Nelson Mandela Born
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in Mvezo, South Africa
July 18, 1918
A Child of the Eastern Cape
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in the small village of Mvezo in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. He was the son of a chief of the Thembu people. His teacher gave him the English name Nelson on his first day of school. He was the first in his family to receive a formal education, eventually attending the University of Fort Hare and later studying law in Johannesburg. It was in the city that he became politically aware and joined the African National Congress in 1944, helping to found its Youth League.
Fighting Apartheid
South Africa's apartheid system, introduced in 1948, imposed rigid racial segregation and denied Black South Africans basic rights. Mandela rose to prominence as a leader of the resistance movement. In the 1950s he helped organize nonviolent protests, but after the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, he concluded that peaceful resistance alone could not defeat apartheid. He helped form an armed wing of the ANC. In 1964, he was convicted of sabotage and conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison. He would spend the next 27 years imprisoned, most of them on Robben Island.
Symbol, President, Icon
Mandela's imprisonment made him a global symbol of resistance to injustice. International pressure for his release grew throughout the 1980s. He was finally freed on February 11, 1990. After negotiating a peaceful transition to democracy, he became South Africa's first Black president in 1994, winning an election celebrated worldwide. He served one term and stepped down peacefully. He died on December 5, 2013, at age 95. Use the age calculator to calculate how old Mandela was when he was finally freed after 27 years in prison.