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Nelson Mandela casts his vote in the 1994 presidential election, which he won; it was the first time he had ever voted.

MANDELA ON TRIAL Nelson Mandela was the face of the anti- apartheid movement. At his trial for sabotage and conspiracy , he said violence was necessary if South Africa was to change. “South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it,” he said. “It’s an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Prior to the election, South Africa had denied blacks the most basic human rights. Because of their skin color, South Africa’s black majority could not live or work where they wanted. They were told where to go to school and what subjects to study. They were beaten and killed and thrown in prison. They could not mingle with whites and lived in outrageous slums.

Pictured here are indigenous people of southern Africa whose territory spans a wide region, including that of South Africa and neighboring countries.

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: SOUTH AFRICA