Nelson Mandela:

            The South African leader rose from rural obscurity to become one of the world's most respected and loved figures. 









          National Anthem South Africa - Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika - Khayelitsha United Mambazo Choir


             Nelson Mandela: A nation's father
Former South African president's struggle and sacrifices made him one of the world's most revered statesmen.

Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the village of Mviza in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. His father was a counselor to a local king. He chose for his son the name Rolihlahla, which translated from Xhosa means literally “pulling a branch off a tree” — or, more colloquially, “troublemaker.” A schoolteacher would confer upon him the name Nelson.

              Nelson Mandela in 1937, around the time he began college. As a youth, he enjoyed gardening and boxing.

He joined the African National Congress in 1943 to resist the apartheid system devised by the all-white National Party. He thereafter helped to found the ANC Youth League.

The ANC was outlawed in 1960 and Mandela went underground. He was eventually arrested and charged with seeking to overthrow the government. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1964.
 Nelson Mandela spent a sizable part of his life incarcerated in prison, yet retained a mass appeal that few world leaders could ever hope to match.

One of the world's most recognisable fighters against inequality and oppression, he spent 27 years in prison for his active opposition to South Africa's racist apartheid regime. He then rose to become the country's first democratically elected president - a position that he voluntarily retired from after just one term.

Throughout the anti-apartheid struggle and during his years as a national leader, he maintained a commitment to socialist values and always defended those who were oppressed. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

With his first wife Evelyn, in 1944, left. They had four children before divorcing in 1958. The same year, Mandela married Winnie, right, they had two daughters. He would ultimately divorce her as well and remarry again in 1998.

             Key moments of Mandela's history with the US


             “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” — Nelson Mandela

                     Mandela release from prison speech (full speech)



                                     ESPY Awards - Nelson Mandela