11. February 1990
36 years ago
After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela walked free — and four years later became president of a new nation.
For 27 years Nelson Mandela sat imprisoned for his fight against apartheid — most of it on the barren prison island of Robben Island, where he broke rock in a lime quarry and spoke to fellow prisoners through the cell walls. The regime hoped the world would forget him. It never did.
Scroll toward freedom↓
On 11 February 1990, the gates finally opened. At 71 years old, Mandela walked out into freedom, hand in hand with his wife Winnie, before a waiting world.
When he raised his fist to the sky, jubilation erupted. The image travelled around the globe — the symbol of a people who refused to give up.
Hundreds of thousands filled the streets with song and flags. The man who had been invisible behind the walls for a generation was now the hope of an entire nation.
Four years later, millions of South Africans — many for the first time in their lives — stood in long queues to vote. In 1994 Nelson Mandela became the country's first Black president, and apartheid was history. A "rainbow nation" was born.