THIS DAY IN HISTORY... 11 February, 1990: Nelson Mandela freed

Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC movement fighting to end apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years on 11 February, 1990.

In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the ANC, the oldest black political organisation in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg’s youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid–South Africa’s institutionalised system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organise a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.

In 1961, he was arrested for treason and, although acquitted, he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.

Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labour in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes.

However, Mandela’s resolve remained unbroken and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that forced officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island.

He was later moved to another location, where he lived under house arrest.

In 1989, FW de Klerk became president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Mandela.

Mandela retired from politics in 1999, but remained a global advocate for peace and social justice until his death in December 2013.