Nelson Mandela Released From Prison (1990)

On this week (11th of February) in 1990, anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison following negotiations with South African President F. W. de Klerk. In 1994, Mandela was elected President, becoming the country’s first black head of state.

Mandela, a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), had been convicted on charges of sabotage at the Rivonia Trial in 1964, and was sentenced to life imprisonment, serving 27 years before his release in 1990.

During his years in prison, Mandela became a major symbol of both the domestic and international anti-apartheid movement. In 1988, hundreds of millions people watched the “Free Nelson Mandela” concert, televised from London’s Wembley Stadium.

Following decades of mass internal resistance along with global boycotts and sanctions, newly inaugurated South African State President F.W. de Klerk lifted the state of emergency law, legalized anti-apartheid opposition groups such as the ANC, South African Communist Party, and Pan-Africanist Congress, and released many political prisoners.

Mandela was released on February 11th, 1990 to massive international attention. Driven to Cape Town’s City Hall through crowds, Mandela gave a speech where he declared his intention to participate in negotiations, although he noted that the ANC’s armed struggle was not yet over before change had taken place.

In 1994, he was elected South Africa’s first black president in the country’s first ever multiracial election.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

  • Nelson Mandela

Hello nerds kirby-wave i hope you all have a good february

Remember no crackers

anti-cracker-aktionqin-shi-huangdi-fireball

  • Rojo27 [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    2 months ago

    At this point I feel like the only reason they feel somewhat bad about the Holocaust was because they acted against other white people. You barely ever hear them talk about Namibia. And we see how they feel about the genocide in Gaza. Very much a us-foreign-policy situation.

    • VILenin [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      Yeah the only lesson they learned was that they should genocide the right people next time. Basically considered “antisemitism” in Germany at this point to talk about nonwhite Holocaust victims.

      And I really wonder how many Germans can even point to Namibia on a map.

      The rest of Europe also got to wash their hands of millennia of their sins and pretend Germany was a uniquely evil anomaly and not standard European fare. They are all poor innocent babies because Germany invaded them.