Young was a mid-level corporate communications guy who instigated and mediated the talks that peacefully ended South African apartheid. His is an improbable and amazing story about the power of connecting authentically, and how that desire can literally change the world.

A Radical Idea of Astonishing Imagination

In 1985 South Africa was in a state of emergency, a tinderbox of tension ready to explode. Most white establishment Afrikaners knew that they needed to give up minority rule and share political power with the black South African majority, but feared the seemingly inevitable violence and the economic backlash. Black South Africans were convinced that Afrikaners would never willingly cede political and economic control, and their rage, frustration and hopelessness were at a boil.

Young was the public affairs director for Consolidated Goldfields, a British mining company with extensive interests in South Africa. Like many others, he knew that South Africa was on the verge of imploding, and that when it did Goldfields would lose most of its assets.

Young arrived at a radical idea:  to persuade influencers from both sides — none of whom held any official power — to meet secretly at Mells Park, Goldfields’s lavish estate in the English countryside, and attempt a negotiated settlement. He believed that away from the limelight, “they could begin to understand one another as human beings.”

Mission Impossible

Young convinced his boss to provide corporate funds for his impossible mission. And, like Mr. Phelps, his boss swore to disavow all knowledge if the operation blew up in their faces. Young’s strategy was to create an atmosphere where people could simply connect. He used subtle tactics such as housing opposing players in adjacent rooms to maximize the possibility of chance meetings, and providing plenty of Glenfiddich to oil evening conversations.

That was when the breakthroughs happened:  as they drank, told jokes and stopped being frightened of each other, lifelong enemies developed mutual trust and enduring personal friendships. Over the course of 12 such meetings Young observed that “the players began to see each other as people . . . and came to understand that reaching a settlement would not involve one-sided capitulation.”

The process was slow but substantial. In 1990 President Willem de Klerk began official negotiations to end apartheid, culminating in the country’s first multi-racial democratic elections in 1994 when Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) assumed power.

A Global Peace Virus

The astounding success of Young's efforts launched a "peace virus" that continues to spread around the globe. When the IRA got serious about peace in Northern Ireland, they secretly consulted the ANC about how to begin and manage the process. The ANC is also advising Hamas on the peace process in the Middle East, and Michael Young was later involved in Portugal’s transition from a dictatorship to a democracy.

It's an amazing story, demonstrating the power of what genuine connections can achieve. In other words, it's all about keeping it real.

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Michael Young’s story was depicted in the 2009 BBC film Endgame, starring William Hurt, Chiwetel Ejiof, and Derek Jacobi, with Jonny Lee Miller as Michael Young. Endgame is available on Netflix for rental or you can purchase it on Amazon.

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