define thely burning his passbook, a dreaded document the apartheid authorities used to control the movement of south africa's black population. >> the africans require one to franchise on the basis of one man one vote and they want political independence. >> that simple demand and the methods mandela took to fight for democracy eventually saw him and others tried for trees on and sabotage by the apartheid government. acts punishable by death. but they got life imprison nt instead, banished to robben island, one of the country's most brutal and isolated prisons. another political prisoner, mack maharaj remembers the first time he saw mandela in the prison yard. >> i could see from the way he walked and from his conduct that he was a man already stamping his authority on prison regime. >> reporter: mandela was