ABSTRACT
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS (ANC) Black South African pressure group, formed in 1912 at Bloemfontein to promote the welfare of blacks in South Africa. Its origins date from the formation in Cape Colony in 1882 of the Native Education Association. Banned from South Africa in 1961. Its leader, Nelson Mandela (q.v.), the symbol of black African hopes, was convicted of sabotage in 1964 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela was released in 1990 and the ANC ban lifted. After the first multi-racial elections in 1991, the ANC became the governing party in South Africa.
