11 Feb 1990 — Nelson Mandela walks out of Victor Verster prison, fist raised, after 27 years. Nine days earlier F. W. de Klerk had unbanned the ANC. Apartheid will end through negotiation rather than conquest.
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11 FEBRUARY 1990 · THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA, 1945–1994
The moment in context
From 1948 the National Party made racial separation a system of government. Classification affected where a person could live, work, study, and marry. Pass laws controlled movement, and land policy reserved most of the country for whites. The homeland policy assigned Black South Africans to fragmented territories, allowing the state to deny them national political rights while continuing to rely on their labor. These measures worked together: the government sought both political exclusion and a controlled workforce.
Why it happened — The architecture of apartheid. The National Party built on earlier segregation after 1948, using racial classification to organize rights and restrictions throughout society.…
The turn — Mandela walks free, 11 February 1990. Nelson Mandela walked out of prison on 11 February 1990, after twenty-seven years. The government had unbanned the ANC and was prepared to bargain…
What it changed — From resistance to negotiation. A banned movement and the government that had imprisoned its leader now entered negotiations. The government controlled the state, while the…
Then ask the room: After decades of protest, sanctions and armed resistance, why did the apartheid government begin to negotiate around 1990? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
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