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Why We Live in Community: A Manifesto
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Editor’s Picks Issue 18
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The Sacred Bonds of Sound
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Making Music for Community
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A Man of Honor
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Wassily Kandinsky
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Giant Picnic
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Covering the Cover: The Art of Community
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The Art of Community
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Readers Respond: Issue 18
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Family and Friends: Issue 18
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I Did Not Leave
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Summer of the Tree House
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Warriors on Stage
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The Beauty of Belonging
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Insights on Beauty
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It Could Be Anyone
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All About Light
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Making a Work of Art
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The Business of the Artist
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The Creative Process
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Return to Appalachia
![painting of Nelson and Winnie Mandela by John Carlin](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlin268hero.jpg?la=en)
Excerpt: Mandela and the General
Will the freedom struggle end in a bloodbath? Only two men can avert it…
By John Carlin and Oriol Malet
January 4, 2024
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Nelson Mandela led one of history’s most powerful nonviolent movements to victory. But as the first post-apartheid elections approached in 1994, the democratic struggle threatened to spiral into an all-out race war, with well-armed white militias ready to fight to the death to stop black rule. Their leader was General Constand Viljoen, retired chief of South Africa’s military. Mandela knew he couldn’t avert a bloodbath on his own; somehow he would have to win over his archenemy. As they met secretly during those tense months, the mettle of these two men would determine the future of a nation.
As foreign correspondent for the Independent of London, John Carlin had a front-row seat as the drama unfolded, with access to leaders on both sides. This excerpt from Plough’s graphic novel Mandela and the General opens with Carlin interviewing General Viljoen at a Cape Town bar several years later.
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![General Viljoen says: I was a soldier, Mandela was a terrorist. My duty was to defend white civilization.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed1.jpg?la=en)
![Things were so different when I was a young, up-and-coming soldier. I'll never forget one sunny winter's day in 1964 when I got leave from the army to travel to the family farm. It brings back such vivid memories.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed2.jpg?la=en)
![Constand, look at this: your brother working at the barbeque.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed3.jpg?la=en)
![What? My twin brother, Braam, cooking? To what do we owe this rare honor? Come on, Constand, lighten up for once! You know perfectly well what we are celebrating.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed4.jpg?la=en)
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![Constand's army promotion is not the only reason for celebration. Nelson Mandela's trial is over.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed51a.jpg?la=en)
![He's got a life sentence.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed51b.jpg?la=en)
![But it's still a great day for the white nation. . . Let's raise a glass](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed51c.jpg?h=374&w=900&la=en)
![You must forgive me, but I will not drink to Mandela's imprisonment. No good will come of this./You sound like a communist, Braam./I am not a communist and nor, I believe, is Mandela.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed52a.jpg?la=en)
![And I fight for the freedom of the white people, our Afrikaner volk, to live in peace and prosperity.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed52b.jpg?la=en)
![The family sits to dinner. The shadow of a wolf is cast by the table.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed52c.jpg?la=en)
![May I pour you some wine, Master Constand? / I am Master Constand! Really, after all these years.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed53a.jpg?la=en)
![Our leader, our hope, has been jailed for life. There will be no end to apartheid now.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed53b.jpg?la=en)
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![Our system of racial separation had been the law since 1948. In order uphold what we called civilized standards and norms only we whites were allowed to vote.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed54a.jpg?la=en)
![Is there a problem officer? Show me your pass document.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed54b.jpg?h=407&w=900&la=en)
![Get on your way.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed54c.jpg?la=en)
![I ended my military career at the very top . . and in 1985, I retired from the army and returned to my farm.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed55.jpg?la=en)
![On February 11, 1990, Mandela put twenty-seven dark years of prison behind him and, at the age of seventy-one, strode out into the sunshine of a Cape Town summer's day.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed56.jpg?la=en)
![Pretoria, 1993. General, we have a plan.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed57a.jpg?la=en)
![There is a congress of the ANC leadership next month. We can plant a bomb.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed57b.jpg?la=en)
![Beep, beep, beep. Braam! How are you, brother? Constand, we must meet.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed57c.jpg?la=en)
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![I have a message from Mandela.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed58a.jpg?la=en)
![You have what? You've seen him? / I have seen him, He wants to meet.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed58b.jpg?la=en)
![With me? With you in secret. The prize would be peace. And the price of peace, Braam? Surrender, Betrayal of my people? / See him, Constand. What do you have to lose?](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed58c.jpg?la=en)
![Mandela's home, Johannesburg, October 1993.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed59a.jpg?la=en)
![Ah, hello, General. How very good to see you! I heard so much about you.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed59b.jpg?la=en)
![Thank you very much for accepting my invitation. It . . it's a pleasure for me, too.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed59c.jpg?la=en)
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![Did you travel far? I believe you have a farm in the eastern transvaal, a beautiful part of the world.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed60a.jpg?la=en)
![General, would you mind if before our delegations meet you and I had a brief conversation in private?](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed60b.jpg?la=en)
![have a seat, please.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed60c.jpg?la=en)
![Do you take tea, General? Yes, please Mr. Mandela.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed61a.jpg?la=en)
![Some sugar? One spoon, please.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed61b.jpg?la=en)
![painting of worried man.](/-/media/images/plough/quarterly/2018/18autumnart/18carlin/18carlinembed61c.jpg?la=en)
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Marianne Galati
Can't wait to read this book!