South Africa

The struggle

South Africa was never decolonised in the usual sense: the Union of 1910 handed power to a white settler minority, and the National Party built apartheid on that foundation from 1948. Liberation meant defeating an internal regime — through the Defiance Campaign, the Freedom Charter, Sharpeville, the armed struggle, Soweto, mass strikes, and international sanctions. On 27 April 1994 every adult voted for the first time.

One date, a longer story: Formal sovereignty from Britain came in stages (1910, 1931, 1961); majority rule came in 1994, and that is the day the country marks.

Key people

• Nelson Mandela

  1918–2013

  ANC leader, 27 years imprisoned, first democratically elected president

• Oliver Tambo

  1917–1993

  Held the ANC together in exile for three decades

• Albertina Sisulu

  1918–2011

  Led the women's and civic resistance inside the country

• Steve Biko

  1946–1977

  Founder of Black Consciousness; killed in police custody