Key Mandela moments: A biographical timeline

5. Freedom & the presidency

NTB/AP/File
South African Deputy President F.W. de Klerk, right, and South African President Nelson Mandela, left, pose with their Nobel Peace Prize Gold Medals and Diplomas, in Oslo, in this December 1993 file photo. Mandela and de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end of apartheid in the country.

Feb. 11, 1990: Nelson Mandela is released from prison at age 72. 

1991: ANC holds its first national conference in South Africa; Mandela is elected president of the party.

1993: Mr. de Klerk and Mandela are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

April 27, 1994: South Africa’s first democratic election, open to all races.

May 10, 1994: Nelson Mandela inaugurated as the first black president of South Africa. He pledges that "all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity."

1996: Amid claims of her infidelity, Mandela divorces Winnie Madikizela.

5 of 6

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.