"The accomplishment of a long struggle"
After all those years in jail, the decision by the president Frederik De Klerk of releasing Nelson Mandela opened the way of the collaboration between the white leaders and the black population of South Africa. In 1991, the ANC has become legal again, and Mandela has been elected president.
In 1990 the two men had negotiated the end of apartheid. This collaboration has leaded them to the Nobel Prize of peace in 1993.
In 1992, the last racist law has been revoked. The same year, Mandela and De Klerkworked together to create a constitutional assembly.
In April 1994, the ANC gained the first free elections, with 62% of the voices. Mandela then becomes the first president of the African Southern Republic post-apartheid, station which it will occupy until 1999.
Mandelas declaration after he won; “ We reached only freedom to be free […] because to be free, it is not only to get rid of its chains, it is to live in a way which respects and reinforces the freedom of the others”.
Adolphe BÜTTNER