Longest period of incarceration for a future head of state

Nelson Mandela, who was President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, was a political prisoner interned in three different prisons (most notably Robben Island) from 5 August 1962 to 11 February 1990 – a total of 27 years 6 months 6 days. Mandela, identified as Prisoner 466/64 during his incarceration, had been arrested for illegal exit from the country and incitement to strike. Following his release, he was elected President of South Africa on 27 April 1994. Mandela spent his internment in three prisons. First, at Robben Island, where he was imprisoned for most of the first 18 years of his sentence (while on trial he was held in Pretoria). Robben Island is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 km west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for "seal island". In March 1982, he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison, officially, Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, which is located in the Cape Town suburb of Tokai in South Africa. In December 1988, he was sent to Victor Verster Prison (now Drakenstein Correctional Centre), which is located between Paarl and Franschhoek in the valley of the Dwars River in the Western Cape of South Africa. He was released from there on 11 February 1990. As leader of the outlawed African National Congress (ANC), Mandela led the fight against the white minority government’s “apartheid policy”, which segregated blacks as well as the “coloured” population (people of interracial descent along with Asian-Indians). Blacks had no political or civil rights and were subjected to brutal and often violent oppression by the white minority. He was awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize along with F.W. de Klerk, a white man, who had been South Africa’s last apartheid era President. Mandela and de Klerk were feted for their efforts to end apartheid. As President, Mandela worked to bring about reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa as well as fighting poverty and continued inequality. While in prison, Mandela took correspondence courses with the University of London and received a Bachelor of Laws degree. He was even nominated to be Chancellor of the University of London in 1981 - while still interned - but lost the post to Princess Anne. Mandela is also known in South Africa as “Madiba”, his Xhosa tribal name, or as “tata”, which is also Xhosa for father. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Mandela has been given more than 250 rewards. At 93 (Mandela will turn 94 on 18 July 2012), well into retirement now, he founded The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, which holds his archives and serves to further educate the public about the apartheid era in South Africa.