Nelson Mandela

(1918–2013). Nelson Mandela was a leader in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa in the second half of the 20th century. Apartheid is the name that South Africa’s white government called its official system of segregation and discrimination against the country’s non-white majority. After being freed from prison, Mandela became a worldwide symbol of victory against that system. He served as South Africa’s first Black president from 1994 to 1999.

Name: Nelson Mandela

Birth: July 18, 1918, Mvezo, South Africa

Occupation: anti-apartheid activist; president of South Africa

Life-changing event: spent 27 years in prison

Major accomplishment: won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993

Death: December 5, 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa

Mandela was born into the royal family of the Madiba clan of the Tembu, a Xhosa-speaking people, on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, South Africa. He was originally named Rolihlahla Mandela. One of his schoolteachers gave him the Christian name Nelson.

Mandela studied at the University College of Fort Hare. However, he was suspended in 1940 along with Black activist Oliver Tambo for taking part in a student protest. Mandela received a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Africa in 1943 and began studying law. In 1952 he and Tambo opened the first Black-owned law firm in South Africa.

In 1944 Mandela joined a Black-liberation organization called the African National Congress (ANC) and helped found its influential Youth League. He quickly rose to a position of leadership in the ANC, becoming a member of its National Executive Committee in 1949.

Mandela’s first jail sentence, which was suspended, was for helping lead the ANC’s 1952 Defiance Campaign, in which thousands of volunteers peacefully violated the apartheid laws. Along with many other ANC leaders, Mandela was arrested and tried for treason in 1956. After a long trial, he was acquitted in 1961. Mandela divorced his first wife and married Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela (Winnie Mandela) in 1958. (They divorced in 1996.)

The ANC’s anti-apartheid protests had at first been wholly nonviolent. In 1960, however, the police shot more than 200 unarmed Black protesters at Sharpeville, and the government banned the ANC. Mandela then began to advocate acts of destruction. He helped found a military wing of the ANC, called Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the Nation”), and became a fugitive.

In 1962 Mandela was caught and sentenced to five years in prison. A year later, while he was still serving that sentence, he was tried for sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy. In 1964 he was sentenced to life in prison. Mandela was kept in Robben Island Prison, off Cape Town, until 1982, when he was transferred to the maximum-security Pollsmoor Prison. In 1988, after being treated for tuberculosis, he was transferred to Victor Verster Prison outside of Cape Town.

Winnie Mandela spearheaded a campaign to free Mandela. It gained vast support among both South Africa’s Black population and the international community that condemned apartheid. On February 11, 1990, the administration of President F.W. de Klerk set Mandela free.

Once freed, Mandela continued the work of ending apartheid. He became the ANC’s deputy president in March 1990 and its president in July 1991. In that office, he negotiated important agreements with de Klerk to end apartheid and bring about the peaceful change to nonracial democracy in South Africa. Mandela and de Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their achievements.

In 1994 South Africans of all races were allowed to vote in the country’s first fully democratic election. Mandela was elected president. During his presidency, Mandela focused on improving the living standards of the country’s Black population, while advocating peaceful reconciliation with the white population. In 1995 he established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It was formed to investigate human rights violations committed during the apartheid era. He signed into law a new democratic constitution in 1996. The following year, Mandela resigned his post with the ANC.

Mandela married Graça Machel, the widow of former president of Mozambique Samora Machel, in 1998. Mandela retired from active politics in 1999, after his term as the country’s president ended.

After his presidency, Mandela set up the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The group promoted peace and the protection of human rights. Mandela also supported other causes, such as fighting AIDS and ending world poverty. In 2007 he became a founding member of the Elders, a group of international leaders. It was formed to promote peaceful conflict resolution and problem solving throughout the world.

Mandela’s writings and speeches were collected in several books. His autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, was published in 1994. Mandela died on December 5, 2013, in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 2024, 14 locations within South Africa that were important in Mandela’s life and the country’s struggle for human rights were grouped together as a UNESCO World Heritage site.