Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

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South African politician and lawyer, and the country's first post-apartheid president 1994–99. He was president of the African National Congress (ANC) 1991–97. Imprisoned from 1964, as organizer of the then banned ANC, he became a symbol of unity for the worldwide anti-apartheid movement. In 1990 he was released and, following the first universal-suffrage elections in 1994, was sworn in as South Africa's first post-apartheid president after the ANC won 63% of the vote in universal-suffrage elections. He stepped down as president in 1999 and was succeeded by ANC president, Thabo Mbeki. In 1993 he shared the Nobel Prize for Peace with South African president F W de Klerk for their work towards dismantling apartheid and negotiating the transition to a democracy.

In February 1990 Mandela was released from prison, the ban on the ANC having been lifted, and in 1991 the final apartheid laws were repealed. In 1991 Mandela was elected to the presidency of the ANC and the ANC opened constitutional negotiations with the government about a multiracial future for South Africa. Following the elections in 1994, Mandela's new government set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate abuses under the former apartheid regime. De Klerk and his Nationalist party withdrew from the coalition in May 1996. Mandela stepped down as ANC president in 1997 and retired from active politics in 1999. In 2000 he became UN mediator for the civil war in Burundi, achieving a peace deal. He also raised money for the Mandela Foundation, to build schools and clinics. In June 2004, he retired formally from public life to spend more time with his family.

Ghana was the first country to adopt the pan-African colours. The star is known as the ‘lode star of African freedom’. Effective date: 28 February 1966. >>