Hundreds of people were involved in this release, the planning, the logistics and the content. What unfolded that day has become lore. From Madiba forgetting his glasses and having to wear Mum Winnie's, detours to Saleem Mowzer's house, to our favourite story of Madiba making sure that he took his daily nap before leaving prison. Yet, more powerfully, there were more than 100 000 South Africans who stood outside on the Grand Parade knowing that change was happening. To those thousands of people, and to the millions across the country, the celebration was tied to them being released from various forms of prisons. These prisons were not just the physical prisons where hundreds of thousands of black South Africans were incarcerated for crimes, which included political actions and the breaking of unjust apartheid laws. They were also the prisons created as the result of a social system that made crime necessary