From Political Prisoner to Ruler Quiz

Answer: Nelson Mandela

Mandela's imprisonment began in 1962, when he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his anti-apartheid activities. After F. W. de Klerk became president in late 1989, he met with Mandela and ordered Mandela released and he also legalized Mandela's previously-banned political party.

The democratic election in 1994 resulted in Mandela's assuming the presidency, and Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in ending apartheid in South Africa. Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95.

Answer: Vaclav Havel

Havel was a Czech writer and philosopher who was imprisoned several times for his opposition to the communist government in Czechoslavakia. After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, he became president and served as president of the Czech Republic until 2003.

After leaving the presidency, Havel resumed his writing career. Upon his death in 2011 at the age of 75, he was eulogized around the world as one of the giants of the 20th-century.

Answer: Lech Walesa

Walesa's efforts at organizing workers was so successful that the Solidarity union grew to ten million members, more than a quarter of Poland's total population. After martial law was declared in 1981, Walesa was imprisoned for eleven months. His work had already received worldwide recognition, and he was awarded the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize. Following the fall of the Communist government, Walesa was elected president of Poland in 1990 and served a five-year term, but he was denied re-election in 1995.

Answer: Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto's period of imprisonment started after her father was removed from his Prime Minister position in a 1977 military coup. After her release in 1984 she became politically active, and her party won the elections held in 1988.

Answer: Kim Dae-jung

Kim Dae-jung was imprisoned during the late 1970s for his opposition to the South Korean government, and was even sentenced to death at one point. Intervention by the Pope and the United States government spared him from the death penalty, and instead he was exiled to the U.S.

After returning to his homeland in 1985, he became politically active and won the presidency in the 1997 elections.

Answer: Xanana Gusmao

Gusmao was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Indonesian government in 1993 for his activities on behalf of independence for East Timor. After relentless pressure from the international community, Indonesia finally allowed the process of independence for Est Timor to proceed, and formal independence was achieved in 2002, with Gusmao becoming the first president.

He served as president for five years, and then as prime minister for eight years after that.

Answer: Dilma Rousseff

After a 1964 military coup overthrew the Brazilian government, Rousseff became active in anti-government activities, and was imprisoned for almost three years in the early 1970s. After democratic rule returned to Brazil, she was active in a number of governmental capacities, and became president in 2011.

Answer: Olusegun Obasanjo

Olusegun Obasanjo was imprisoned in Nigeria in the 1990s for his opposition to the human rights abuses of the Sani Abacha dictatorship. He was released after Abacha's deasth in 1998, and was able win election to the presidency the following year. He won a second term in 2003, but had to leave office after his second term when he was unable to get the constitution amended to allow him a third term.

Answer: Carlos Menem

Menem was elected governor of the Argentine province of La Rioja in 1973, but was then deposed and imprisoned as part of the 1976 military coup d-etat which ousted Isabel Peron from power. He spent more than two years in prison, before finally being released on condition that he not return to his home province.

After the end of military rule in 1983, Menem again became active politically, winning the presidency by a wide margin in the 1989 elections.

Answer: Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for 15 years over a 21-year period, due to her opposition to the military junta that had ruled Burma since 1962. She was finally released in 2010, and her party won an overwhelming victory in the 2015 general elections, after which she assumed a powerful position in the new government.

Her Nobel Prize in 1991 played a huge role in mobilizing world opinion against the ongoing human rights abuses in Burma.