On February 11, 1990, after spending 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela, the leader of the movement to abolish South African apartheid, is finally released.
In 1944, Mandela, who worked as a lawyer, became a member of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s oldest black political group, where he took on a leadership role in the youth wing based in Johannesburg.
In 1952, he ascended to the position of deputy national president of the ANC, promoting nonviolent resistance against apartheid, the entrenched system of racial segregation and white supremacy in South Africa. However, in response to the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, where peaceful black demonstrators were killed, Nelson played a key role in establishing a paramilitary wing of the ANC to conduct guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.
He faced arrest for treason in 1961 but was acquitted. Nevertheless, he was apprehended again in 1962 for leaving the country unlawfully. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was subsequently tried again in 1964 on sabotage charges. In June 1964, along with other ANC leaders, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The initial 18 years of his 27-year incarceration were spent at the harsh Robben Island Prison. There, he endured confinement in a small cell devoid of a bed or plumbing and was compelled to perform hard labor in a quarry. His communication was severely limited; he could receive and send letters only every six months, and he was permitted to meet with a visitor for just 30 minutes each year. Despite these conditions, Mandela’s determination remained steadfast. He became the symbolic figurehead of the anti-apartheid struggle and led a civil disobedience movement within the prison, which compelled South African officials to significantly enhance the living conditions there. He was eventually transferred to another location, where he was placed under house arrest.
In 1989, with F.W. de Klerk assuming the presidency of South Africa, efforts to dismantle apartheid were initiated. De Klerk lifted the ANC’s ban, halted executions, and in February 1990, he ordered Nelson Mandela’s release.
Following his release, Mandela spearheaded the ANC’s negotiations with the minority government to bring an end to apartheid and to establish a multiracial government. In 1993, he and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The following year, the ANC claimed an electoral majority in South Africa’s inaugural free elections, leading to Mandela’s election as the nation’s president.
