What if Nelson Mandela died in prison?

Have you ever heard of the Mandela Effect? Basically, it's when you think you remember something, but what you remember is different from reality.

The effect got it's name from the many people who believed that Nelson Mandela died in prison rather than in 2013 when he actually did die. These people even claim to remember his funeral.

So, that got me thinking.

What if Nelson Mandela died in prison and never became President of South Africa?
 
Actually I was going to do a "what if" about what would happen if the people in the Rivonia trial were just executed instead of being given long prison sentences.

One thing that stopped me is that, although I have read about the trial in Mandela's autobiography, I'm not sure if the judge was acting independently in handing down the prison sentences instead of the death penalty. Apartheid South Africa had an independent judiciary, but everyone important belonged to the same secret society.

The Apartheid government may have wanted to keep these guys around in case they wound up tied to a losing strategy and needed to strike a deal, which is pretty much what wound up happening. I'm not sure if this was the case. If it was, Mandela would not have been allowed to die in prison. Otherwise you are probably talking about a very different government for Apartheid era South Africa.

Also, the idea of "well there just would have been a different Mandela" doesn't work because the other key people in the ANC were about his age.
 
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