These modern-day Josephs, driven by love for
their country or ambitions, risked their lives to
secure a better future for their people.
While it easily can be argued that they are all not
saints, the sacrifice made by these people has to
be respected.

These modern-day Josephs, driven by love for
their country or ambitions, risked their lives to
secure a better future for their people.
Here are seven presidents who rose from
prisoners to becoming the leaders of their
nations.

1. Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi [India]
The first and only female Prime Minister of India,
Indira was the daughter of the first Prime Minister
of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. She first served as
Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977, before losing
her seat to the Janata alliance.

She later won a bye-election in 1978 but was
arrested along with her son Sanjay Gandhi by the
Janata government on some trumped up charges
but was released after the collapse of the Janata
coalition.
In 1980, Indira Gandhi once again became Prime
Minister but was assassinated by her bodyguards
in 1984 for ordering the storming of the
Harmandir Sahib as a countermeasure to the
Punjab insurgency.


2. Fidel Castro [Cuba]
The son of his father’s maid, Fidel Alejandro
Castro Ruz and his brother Raul were captured
and sentenced to 15 years in prison, after their
group “The Movement” staged a failed attack on
the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953.
Released in 1955 they traveled to Mexico, where
they metErnesto “Che” Guevara who helped them
mount a series of successful military campaigns,
that eventually led to the collapse of General
Fulgencio Batista’s government in January 1959.
Manuel Urrutia was then installed as president
while José Miró Cardona became prime minister.
But after just a month Miro resigned, and Castro
was sworn in as prime minister at the age of 32.


3. Dilma Vana[Brazil]
Daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant, Dilma
Rousseff joined various guerilla groups which
fought against the dictatorship in 1964 before she
was captured, tortured, and locked up between
1970 and 1972.
The Mensalao corruption scandal in 2005, saw her
become the Chief of Staff of President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva, and in March 2010 she resigned to
run for president.
Dilma Rousseff became Brazil’s first female
president in 2010 and was re-elected again in
2014, but was suspended by the senate for six
months on 12 May 2016, before she was finally
impeached on 31 August 2016.


4. Kim Dae Jung [South Korea]
Referred to as the “Nelson Mandela” of Asia, Kim
Dae-Jungwas arrested in 1980 and sentenced to
death. But the intervention of the United States
and the Pope John II, saw his sentence changed to
20 years in prison, then to an exile in the US.
In 1985, Kim returned to South Korea and was
once again put under house arrest, before losing
the first transparent elections held in a long time
by dictator Chun Doo-hwan after succumbing to
pressure.
Finally, after trying four times, Kim Dae-Jung
defeated Lee Hoi-Chang and was sworn in as the
eighth President of South Korea on 25 February
1998.


5. Nelson Mandela [South Africa]
A lawyer by profession Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
joined theANC in the late 1940s, co-founded its
Youth League and before being appointed
President of the ANC’s Transvaal branch.
He was sentenced to life in prison in 1962 for
conspiring against the state after his militant
group Umkhonto we Sizwe, launched a sabotage
campaign against the government but was freed in
1990 after serving 27 years.
In 1994 Mandela became the first black President
of South Africa after winning a multiracial general
election. A true statesman, he only served one
term before handing over the reins to Thabo
Mbeki.


6. Patrice Lumumba [Congo]
Hailed by Malcolm X as the most impressive black
man to ever walk the African continent, Patrice
Lumumba was handed a 69-month sentence in
1959 for his anti-colonial fight but was released
after serving only nine months and became the
Prime Minister at the young age of 34.
He only lasted three months as Prime Minister
before being ousted in a military coup fronted by
Mobutu Sese Seko but orchestrated by the US,
England, and Belgium their former colonial lords.
Lumumba’s believed to have been shot multiple
times, before his body was dissolved in acid, by
the Belgian military in a bid to cover a full-scale
investigation. Belgium later apologised in 2002 for
its role in his death.


7. Olusegun Obasanjo [Nigeria]
Credited with bringing the civil war to an end,
Olusegun Obasanjo first became the President of
Nigeria after the death of Murtala Mohammed in
the failed Dimka coup.
In 1995, Obasanjo an outspoken critic of the
Abacha regime was arrested on trumped up
charges of plotting a coup but was released after
the sudden death of Abacha in June 1998.
After his release, Olusegun Obasanjo contested
for and won the presidential elections held in
1999, under the Peoples Democratic Party and
also won a second term in 2003.