7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7the University College of Fort Hare and studied law at the
University of Witwatersrand. He later passed the qualifica-
tion exam to become a lawyer and in 1952 opened a firm
with Oliver Tambo. In 1944 he joined the African National
Congress (ANC), a black-liberation group, and in 1949
became one of its leaders, helping to revitalize the organi-
zation and opposing the apartheid policies of the ruling
National Party. Mandela went on trial for treason in 1956–61
but was acquitted. During the extended court proceedings,
he divorced his first wife and married Nomzamo Winifred
Madikizela. They divorced in 1996. After the massacre of
unarmed Africans by police forces at Sharpeville in 1960
and the subsequent banning of the ANC, Mandela aban-
doned his nonviolent stance and began advocating acts of
sabotage against the South African regime. In 1962 he was
jailed and sentenced to five years in prison.
In 1963 the imprisoned Mandela and several other men
were tried for sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy.
The celebrated Rivonia Trial was named after a fashion-
able suburb of Johannesburg where raiding police had
discovered quantities of arms and equipment at the head-
quarters of the underground Umkhonto We Sizwe (“Spear
of the Nation,” the ANC’s military wing). Mandela had
been a founder of the organization and admitted the truth
of some of the charges that were made against him. On
June 12, 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
From 1964 to 1982, Mandela was incarcerated at
Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town. He was subse-
quently kept at the maximum-security Pollsmoor Prison
until 1988, at which time he was hospitalized for tubercu-
losis. Mandela retained wide support among South
Africa’s black population, and his imprisonment became
a cause célèbre among the international community that
condemned apartheid. The South African government