Nelson Mandela

It was February 11, 1990, near Cape Town.

A man came out of Victor Verster Prison. His wife, Winnie, was at his side.

His name was Nelson Mandela. He came out free, after twenty-seven years behind walls.

Outside Cape Town's City Hall, a crowd was waiting.

He had been born on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, near Qunu, in the Transkei. His second name was Rolihlahla. His father, Henry Mgadla Mandela, was a counsellor to the paramount chief of the Thembu. The boy was being groomed to become a chief.

In 1940, he was expelled from Fort Hare for taking part in a student protest. He went to Johannesburg. There he worked as a mine policeman. In 1941, he earned his BA by correspondence, then studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand.

In 1944, he joined the African National Congress, the ANC, and helped found its Youth League.

In December 1952, with Oliver Tambo, he opened the country's first African law partnership. He was one of South Africa's first Black lawyers.

It was the time of apartheid.

In December 1956, he was arrested with 155 others and charged with high treason. The trial dragged on for years. In March 1961, all were acquitted.

But in 1960, the ANC had been banned. Mandela concluded that armed struggle had become necessary. He became the first commander of Umkhonto weSizwe, which carried out sabotage.

On August 5, 1962, he was captured near Howick.

At the Rivonia Trial, he made a statement to the court. These words are remembered from it:

On June 12, 1964, he was sentenced to life in prison.

He spent eighteen years on Robben Island. Then he was moved to Pollsmoor Prison, and finally to Victor Verster, for his last fourteen months.

During those years, he became the best-known political prisoner in the world.

Then came that day in February 1990.

In 1991, he was elected president of the ANC.

In 1993, he received the Nobel Peace Prize with Frederik de Klerk, the president who had released him. Both were honoured for working toward the peaceful end of apartheid and laying the foundations of a democratic South Africa.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the country's first democratically elected president.

In 1999, he handed over to Thabo Mbeki. In June 2004, he retired from public life.

He died on December 5, 2013, at home in Johannesburg. He was 95.

In his country, people call ubuntu the idea that a person exists only through others. Mandela shared his prize with the president who had released him.

That day in February 1990, a man came out of prison.

Four years later, he was sworn in as president.