In Soweto, Dancing in the Streets With Songs of Joy

Taverns were offering free beer “in honor of Comrade Mandela” in Soweto. “Free Mandela” T-shirts were marked down to fire-sale prices in Cape Town. Car horns blared in the night air, and hundreds of blacks and whites danced in the streets of South Africa on Saturday to celebrate the imminent release of black nationalist Nelson R. Mandela.

“Tears came into my eyes and I got goose pimples when I heard,” said Nicky Blumenfeld, a 27-year-old white art teacher in Johannesburg. “Six months ago, I didn’t think it could happen.”

In the Orlando West section of Soweto, the modest brick home that Mandela’s family has rented for 40 years was surrounded by women and children singing Zulu songs.

“Buya, buya, buya, Mandela--Come, come, come, Mandela,” they sang as young African National Congress supporters watched from the doorways. A black, green and gold flag--the colors of the ANC--fluttered from the rooftop.

A smiling Anglican Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, wearing a lavender tunic, came out of his home a few blocks away to describe the news as “mind-boggling.”

“It’s a happy day,” the clergyman said, and he began to dance. He added that he had never given the “Viva” cry of the black liberation struggle but thought that now was the time. Then he shouted “Viva!”

In Hillbrow, a whites-only Johannesburg suburb where tens of thousands of blacks live in defiance of the law, hundreds ran through the streets, some holding aloft posters for Sunday morning newspapers that read: “He’s Free.” Although the news was only a few hours old, many of the youngsters already wore T-shirts saying, “Welcome Home, Mandela.”

President Frederik W. de Klerk’s news conference, announcing that Mandela would be freed today, was broadcast live in the United States and aired in South Africa on the evening newscast. It touched off whoops and squeals in living rooms and pubs throughout the country.

At a tavern operated out of a home in suburban Johannesburg, Suzy Maake smiled as she dispensed drinks to the celebrating throngs in her establishment.

“I’m so happy,” said Maake, who is black. She remembered how she once met Mandela when she lived in Sophiatown, a black township that was razed by the government in the 1950s to make way for white housing. “Mandela was our lawyer. He was a very good man. When our brothers and sisters were in trouble, he helped us.”

“He was good to us--he stayed in jail for us,” added Joseph Ndlovu, a 52-year-old black truck driver.

Leigh Page, a 27-year-old white film technician in Johannesburg, said that Mandela’s release made her “hopeful, very hopeful” for the country. “Most of the whites in South Africa are prepared to work towards bridging” the gap between white and black, she added.

Soon after hearing the news, Steven Bazzea, a 26-year-old white former member of the national karate team, pronounced it “marvelous! I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. But I think I’m still in a state of shock.”

“Viva, ANC, viva!” cried Simon Tshabalala, a 45-year-old laborer from the black township of Alexandra wearing a T-shirt with “Release Nelson Mandela” on the front.

“Mandela used to be good and he’s still going to be good,” Tshabalala said. “I’m feeling so great that he’s coming back.”