Successful Models of Nonviolent Struggle: From Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela to Afghanistan’s Path Forward

• Introduction
At various points in history, there have been groups within human societies that considered themselves superior to other ethnicities or races and ruled over diverse social groups. Such superiority complexes and the belief in their own entitlement led them to oppress other ethnic groups—those who differed in behavior, thought, culture, or political and governance approaches. They deprived others of their rights and political, economic, and civil benefits. Countless examples exist where ethnic supremacy resulted in massacres or even the genocide of specific ethnic groups or tribes.
For any struggle to succeed, it should begin nonviolently and through political means. Only when it becomes evident that such an approach has reached a dead end should a military structure be formed. However, even then, this military structure must serve the previously established political foundation.
The political struggles of Black people in the United States under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr., and in South Africa under the leadership of Nelson Mandela share both similarities and differences in terms of their methods and the achievement of their goals. This article explores the common aspects of both movements and compares them with the current situation in Afghanistan, examining why the military approach has failed and why a political solution may still be possible.

• Comparison of the Political Struggles of King and Mandela
Two Leaders, One Goal: Equality and Freedom through Peaceful Means
Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929 into a religious family. In 1955, at the age of 26, he began leading nonviolent political struggles against the U.S. government. At that time, Black Americans were deprived of most of their rights.
There are many similarities between the political struggles led by Nelson Mandela in South Africa and those led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States. One of the most important is that neither of them initially sought leadership; they both began as ordinary individuals participating in political movements. Gradually, because of their wisdom and ability to organize and unify people, they naturally moved into leadership roles.
Both leaders were educated and held advanced degrees. Martin Luther King earned a Phd, while Nelson Mandela, sentenced to life imprisonment, studied law while in prison. This education and knowledge enabled them to write and publish numerous articles and books about their political struggles. These writings not only helped raise widespread public awareness but also increased their popularity among intellectuals and influential individuals in other societies. Their written ideas and viewpoints even helped bring Black and white protesters together in joint demonstrations.
Both leaders were inspired by the peaceful or nonviolent resistance strategies of Mahatma Gandhi. Nelson Mandela once shared a profound quote that Governments are stronger than protesters; if violence is used against a government, it will respond with multiplied force, and that will turn into a tragedy for the people.
Both King and Mandela believed that political struggles for the rights of Black people had to remain nonviolent. They argued that such struggles would only result in the arrest and detainment of protesters, but the state could not imprison everyone. Eventually, the government would be forced to change its policies. Whenever protests veered toward violence, both leaders—following Gandhi’s example—would call for a halt, reorganizing the movement to restore order and discipline.
In the United States, Black people were subjected to extreme segregation. They had separate sections on buses and designated doors for entry and exit. They were not allowed to enter restaurants owned by white people, attended separate schools, and were often denied the right to vote. In South Africa, similar conditions existed, though they began almost half a century before Martin Luther King Jr.’s era.
In political struggles, going to prison should not be seen as taboo. Rather, it should be interpreted as a form of freedom. When a group of Black students in the U.S. was arrested and given a choice by the court to either pay a $50 fine or serve one month in prison, they all chose imprisonment.

• The Struggles of Afghanistan Against the Taliban
Nonviolent Resistance: Lessons from Black Movements for Today's Afghanistan
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, scattered armed resistance against the group has emerged and continues to this day. However, the Taliban have responded to all such military efforts with extreme force. Many people have been killed, and over time, the resistance has lost much of its momentum, unlike in the early days and months of the occupation, news of clashes has become increasingly rare.
One of the primary reasons for the failure of armed resistance against the Taliban has been the prioritization of military options over political ones. Not everyone in the country has access to weapons or is willing to face the dangers of the battlefield. As a result, over the past three years, the movement has failed to become inclusive or nationwide.
The most fundamental requirement for a successful political struggle is its nationwide nature. People across the entire geography of the country must engage in coordinated political resistance. Only such a unified approach can overwhelm the state’s ability to suppress it. However, political resistance demands broad public consent. For a successful movement, people from all ethnicities and cities must unite around a shared goal—something that is currently lacking in Afghanistan.
Therefore, a few key stages can be outlined for initiating a meaningful struggle:

 ▶︎Step One: Establishing a Political Base
The current situation in Afghanistan urgently requires the creation of a political base. This base can be given different names, but its core function remains the same: to gather individuals with various specialties and capabilities around a unified structure. In the event of future success, these individuals would serve as the foundation for forming a new government. Previously established movements and factions should not be considered relevant to this process.

 ▶︎Step Two: Selection of Individuals
Once a political base is formed, the next step is the careful selection of individuals. At this stage, all decisions must be made collectively and through majority consensus. No single person should be declared a leader, and no specific banner or flag should be adopted. Instead, individuals should be recruited based on their expertise and abilities. The first priority after establishing this base should be to define and realize the goals of the movement.
Citizens need clarity about what a successful outcome would look like—what the future holds after a political or military victory. A clear roadmap must be prepared from the outset. This political base must not be controlled or monopolized by those who were responsible for shaping the current crisis in Afghanistan. The country now needs a new generation with fresh ideas to step forward and lead.

 ▶︎Step Three: Publishing Articles and Communicating a Clear Vision
The political base must begin publishing articles and clearly presenting a vision for the future after victory. All people must have access to this vision. Both leaders of the Black political movements in the United States and South Africa continuously published books, articles, and written works to keep the public informed about the political struggle. This ongoing communication helped steadily increase the number of people joining the movement. In some cases, even white citizens joined Black protestors in solidarity.

