Nelson Mandela’s full biography — from Mvezo to Robben Island to South Africa’s presidency. Learn about his life, family, Nobel Prize, and enduring legacy.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is the most celebrated freedom fighter of the twentieth century. Born into the Thembu royal family in a small South African village, he rose from cattle-boy to lawyer, from prisoner to president — spending 27 years behind bars before emerging to lead his nation out of apartheid and into democracy. His story is not simply one man’s biography; it is the moral history of an era.
On 10 May 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected president — the first Black head of state in his country’s history. He had cast his first-ever vote just days earlier, at the age of 75. The man who once faced the death penalty for his convictions lived to see them become the law of the land.
Quick Facts About Nelson Mandela
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela |
| Born | 18 July 1918, Mvezo, Eastern Cape, South Africa |
| Died | 5 December 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Age at Death | 95 |
| Clan Name | Madiba |
| Profession | Lawyer, Activist, Statesman, President |
| Political Party | African National Congress (ANC) |
| Presidency | 1994 – 1999 (First democratically elected President of South Africa) |
| Nobel Peace Prize | 1993 (jointly with F. W. de Klerk) |
| Spouses | Evelyn Ntoko Mase (div. 1957); Winnie Madikizela (div. 1996); Graça Machel (1998–2013) |
| Children | Six |
| Famous For | Ending apartheid; first Black President of South Africa |
Early Life: The Boy from Mvezo
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo, on the banks of the Mbashe River in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. His father, Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, was principal counsellor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo. His mother, Nonqaphi Nosekeni, was his father’s third wife. The name Rolihlahla is a Xhosa term that loosely translates to “troublemaker” — a fitting start for the man who would challenge an entire system of government.
When Mandela was around 12 years old, his father died and he became a ward of the Acting King, Jongintaba, at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni. Raised in a traditional Xhosa environment, he herded cattle, listened to tribal elders recount stories of ancestral resistance, and developed an early yearning to contribute to the freedom of his people. At his local primary school in Qunu, a teacher named Miss Mdingane gave him the English name Nelson — a common colonial-era custom.
Education: From Fort Hare to Johannesburg
Mandela completed his junior certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute and matriculated at Healdtown, a respected Wesleyan secondary school. He then began studying for a Bachelor of Arts at the University College of Fort Hare — at the time, the only Western-style university available to Black South Africans. His academic career was cut short in 1940 when he was expelled for joining a student protest, a decision that revealed his willingness to pay a personal price for principle.
He fled to Johannesburg in 1941 rather than accept an arranged marriage brokered by the King. In the city, he worked as a mine security officer and eventually met Walter Sisulu, who introduced him to the law firm Witkin, Eidelman and Sidelsky. Mandela completed his BA through the University of South Africa in 1943 and began studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand. Though he never completed his LLB, he passed the qualification exams and, together with Oliver Tambo, established Mandela & Tambo — South Africa’s first Black-owned law firm — in the 1950s.
Fighting Apartheid: The ANC and Armed Resistance
In 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress and helped found its Youth League (ANCYL) alongside Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu. The 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party ushered in a formalised apartheid system that stripped Black South Africans of their most basic rights. Mandela’s commitment deepened with every new restriction the state imposed.
Through the 1950s, Mandela was at the forefront of nonviolent resistance: defiance campaigns, strikes, boycotts, and the drafting of the Freedom Charter in 1955 — a document calling for a nonracial social democracy. When the government banned the ANC in 1960 following the Sharpeville massacre, Mandela argued for armed resistance. In 1961, he co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the ANC’s armed wing, and spent 17 months underground organising sabotage operations against state infrastructure — deliberately avoiding attacks on civilians.
The Rivonia Trial and Life Imprisonment
Mandela was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years in prison for incitement and leaving the country illegally. In 1963, police raided the ANC’s Rivonia farm and discovered weapons and documents. Mandela was brought back to stand trial with seven colleagues on charges of plotting to overthrow the government by violence.
During the Rivonia Trial, Mandela delivered one of the most powerful courtroom statements in history. He admitted to certain charges while defending the ANC’s cause and denouncing the injustice of apartheid. He closed with the words: “It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” On 12 June 1964, Mandela and seven co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. The gallows had been narrowly avoided.
27 Years Behind Bars: Robben Island and Beyond
Mandela arrived at Robben Island in the winter of 1964. He spent 18 years there, confined to a small cell, forced to labour in a lime quarry, and permitted just one visitor and one letter every six months. Classified as the lowest-privilege category of prisoner, his existence was designed to break him. It did not.
In 1982, he was transferred to Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, where conditions were slightly better and family contact was permitted. A bout of tuberculosis in 1988 led to his hospitalisation and eventual transfer to Victor Verster Prison, where he spent his final 14 months of incarceration. In 1980, Oliver Tambo’s international Free Nelson Mandela campaign had made him a global symbol. The South African government offered him conditional release on multiple occasions; each time, Mandela refused to compromise his principles for his freedom.
