In fits and starts, negotiations between the ANC and the South African government took place from 1992 to 1993. Facing an imminent economic collapse due to sanctions and unable to abate the rioting in the townships, the South African government released Mandela in 1990.ĭespite his freedom, Mandela knew that only sustained pressure on the government would lead to terms acceptable to the ANC. He spent several years slowly convincing government leaders to negotiate with the ANC to end the conflict and write a new constitution giving equal rights to all South Africans. In the mid-80s, when Mandela was jailed separately from his compatriots, he secretly reached out to the apartheid government in the hopes of bringing them to the bargaining table. Concurrently, a rising generation of young resistors made much of the country ungovernable. Beginning in the 60s and culminating in the late 80s, South Africa was hit by a series of crippling economic sanctions. Over the course of his imprisonment, Mandela became an iconic figure to anti-colonial struggles around the world, and demands for his release grew. Together, they garnered international support and planned acts of sabotage. Even from prison, Mandela remained a leader of the antiapartheid struggle and within a few years managed to establish secret contact with the exiled ANC leadership.

This time, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Mandela was eventually captured and put on trial with other members of the MK in 1963. Under his leadership, the MK commenced a campaign of sabotage while Mandela traveled abroad to seek funding and training from other African leaders. He helped establish the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a paramilitary force dedicated to overthrowing the apartheid regime. He and his codefendants were acquitted in 1961, but the trial and subsequent crackdowns convinced Mandela that apartheid could not be defeated solely through nonviolent means. Mandela’s prominent role in resisting apartheid brought the full force of the government down upon him, and he was tried for treason.

His experience with apartheid, the collection of racist laws by which South Africa’s white minority dominated its black majority, led him to join the African National Congress, the leading organization opposing apartheid. In Johannesburg, Mandela trained to be a lawyer. As a child, he was destined to become a royal advisor, but the allure of the big city, Johannesburg, drew him to a life of political activism. Mandela was born in rural South African in 1918.

A walk to freedom