 ▶︎Step Four: Leadership Must Emerge from the Struggle
Inspired by the political movements of Black people in the U.S. and South Africa, leadership must arise organically from within the movement. A leader should be chosen based on merit, competence, and wisdom, as demonstrated throughout the political struggle. This leader should be selected by their peers and companions who have stood by their side. Leadership that is appointed by decree or inherited as a legacy will inevitably lead to failure and halt the momentum of collective political mobilization.

 ▶︎Step Five: Emphasize Nonviolent Struggle
The focus must be placed on nonviolent resistance. Violent movements often quickly result in the deaths and destruction of the very individuals fighting for their rights, turning the struggle into a tragedy. This fear of death discourages many people from joining, and not everyone has the skills or courage to use weapons against a regime. Therefore, political struggle must be entirely nonviolent and launched using various peaceful methods. Despite all the atrocities committed by the Taliban, they are not more powerful than the racists and supremacists who once ruled in the U.S. and South Africa. This means that the possibility of seeing a victorious future remains strong.

 ▶︎Step Six: Organized Demonstrations
Demonstrations are a fundamental form of nonviolent political struggle. These protests, conducted regularly across the country, serve to voice demands and issue resolutions that may pressure the regime to change its policies. For any demonstration to succeed, it requires thorough planning. People from different regions must be informed, and the protests should begin nationwide, coordinated, and strictly nonviolent.

 ▶︎Step Seven: Economic Boycotts
Another effective method of nonviolent political struggle is boycotting goods and services that generate income for the regime. Gandhi's boycott of British cloth in India created a severe economic crisis for the British East India Company, leading to the collapse of British textile factories. Similarly, in the U.S., Black communities boycotted public buses to protest racial segregation. In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, such boycotts are also feasible. Goods and products that provide substantial tax revenue to the Taliban, or are under their direct control, could be subject to such boycotts. Another way to undermine the regime is to disable infrastructure that serves only the government and not the general public—actions that, if executed strategically, would not disrupt civilian access to essential services. However, these efforts must be nationwide and well-coordinated to reduce the regime’s capacity to retaliate.

 ▶︎Step Eight: Breaking the Prison Taboo
Fear of imprisonment must be overcome. The Taliban cannot imprison everyone. In the early stages of any movement, regimes often resort to mass arrests to create fear. But history shows that imprisonment is never a sustainable or effective long-term strategy for regimes. It is typically a temporary tactic to intimidate the public and suppress resistance. Over time, this tactic fades or collapses under its own weight. Both Mandela and King were repeatedly imprisoned and released, yet their incarcerations only fueled the momentum of their movements and further legitimized their causes.

 ▶︎Step Nine: Organized Strikes
Strikes are among the most powerful and effective tools of political resistance. Strikers should not be selected from essential service providers like hospitals. A strike can rapidly destabilize a regime, and it is practically impossible for any government to identify and detain every participant. If nationwide and systematically sustained, strikes present a major challenge to any authoritarian system. Strikes involving students, teachers, and professors can be especially impactful. In the U.S., mass strikes by Black citizens were a key factor in forcing the government to concede to some of their demands.

 ▶︎Step Ten: Disseminating Information on Political Struggles
All developments in the political resistance movement must be regularly published and distributed. People inside the country need to stay informed about the progress and tactics of the movement. Consistent updates help motivate and encourage those who have not yet joined the struggle to take part. Clear and accessible communication plays a crucial role in expanding public support and ensuring cohesion.

 ▶︎Step Eleven: Establishing a Covert Military Wing
Gradually and with utmost secrecy, a military wing should be organized. This must be done discreetly, ensuring no trace of leadership or internal structure is revealed. When Nelson Mandela was appointed head of the military wing of the South African resistance, the apartheid regime searched for years without discovering that he was leading it—even though he remained within the country. The military arm must operate under the full authority of the political base, ensuring it aligns with the broader strategic vision and does not act independently.

 ▶︎Step Twelve: Guerrilla Tactics as Moral Support for Political Struggles
In the early phases, the military resistance should not focus on seizing territory. Its sole purpose should be to boost the morale of the political resistance. Guerrilla warfare is the most effective form of military struggle against authoritarian regimes. These operations must avoid causing harm to civilians or public infrastructure. The aim is not domination but strategic disruption and psychological support to reinforce the legitimacy and momentum of the nonviolent political campaign.

• Conclusion
In order to prevent the political struggle of African Americans in the United States from escalating into violence, Black people under the leadership of Martin Luther King practiced non-responsiveness to violence, maintaining their composure whenever they were subjected to violence.
Although the conditions of the political struggles of Black people in South Africa and the United States may not fully align with the current situation in Afghanistan, and the understanding of the law and its enforcement by the government in the United States differs from the present conditions in Afghanistan, there are many lessons to be learned from these political movements.
The actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan today, which prioritize one ethnic group over others, deny civil and religious rights to specific groups, and refuse to recognize their languages, cultures, and religions, can inspire us to draw from the experiences of the Black political struggles. The Taliban government cannot be more powerful than the previous governments in South Africa and the United States. However, when a political struggle is based on universal values and is comprehensible and respected by all people, it can bring even the most powerful and brutal regimes to their knees.
Both the African American and South African movements were able to defeat the most powerful regimes through their nonviolent resistance methods, ultimately achieving their fundamental rights. The outcome of the African American struggle resulted in changes to government policies and laws in favor of Black people, while in South Africa, it led to the overthrow of the apartheid system. This is precisely what is hoped for in Afghanistan.