Release and the End of Apartheid
On 11 February 1990, newly elected President F. W. de Klerk ordered Mandela’s release. After 27 years behind bars, Mandela walked free at the age of 71 and delivered his first public speech at Cape Town’s City Hall. He threw himself back into the freedom struggle — not with bitterness, but with extraordinary pragmatism and magnanimity.
In 1991, at the first national ANC conference held inside South Africa since the organisation’s 1960 banning, Mandela was elected President of the ANC. He and de Klerk led painstaking negotiations to dismantle apartheid, culminating in South Africa’s first fully democratic elections. In 1993, the two men were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.
The Presidency: 1994 to 1999
On 27 April 1994, Mandela voted for the first time in his life. On 10 May 1994, he was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected president. His administration focused on dismantling apartheid’s institutional legacy, fostering racial reconciliation, and building a new constitutional order. One of his most significant decisions was establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to investigate human rights abuses from the apartheid era.
Economically, his government retained a broadly liberal framework while introducing land reform measures, expanding healthcare, and combating poverty. On the international stage, he served as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and as Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. True to his word, Mandela stepped down after a single term in 1999, handing power to Thabo Mbeki — a voluntary relinquishment of power that itself became a statement about democratic governance.
Personal Life and Later Years
Mandela married three times. His first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, bore him four children before their divorce in 1957. He married Winnie Madikizela in 1958, and their union — strained enormously by his imprisonment — ended in divorce in 1996. On his 80th birthday in 1998, he married Graça Machel, the widow of Mozambique’s former president, who remained by his side until his death.
Following his presidency, Mandela devoted himself to the Nelson Mandela Foundation (established 1999), the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (established 1995), and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation (established 2003). After the AIDS-related death of his son Makgatho in 2005, he became a vocal advocate through the 46664 Campaign — named after his own prison number. In 2009, the United Nations officially designated 18 July as Nelson Mandela International Day. He retired from public life in 2004 and died at his Johannesburg home on 5 December 2013, aged 95. He was buried in Qunu, his childhood village.
Net Worth and Legacy
Mandela’s personal wealth was modest relative to his global stature. His estate was valued at approximately $4.1 million (around 50 million South African rand) at the time of his death, consisting largely of his Johannesburg home, royalties from Long Walk to Freedom, and other assets. His true legacy, however, is immeasurable: a South Africa transformed, a global moral vocabulary enriched, and a demonstration that one person’s refusal to compromise their principles can alter the course of history.
In Summary
Nelson Mandela’s life resists simple summary. He was a royal son who renounced privilege, a lawyer who took up arms, a prisoner who refused freedom on his captor’s terms, and a president who voluntarily gave up power. He bore suffering without becoming bitter, wielded authority without becoming corrupt, and forgave without forgetting.
Mandela once wrote: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” The end of apartheid — peaceful, negotiated, democratic — seemed impossible. He did it. That is the measure of the man.
His name has entered every major language on earth as a synonym for moral courage. Eighteen July, his birthday, is marked annually by millions performing acts of service in his honour. Long after the politics of his era have receded, Madiba endures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: Who was Nelson Mandela?
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid activist, lawyer, and statesman who served as the first democratically elected president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Born on 18 July 1918, he spent 27 years in prison for his activism before leading his country’s peaceful transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy.
Q2: How long was Nelson Mandela in prison?
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, from 1964 to 1990. He served 18 of those years at Robben Island Prison off the coast of Cape Town, before being transferred to Pollsmoor Prison and later Victor Verster Prison, from which he was released on 11 February 1990.
Q3: What did Nelson Mandela win the Nobel Prize for?
Mandela was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 alongside South African President F. W. de Klerk. The prize recognised their joint efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to the apartheid system and establish the foundation for a multiracial democratic South Africa.
Q4: Who were Nelson Mandela’s wives?
Mandela married three times. His first wife was Evelyn Ntoko Mase (married 1944, divorced 1957). His second was Winnie Madikizela (married 1958, divorced 1996). His third and final wife was Graça Machel, whom he married on his 80th birthday in 1998. She remained with him until his death in 2013.
Q5: What was Nelson Mandela’s prison number?
Nelson Mandela’s prison number was 46664 — representing the 466th prisoner admitted to Robben Island in 1964. He later used this number as the name of his HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, the 46664 Campaign, launched after his son Makgatho died of AIDS in 2005.
Q6: When and how did Nelson Mandela die?
Nelson Mandela died on 5 December 2013, at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa, following a prolonged lung infection. He was 95 years old. He was buried on 15 December 2013 in Qunu, the Eastern Cape village where he spent his childhood.
Q7: What is Nelson Mandela Day?
Nelson Mandela International Day is observed on 18 July each year — Mandela’s birthday. It was officially proclaimed by the United Nations in 2009 and encourages people worldwide to devote 67 minutes to community service, reflecting the 67 years Mandela spent in public service.
