The preparations of the ANC for its 60th anniversary must commence today and should find expression in the challenge by our people of every manifestation of white dominance, in a determined assertion of their human dignity and their rights to every square inch of land in South Africa, and in an intensified struggle against exploitation.

Oliver Tambo - (1972 on behalf of the ANC)

“Our people had been finally robbed of their land and all political rights.”

Oliver Tambo - (1982 on behalf of the ANC)

As parents, mothers and workers, they [women] stood firmly beside their menfolk and children against forced removals, starvation wages, increased rents and taxes, inferior education and health services, demanding full citizenship rights for all our people in a unitary, non-racial society.

Oliver Tambo - (1982 on behalf of the ANC)

“To our demand that all our people must enjoy equal and inalienable human rights…”

Oliver Tambo - (1987 on behalf of the ANC)

The revolution will guarantee the individual and equal rights of all South Africans without regard to any of these categories and include such freedoms as those of speech, assembly, association, language, religion, the press, the inviolability of family life and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention without trial.

Oliver Tambo - (1987 on behalf of the ANC)

These are rights which our people will have to struggle for today and even after a democratic government is in office. Their attainment can only uplift the quality of life for the country as a whole.

Oliver Tambo - (1989 On behalf of the ANC)

Our fight is for justice. We cannot cease until we have won, as we will in time.

Oliver Tambo - (1968)

Persistent contravention of human rights is a recipe for violent conflict and war.

Oliver Tambo - (1968)

And in achieving human rights for all men in southern Africa we will be making our contribution to the fight for human rights and freedom the world over.

Oliver Tambo - (1968)

Many countries and governments in Africa and in other parts of the world, both East and West, have stood with the oppressed people of South Africa in their struggle for human rights.

Oliver Tambo - (1968)

Remember, your father did not introduce me to the struggle, I was already in it when I met him.

Adelaide Tambo - (to her children)

Where almost every country in the world seems to be moving in the direction of enlarging the areas of human freedom towards the standard and ideal contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, South Africa has been moving in the opposite direction.

Oliver Tambo - (1968)

We seek to create a united Democratic and non-racial society. We have a vision of South Africa in which black and white shall live and work together as equals in conditions of peace and prosperity. Using the power you derive from the discovery of the truth about racism in South Africa, you will help us to remake our part of the world into a corner of the globe on which all - of which all of humanity can be proud.

Oliver Tambo - Georgetown University, January 27, 1987