“Friends, comrades and fellow South Africans.
I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all.
I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.
On this day of my release, I extend my sincere and warmest gratitude to the millions of my compatriots and those in every corner of the globe who have campaigned tirelessly for my release.”
— Nelson Mandela speech
February 11, 1990
In 1962 the South African government sentenced Nelson Mandela to five years imprisonment for illegal exit from South Africa and incitement to strike.
Two years later he was tried for the additional charge of sabotage. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Robben Island Prison. In 1982 officials transferred him to the Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. He was moved to the Victor Verster Prison in December 1988.
On February 11, 1990, he walked out of prison a free man.
Following are story excerpts about that day:
“Mandela had disappeared from view in 1964 after giving a four-hour speech at the conclusion of his sabotage trial, where he was convicted and received a life sentence. He was a rugged young man in his 40s, a former boxer who had full cheeks, a beard and mustache and was always dressed in a suit at his court appearances.
He spent most of his prison term on Robben Island, South Africa’s version of Alcatraz. On this island fortress, Mandela often labored at a limestone quarry during the day, where the glaring sun harmed his eyes. At night, he could see the twinkling lights of Cape Town in the distance….”
— NPR
In a BBC story filmed many years after he was released, Nelson Mandela remembered Robben Island Prison. (Here is a link to the BBC video.)
“The decision to release Mandela came only after a protracted on-again, off-again negotiating process that began under de Klerk’s predecessor, P. W. Botha. For three years Mandela met regularly with senior government officials, led by Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee. Talks intensified once the pragmatic, energetic de Klerk replaced the ailing, cautious Botha last August. Over the past year, Mandela presented officials with at least two handwritten documents making specific proposals for ‘talks about talks’ between the government and the ANC and offering to serve as a ‘facilitator.’ But every time a deal for Mandela’s freedom seemed within reach, it snagged on another ‘precondition.'”
— Newsweek
“CAPE TOWN, Feb. 10 — President F. W. de Klerk announced today that Nelson Mandela would be released from a prison outside Cape Town on Sunday afternoon, ending 27 and a half years of imprisonment for South Africa’s most celebrated black leader.
Saying the release ‘will bring us to the end of a long chapter,’ Mr. de Klerk coupled his announcement with an appeal to the 71-year-old black leader to help steer the country toward a negotiated political settlement between whites and blacks.
His plea underscored the extraordinary influence that Mr. Mandela has exerted while serving a life sentence for conspiracy to overthrow the Government and sabotage. Although he has spent more than half his adult life in jail, Mr. Mandela will emerge in a position that many South Africans have equated with that of Mr. de Klerk, the country’s head of state.”
“It is one of the supreme ironies that on 11 February 1990, the day that Nelson Mandela was released after 27-and-a-half years in prison, the event that much of South Africa and the rest of the world had been waiting decades for, the country was not ready for him.
The iconic image of that moment — a lean, beaming Mandela in a dark suit emerging from Victor Verster prison holding hands with Winnie, both raising triumphant clenched fist salutes — belied the chaos around them. The first person to shake Mandela’s hand as he exited the prison gates was John Battersby, a journalist with the Christian Science Monitor, who had arrived on the scene five minutes before only to walk straight into Mandela, who greeted him with his trademark bonhomie (much to the chagrin of the rest of the journalist pack, who had been waiting outside the gates for 11 hours).
The release, at 5 pm, was an hour late. Mandela had not been seen in public in almost three decades, and that was in 1962, 14 years before South Africa got television. He had been absent all that time. Yet in his absence he had grown ever more present.”
“Freedom took new meaning Sunday as the world watched Nelson Mandela walk out of 27 years of captivity.
The exultant celebration of his countrymen measured their own expectations. The violence that accompanied the celebration underscored the complexity of what lies ahead.
The climax of the day was written in Mandela’s address to the nation, as the man imprisoned for terrorism set the agenda for all South Africans. With eloquence and vision, he looked beyond the bondage of apartheid to ‘the establishment of democracy’ on ‘a non-racial basis.'”
25 years ago today on February 11, 1990, at a huge rally in Cape Town, Nelson Mandela addressed South Africa and world. He began with these words:
