Nelson Mandela: The Life Story Behind the Freedom Fighter

Nelson Mandela is the most admired leader of the twentieth century, and he earned that admiration not by winning a war, but by refusing to hate the people who had imprisoned him for twenty-seven years. He was born in a small village in South Africa, he became a lawyer, he joined the fight against apartheid, the system of racial segregation that ruled his country, and he spent the best years of his life in prison, on a cold island, breaking rocks and sleeping in a small cell. When he was finally freed, at the age of seventy-one, he did not seek revenge. He sought reconciliation, and he led his country to freedom, and he became its first Black president, and a symbol of forgiveness for the whole world.

He was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo, in the Transkei region of South Africa, to a chief of the Thembu people, and he was given the name Rolihlahla, which means pulling the branch of a tree, or troublemaker, a name that proved to be fitting. He was the first member of his family to go to school, and his teacher gave him the English name Nelson, as was the custom for African children in those days. He grew up in the countryside, herding cattle, listening to the stories of his elders, and learning the traditions of his people, and he also learned, from a young age, that the world was not fair, that Black people in South Africa were treated as second-class citizens in their own country.

What followed is one of the great stories of the modern world: a boy from a village who became a lawyer in Johannesburg, who joined the African National Congress, who was tried for treason, who was sentenced to life in prison, who spent twenty-seven years behind bars, and who walked out of prison to lead his country to democracy. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, he became president in 1994, and he died on 5 December 2013, at the age of ninety-five, mourned by the whole world. This is the story of a man who never gave up, who never hated, and who showed the world that forgiveness is stronger than revenge.

A Village Boy in the Transkei

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo, in the Transkei, a region of South Africa that was home to the Xhosa people, and the son of Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, a chief of the Thembu people, and Nosekeni Fanny. He was the youngest of his father’s four wives’ children, and he grew up in a large, extended family, in a world shaped by tradition, by the land, and by the stories of his ancestors. He herded cattle as a boy, he played in the fields, and he listened to the elders talk about the history of his people, and about the coming of the white man, and the loss of their land.

When he was seven, he became the first member of his family to attend school, and his teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave him the name Nelson, because it was the custom to give African children an English name at school. He was a good student, and he was curious, and he wanted to learn, and he went on to the Clarkebury Boarding Institute, and then to Healdtown, a Methodist school, where he learned English, history, and the values of the church. He was a serious boy, and he was also a boy who loved sport, especially boxing and running, and who was known for his discipline and his determination.

When his father died, when Nelson was nine, he was taken in by Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the regent of the Thembu people, who became his guardian and who raised him as his own son, in the Great Place at Mqhekezweni, where Nelson learned about leadership, about justice, and about the traditions of his people. He watched the regent hold court, listening to the complaints of his people, and settling disputes with wisdom and fairness, and he learned that a leader must listen, must be patient, and must serve his people, not rule over them. Those lessons stayed with him for the rest of his life, and they shaped the leader he became.

He went to the University of Fort Hare in 1939, the only university in South Africa that admitted Black students at the time, where he studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree, and where he met Oliver Tambo, who became his lifelong friend and comrade, and where he began to think about politics, about the injustice of apartheid, and about what he could do to change it. He was expelled from Fort Hare for joining a student protest, and he went to Johannesburg, where he worked, studied law, and began the journey that would make him a freedom fighter.

Johannesburg, Law, and the African National Congress

In Johannesburg, Mandela worked as a clerk in a law firm, studied law by correspondence, and eventually qualified as a lawyer, opening the first Black law firm in South Africa with Oliver Tambo in 1952. The firm, Mandela and Tambo, was a small office in Johannesburg, but it was a place where Black people, who had no rights and no money, could come for help, and where Mandela and Tambo defended them against the laws of apartheid, which were designed to keep Black people poor, powerless, and separate from white people. It was dangerous work, and it was poorly paid, but it was work that mattered, and Mandela loved it, because it allowed him to help his people.

He joined the African National Congress, the ANC, in 1944, and he became a leader of its Youth League, a group of young men who believed that the ANC, which had been peaceful and moderate, needed to be more active, more militant, and more determined. He organised protests, boycotts, and strikes, and he became a national figure, known for his speeches, his courage, and his willingness to be arrested for the cause. He married Evelyn Mase in 1944, and they had four children, although the marriage ended in divorce in 1958, partly because of the pressures of his political work, and partly because Evelyn did not share his commitment to the struggle.

In the 1950s, the South African government, led by the National Party, introduced apartheid, a system of laws that separated Black and white people in every part of life: where they could live, where they could work, where they could go to school, and whom they could marry. Mandela and the ANC opposed apartheid, and they organised a campaign of defiance, in which Black people deliberately broke the unjust laws, and were arrested, in the hope that the world would see the injustice and act. Mandela was arrested many times, he was banned from speaking in public, and he was put on trial for treason in 1956, in a trial that lasted for five years, and that ended in his acquittal, although the government continued to harass him.

In 1960, after the Sharpeville Massacre, in which police killed sixty-nine Black protesters, the government banned the ANC, and Mandela went underground, travelling in disguise, organising resistance, and, in 1961, co-founding Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Spear of the Nation, the armed wing of the ANC, which carried out acts of sabotage against government buildings, in the belief that peaceful protest alone was no longer enough. It was a difficult decision, and Mandela later said that he had chosen sabotage because he did not want to kill people, but because he wanted to put pressure on the government, and to show that the people would not accept apartheid forever.

The Rivonia Trial and a Sentence of Life

In 1963, Mandela was arrested at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, near Johannesburg, where the leaders of Umkhonto we Sizwe were meeting, and he was put on trial, with nine other men, for sabotage and for plotting to overthrow the government. The trial, known as the Rivonia Trial, lasted from October 1963 to June 1964, and it was one of the most famous trials in history. Mandela, who was the first accused, gave a speech from the dock, a speech that lasted for four hours, in which he explained why he had fought against apartheid, why he believed in democracy, and why he was prepared to die for his beliefs. He said that he had fought against white domination, and that he had fought against Black domination, and that he had cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities, an ideal for which he was prepared to die.

The speech moved the world, and it saved his life, because the judge, although he found Mandela guilty, did not sentence him to death, as the prosecution had asked, but to life imprisonment. Mandela and his fellow accused were sent to Robben Island, a cold, windswept island off the coast of Cape Town, where political prisoners were held, and where Mandela would spend eighteen of the next twenty-seven years. It was a harsh place, with small cells, hard labour in a limestone quarry, and poor food, and the prisoners were treated as criminals, not as political leaders, but they organised themselves, they studied, they debated, and they kept their spirits alive, even in the hardest conditions.

On Robben Island, Mandela became a leader among the prisoners, and he was respected by both Black and white warders, because of his dignity, his discipline, and his refusal to be broken. He studied law, he read, he wrote, and he exercised, and he kept himself fit, both in body and in mind, because he believed that one day he would be free, and that he would need to be ready. He was allowed one letter every six months, and one visit every six months, and his family suffered, his children grew up without him, and his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, whom he had married in 1958, became a leader in her own right, and a symbol of the struggle, while he was in prison.

He was moved from Robben Island in 1982 to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, and then, in 1988, to Victor Verster Prison, where he lived in a small house, and where he began secret talks with the government about the future of South Africa. Those talks were the beginning of the end of apartheid, and they showed that Mandela, even after twenty-seven years in prison, was willing to talk, to negotiate, and to forgive, because he believed that the future of his country depended on it.

