First Step To Freedom The whole world watched Nelson Mandela walk to freedom on the 11th of February 1990 after twenty seven years in jail. For nearly everyone, it was their first glimpse of the famous political prisoner. Photographs of Mandela had been banned by the apartheid regime. The only images in circulation at the time were of a much younger man. \'First Steps to Freedom\' re-lives the historic day when South Africa gripped world attention.