AN AFRICAN LEGEND

It was one of the great theatrical and emotional moments of contemporary history. At  4:14 pm, on the afternoon of February 11 1990, Nelson Mandela walked away from the Victor Verster detention centre, outside Cape Town, South Africa. The world’s best-known political prisoner was a free man at last, after 27 years in captivity.

Mandela had been jailed as a terrorist for his part in master-minding the armed struggle of the African National Congress as it fought to overthrow the apartheid system in South Africa and establish democratic majority rule. Though he left jail both an icon and international celebrity, Mandela knew that the hardest fight of his life was only just beginning. He had to lead South Africa’s black community to victory as the ruling white minority at last bowed to the inevitable change. But he also had to ensure that there was a peaceful transfer of power, and use all his political skills to stop the country plunging into civil war.

In doing so, he would demonstrate the qualities that he had developed during those long years in prison – the refusal to ever give in, matched by a quite extraordinary understanding and forgiveness for his opponents. Nelson Mandela was to emerge as a unique figure on the world stage, for he was seen not just as a politician who could be trusted, but as an international statesman with an unmatched moral authority.

The story continues...

EARLY LIFE
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18 1918, in Mveso, a little village in the hills of the Transkei... read more >

THE ACTIVIST
In 1941 Mandela moved to the big city, to Johannesburg, to escape... read more >

APARTHEID and the ANC RESPONSE
Black South Africans had few rights at the time when Mandela first arrived in Johannesburg... read more >

PRISON
Mandela spent the next 18 years in the bleak jail on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape... read more >

FREEDOM
In 1990 Mandela was free at last and one of the most famous politicians on the planet. He still... read more >