Summary

This is a portrait of an extraordinary man whose life mirrors the story of modern South Africa. Born in 1918, the son of a tribal chief, Mandela was politically active from his youth and was first banned from public life in 1952. Subsequently tried for treason and acquitted he was then forced underground after the Sharpeville massacre in 1961. Two years later he was betrayed and sentenced to life imprisonment - an injustice which gave added inspiration to millions of South Africans to take up the fight against apartheid. His eventual emergence from jail after 27 years signalled the beginning of the end of white rule.