The final stage of apartheid<span>'s demise happened so quickly as to have taken many people in South Africa and throughout the world by surprise. The release of </span>Nelson Mandela<span> in February 1990 and the lifting of the ban of the </span>African National Congress<span> (ANC) and other liberation movements led to a protracted series of negotiations out of which emerged a democratic constitution and the first free election in the country's history. Democracy did not emerge spontaneously; it had to be built laboriously, brick by brick. This was a complex process, following years of multifaceted struggle and accompanied in the 1990-1994 period by convulsive violence as vested interests resisted change. Probably unique in the history of colonialism, white settlers voluntarily gave up their monopoly of political power. The final transfer of power was remarkably peaceful; it is often is described as a "miracle" because many thought that South Africa would erupt into violent civil war. </span>
