Nelson Mandela was released on February 11th, 1990. For South African people, however, freedom was still a long way off.

Mandela had been held in a low-security prison outside Cape Town since 1988. He had his own living space there, which served as a kind of halfway house between freedom and prison.

On the day of his release, Mandela was supposed to be taken from the house to the front gate by car, but a television presenter asked him to walk the last part of it. As he made his way toward the gate with his wife by his side, he raised his fist and the crowd shouted.

Later that day, he gave a speech from a City Hall balcony, before a massive crowd. He shouted out “Amandla,” which is Xhosa for “power,” and the crowd shouted back “Ngawethu,” meaning “to us.”

The following afternoon, Mandela told reporters that he’d do anything the ANC saw fit. He saw no conflict of interest between supporting ANC’s militant struggle and moving forward with negotiations. The ANC would respond to peace with peace.

The relationship between the government and ANC was still tense, however. In December of 1992, the ANC executives decided to engage in a series of secret bilateral talks with the government. In the first, it was decided that all parties that earned over five percent in the general election should have proportional representation in the cabinet. That meant the ANC would have to work alongside the National Party, which provoked controversy within the ANC.

On April 27th, 1994, the first non-racialized election took place in South Africa. The ANC earned 62.6 percent of the votes. Shortly before that, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.