Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment was one of the defining events in South Africa’s struggle against apartheid. By the early 1960s, Mandela had become a leading figure in the African National Congress (ANC), which campaigned against the country’s system of racial segregation and white minority rule. After years of peaceful protest were met with increasing government repression, Mandela helped establish the ANC’s armed wing, *Umkhonto we Sizwe* (“Spear of the Nation”), in 1961 to carry out acts of sabotage against government infrastructure while seeking to avoid loss of life. On 5 August 1962, Mandela was arrested near Howick in Natal after living in hiding for more than a year.
Initially, Mandela was charged with leaving South Africa illegally and inciting workers to strike. In November 1962, he was sentenced to five years in prison. While he was serving that sentence, police uncovered documents at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia that linked ANC leaders to plans for sabotage and resistance activities. Mandela and several others were then put on trial in what became known as the Rivonia Trial, which lasted from 1963 to 1964. Facing the possibility of the death penalty, Mandela delivered his famous speech from the dock, declaring that he had dedicated his life to the ideal of a democratic and free society and that it was “an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
On 12 June 1964, Mandela and seven of his co-accused were found guilty of sabotage and sentenced to life imprisonment rather than execution. Mandela spent the majority of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island, where conditions were harsh. Prisoners were subjected to hard labour in a limestone quarry, received limited contact with their families, and endured strict censorship of letters and visits. Despite these hardships, Mandela became a respected leader among inmates, encouraging education and discipline, leading fellow prisoners to refer to the prison as the “University of Robben Island.” In 1982 he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison, and later to Victor Verster Prison in 1988.
Mandela’s imprisonment attracted growing international attention and became a powerful symbol of resistance to apartheid. Governments, human rights organisations, musicians, and activists around the world campaigned for his release, making “Free Nelson Mandela” an internationally recognised slogan. As South Africa faced increasing political unrest and economic sanctions during the 1980s, the apartheid government entered negotiations with Mandela. On 11 February 1990, President F. W. de Klerk ordered his release. Mandela emerged from prison committed to reconciliation rather than revenge, leading negotiations that ended apartheid and culminated in South Africa’s first fully democratic elections in 1994, when he was elected the nation’s first Black president.