African National Congress marks 100th anniversary

The South African party that helped end apartheid celebrates its 100th birthday with fanfare and visiting world leaders.

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Aug. 12, 1952

Supporters of South Africa's African National Congress wear the colors of their party — black, green and yellow — on their sleeves in Johannesburg as part of a civil disobedience campaign to protest apartheid. The protesters were later arrested.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 31, 1956

Crowds cheer as a police van brings prisoners to the Drill Hall in Johannesburg for the start of the “Treason Trial.” One man climbed onto the van to shout encouraging messages to the inmates. Nelson Mandela was among the people arrested and standing trial.

/ AP

1959

Jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela is pictured talking to a group of women demonstrating against the pass laws in South Africa. The pass laws segregated the South African population between blacks and whites, and required the black population to carry pass books, a form of identification, with them.

Peter Magubane / AP

March 26, 1960

President of the ANC Albert Lutuli burns his pass in Pretoria, South Africa. He was the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for his role in the battle against apartheid.

/ AP

March 28, 1960

Members of the ANC take part in a day of mourning near Johannesburg. Against all odds, the party of Nelson Mandela — which has transformed a nation where just 20 years ago black South Africans could not vote, and beaches and restaurants were reserved for whites only — is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012.

/ AP

Aug. 31, 1965

Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, 40, founder of South Africa's outlawed Pan African Congress, is seen going through a book while detained indefinitely on Robben Island, the maximum security prison seven miles off Cape Town, South Africa. In May 1960, Sobukwe was sentenced to three years for inciting Africans to resist the pass laws, requiring blacks, but not whites, to always carry identification.

/ AP

April 5, 1986

Winnie Mandela, an activist and wife of jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela, carries the coffin of William Kotoyi at his funeral in Brandfort, South Africa.

/ AP

Feb. 2, 1990

A young man holds a local newspaper announcing that the ANC was no longer banned from existence in Cape Town, South Africa, during a demonstration against apartheid that demanded the release of all the political prisoners in South Africa.

Rashid Lombard / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 2, 1990

South African State President F.W. de Klerk, center, announces the unconditional release of jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela, the unbanning of the ANC, PAC and South African Communist party and the lifting of the state of emergency during parliament in Cape Town, South Africa.

Dana Le Roux-Argus / AP

Feb. 11, 1990

Nelson Mandela and then-wife, Winnie Mandela, walk hand-in-hand upon his release from prison. The ANC leader served 27 years in detention.

Greg English / AP

April 14, 1994

ANC supporters jeer at a passing Internal Stability Unit vehicles during clashes with Inkatha Freedom Party supporters while the South African Defence Force looks on in Thokoza, South Africa.

Mike Persson / AFP/Getty Images

April 10, 1994

An ANC supporter with an election placard stands outside a church in Reiger Park in Boksburg, South Africa, where ANC President Nelson Mandela was attending a memorial service for South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani, who had been assassinated one year prior.

Lynne Sladky / AP

April 27, 1994

An aerial photo shows long lines of people outside a polling station in the township of mostly black town of Soweto, in the southwest suburbs of Johannesburg. It was the first all-race election in South Africa.

Denis Farrell / AP

April 27, 1994

ANC leader Nelson Mandela casts his vote at Ohlange High School hall in Inanda, north of Durban, South Africa. Mandela won the first all-race election to become president of South Africa.

John Parkin / AP

Dec. 10, 1996

President Nelson Mandela signs into law a new constitution for South Africa as lawyer Cyril Ramaphosa, left, looks on. The ceremony was the culmination of more than five years of talks between Mandela's ANC and the National Party of former president F.W. de Klerk.

Adil Bradlow / Reuters

Dec. 20, 1997

South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, left, holds Nelson Mandela's hand up in the air while holding a walking stick that Mandela presented him with in his other hand during the ANC's general congress, held in Mafeking, South Africa.

Karel Prinsloo / AP

June 16, 1999

President of the Constitutional Court Arthur Chaskalson, left, swears in South Africa's new President Thabo Mbeki during his inauguration ceremony at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa.

Peter Dejong / AP

Jan. 5, 2008

ANC Party President Jacob Zuma, left, celebrates as he weds his 33-year-old wife Nompumelelo Ntuli, unseen, during their Zulu traditional wedding north of Durban, South Africa.

/ AP

Feb. 22, 2009

ANC supporters wearing t-shirts and carrying placards of ANC President Jacob Zuma attend a rally in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Thousands of ANC supporters attended an election rally held in the impoverished area of Khayelitsha ahead of the April 22 elections.

Schalk van Zuydam / AP

Dec. 19, 2002

ANC delegate Pemmy Majodina speaks on her mobile phone during the ANC's annual conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Obed Zilwa / AP

Jan. 6, 2012

A night vigil takes place at the church where the ANC was founded on Jan. 8, 1912, to mark the party’s 100th anniversary.

Alexander Joe / AFP/Getty Images

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