AI IMAGE - Portrait of Nelson Mandela, 2000s, (2023). Mandela (1918-2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician. In 1964 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state. In 1990 he was released after spending 27 years in prison, and in 1994 was elected president of South Africa, the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial reconciliation.