African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It played a major role in winning political and civil rights for the country’s Black and other nonwhite people. Black people make up about three-fourths of the population. But until 1994, South African law denied them the right to vote in national elections and to participate in the national government. Most African National Congress members are Black, but some members are white, Asian, or of mixed ancestry.
The ANC was founded in 1912 by Black South Africans to defend their political rights. In 1948, the South African government started a policy of rigid racial segregation called apartheid. Young ANC members, led by lawyer Nelson Mandela, began to resist the government, chiefly through civil disobedience. In 1960, the government outlawed the ANC. The ANC then began a policy of violent resistance to apartheid. Numerous members, including Mandela, were imprisoned. Some were killed or exiled. Many nations opposed apartheid, and South Africa grew isolated in the world community.
In February 1990, South Africa legalized the ANC and released Mandela and other ANC leaders from prison. In May 1990, the ANC and the government began talks aimed at giving nonwhite people the same rights to vote and participate in government that white people had. In August, the ANC declared it would abandon the use of violence. In 1991, the government repealed the last of the laws that formed the legal basis of apartheid.
In 1994, South Africa held its first national elections in which Black people were allowed to vote. The ANC won a majority of seats in the new National Assembly. The Assembly, in turn, elected Mandela president of South Africa. Mandela stepped down as head of the ANC in 1997 and retired as South Africa’s president in 1999. In elections held in 1999, the ANC again won a majority of seats in the Assembly. The Assembly elected the new ANC leader, Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa. In 2004, the ANC again won a majority of Assembly seats, and the Assembly reelected Mbeki as president.
Jacob Zuma defeated Mbeki in elections for the ANC presidency in late 2007. In 2008, ANC members loyal to Mbeki left the party and formed a new party called the Congress of the People. The ANC again won a majority of parliamentary seats in elections held in 2009, and Zuma became president of South Africa. The ANC and Zuma remained in power following elections in 2014. In 2017, the ANC elected Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as its leader. Zuma resigned the presidency of South Africa in February 2018 amid allegations of corruption, and Ramaphosa succeeded him. The ANC won a majority of Assembly seats in elections held in May 2019, and the Assembly reelected Ramaphosa as South Africa’s president. 
In elections in May 2024, the ANC lost its majority in the Assembly for the first time since the party came to power in 1994. However, it still won more seats than any other party. Ramaphosa formed a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance, a white-led party. The Assembly then reelected him as president.
