Oliver Tambo Quotes

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Oliver Tambo

Profession : Politician

Birth : October 27, 1917

I didn't really want to be a teacher, but there was nothing else I could be. Most of those who went to the university became teachers. It was just the racial restriction on Africans.

Oliver Tambo

We had to forge an alliance of strength based not on colour but on commitment to the total abolition of apartheid and oppression; we would seek allies, of whatever colour, as long as they were totally agreed on our liberation aims.

Oliver Tambo

We all belong to South Africa, and South Africa belongs to us all.

Oliver Tambo

The land on which the cattle grazed was communal property. It was owned by no one. It was nobody's private farm. It was the common property of the people, shared by the people. So the practice of sharing was central to the concept of ownership of property.

Oliver Tambo

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.

Oliver Tambo

The true facts are not always obvious. They often have to be looked for.

Oliver Tambo

The sanctions will not kill us. It's apartheid that's killing us.

Oliver Tambo

To go back means defeat.

Oliver Tambo

I would not hesitate to vote for a white person as president if I thought he was the best person for the job.

Oliver Tambo

We have got to move away from the concept of race and color because that is what apartheid is. We cannot end apartheid if we retain these concepts.

Oliver Tambo

It was always my desire to strike new ground and help to lend weight where it was most required.

Oliver Tambo

We seek to create a united Democratic and non-racial society.

Oliver Tambo

Apartheid is inherently a practice of violence.

Oliver Tambo

Responsibility for the proper conduct of children was not confined to their parents only. When they misbehaved, they misbehaved against the community. And a senior member of the community was expected to do something about it.

Oliver Tambo

Whoever says that sanctions will only deteriorate the situations of blacks in South Africa does not know the criminal, murderous character of genocide that represents the system of apartheid.

Oliver Tambo

I am convinced that the world-wide protests during the Rivonia trial saved Mandela and his fellow-accused from a death sentence. But in South Africa, a life sentence means imprisonment until death - or until the defeat of the government which holds these men prisoner.

Oliver Tambo

There is no way a spirit of resistance that has sunk so deep in the population can be repressed.

Oliver Tambo

Our target is not negotiations, it is the end of the apartheid system. There can be no compromise about that.

Oliver Tambo

It may be that apartheid brings such stupendous economic advantages to countries that they would sooner have apartheid than permit its destruction.

Oliver Tambo

Those who want to perpetuate apartheid also seek to divert your attention to the false issue of communism, to send the entire American public on a witch hunt.

Oliver Tambo