After serving 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 as South Africa’s whites-only government committed itself to end the era of apartheid. Casting his vote for the first time in South Africa’s first all-race elections, Mandela became the nation’s first black president in 1994. Held in high esteem the world over, Mandela guided his country through a largely peaceful transition period before retiring in 1999, though a soaring crime rate and violence between rival tribal factions threaten to make life more difficult for his successors