He became president of the African National Congress (ANC) 1991. Imprisoned from 1964, as organizer of the then banned ANC, he became a symbol of unity for the worldwide anti-apartheid movement. In Feb 1990 he was released, the ban on the ANC having been lifted, and entered into negotiations with the government about a multiracial future for South Africa. In May 1994 he was sworn in as South Africa's first post-apartheid president after the ANC won 62.65% of the vote in universal-suffrage elections. He shared the Nobel Prize for Peace 1993 with South African president F W de Klerk. Mandela was born near Umbata, S of Lesotho, the son of a local chief. In a trial of several ANC leaders, he was acquitted of treason 1961, but was once more arrested 1964 and given a life sentence on charges of sabotage and plotting to overthrow the government. In Feb 1990 he was released from prison on the orders of state president F W de Klerk and in July 1991 was elected, unopposed, to the presidency of the ANC. In Dec 1991 the ANC began constitutional negotiations with the government and in Feb 1993 Mandela and President de Klerk agreed to the formation of a government of national unity after free, nonracial elections (later scheduled for April 1994). Mandela married the South African civil-rights activist Winnie Mandela 1955 (the couple separated 1992).
