的温和笑容（这让其他记者很懊恼，他们已经在门口等了11个小时。）
曼德拉是在那天下午5点被释放的，比预计时间晚了一个小时。此前，曼德拉在公众面前几乎消失了30年。他入狱的时候是1962年，14年之后，电视才开始在南非普及。所以在媒体报道上，他从未露面。但在他的离开却让他今天的复出更加抢镜。
在去开普敦的40英里的路上，护送队曾多次停下以便曼德拉能够和道路上的南非平民交谈。在看见这位伟人后，人们几乎不敢相信自己的眼睛，护送队就这样缓慢地向前走去。
在市中心，超过6万人的人群涌入市政厅前的阅兵场，人群满怀期待，激动难耐，（在得知曼德拉即将到来时），他们激动的心情变得愈加焦躁不安。从下午晚些时候直到晚上，上百人激动得晕厥过去，不得不被急救车接走。同时，小规模的冲突时有爆发，一些涉案人员被警方逮捕。
当曼德拉出现在阳台上时，立即成为了万众瞩目的焦点。在这个阳台上曾经出现过其他熟悉的面孔，也受到了礼貌的欢呼，但这次人们来见的可不是艾伦·博 萨克或杰西·杰克逊。午夜前，曼德拉和随行人员终于到达了。他表现得冷峻严肃，在朗读事先准备好的讲稿时，他每个字都说得清晰谨慎。
很多南非人都不满他在如此温馨的夜晚做出如此严肃的演讲。曼德拉重申了他对斗争事业和南非非洲国民大会的忠诚，并呼吁有组织性纪律性的大规模游行。这使许多南非白人和商界人士失望之极，他们曾愚蠢地期待，曼德拉不会表现得这么好战。
曼德拉还宣布，德克勒克总统是一个正直的人，在许多黑人的眼里，他也是一位合法的南非白人领袖，因此，依靠谈判改变政体，甚至达到自由解放都是可行的。
这番讲话让许多追随他的年轻人们困惑不解，他们原本积极地准备着对南非白人制定的种族隔离政策发动最后的猛攻。
曼德拉的声音变得格外的有力，他反复以在尼沃利亚作出的保证来结尾，在他被带到罗本岛被判处无期徒刑之前，他曾做好赴死的准备和白人政权以及白人对黑人的支配抗争到底。
请记住那一晚曼德拉带给我们的欣慰，当这位伟人昂首挺胸，和他的妻儿团聚之时，他也着手开始构建新的南非。我们当时并不知道，要达到这个希望之乡还要花费四年的时间，并需要千万的进步人士为之献身。