Twenty-Seven Years in Prison and the Walk to Freedom

Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison, from 1964 to 1990, and those years were the making of him as a leader. In prison, he learned patience, he learned discipline, and he learned to see the world from the point of view of his jailers, as well as from the point of view of his fellow prisoners. He learned Afrikaans, the language of the white rulers, so that he could talk to them, and he learned to understand their fears, their hopes, and their history, because he knew that one day he would have to negotiate with them, and that negotiation would only work if he understood them. It was a remarkable act of empathy, and it is one of the reasons he was able to lead his country to peace.

In the 1980s, the world began to put pressure on South Africa to end apartheid, through sanctions, through boycotts, and through protests, and the government, led by President F.W. de Klerk, began to realise that apartheid could not continue. In 1989, de Klerk became president, and he began to release political prisoners, to lift the ban on the ANC, and to talk about a new South Africa. On 11 February 1990, Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison, a free man, at the age of seventy-one, holding the hand of his wife Winnie, and the whole world watched, as he raised his fist in a salute, and as he smiled, a smile that was seen in every country on earth.

His release was a moment of joy, and it was also a moment of danger, because South Africa was on the brink of civil war, with violence between Black groups, and between Black and white, and with many people who wanted revenge for the years of apartheid. Mandela’s task was to prevent that war, to lead his country to democracy, and to convince both Black and white South Africans that they could live together in peace. He did it by talking, by listening, and by forgiving, and by showing, in his own life, that reconciliation was possible.

He led the ANC in negotiations with the government, and in 1993 he and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for their work in ending apartheid peacefully, and for their commitment to a democratic South Africa. In 1994, South Africa held its first democratic elections, in which Black people could vote for the first time, and the ANC won, and Mandela became the first Black president of South Africa, and the first president elected in a fully democratic election. He was seventy-five years old, and he had waited a lifetime for that moment.

President of a Free South Africa and the Work of Reconciliation

As president, from 1994 to 1999, Mandela faced a country that was divided, poor, and scarred by decades of apartheid. He set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which invited victims and perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes to tell their stories, to confess, and to seek forgiveness, in a process that was unique in the world, and that was based on the African idea of ubuntu, the belief that a person is a person through other people, and that healing comes from truth, not from revenge. The Commission was painful, and it was controversial, but it helped South Africa to face its past, and to move forward, without a civil war.

He also worked to rebuild the country, to provide housing, water, and electricity to Black communities that had been neglected, to improve schools and hospitals, and to create a new constitution that guaranteed rights for all South Africans, regardless of race. He was a president who was loved by his people, and respected by the world, and he used his fame to raise money for children, for education, and for the fight against HIV and AIDS, which was devastating South Africa, and which he spoke about openly, even though it was a difficult subject, and even though his own son, Makgatho, died of AIDS in 2005.

He served only one term as president, from 1994 to 1999, and then he retired, saying that it was time for a younger generation to lead, and that he wanted to spend his remaining years with his family, and working for children through the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, which he had founded. It was a remarkable decision, because many leaders cling to power, and Mandela gave it up willingly, because he believed in democracy, and because he believed that a leader should know when to step aside. That decision is one of the reasons he is so admired, because it showed that he was not interested in power for its own sake, but in service to his people.

He spent his retirement in Johannesburg, and in his home village of Qunu, in the Transkei, where he had been born, and where he wanted to be buried. He was ill in his later years, and he was in hospital many times, and the world watched anxiously, hoping that he would recover, and fearing the day when he would die. He died on 5 December 2013, at the age of ninety-five, in Johannesburg, surrounded by his family, and the world mourned, with leaders from every country attending his memorial service in Soweto, and his funeral in Qunu, where he was buried beside his children, in the land of his ancestors.

Long Walk to Freedom and the Book That Told the World

While he was in prison, Mandela wrote his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, in secret, smuggling the manuscript out of Robben Island, page by page, with the help of his fellow prisoners, and the book was published in 1994, the year he became president, and it became a bestseller around the world. The book tells the story of his life, from his childhood in the Transkei, through his years as a lawyer, his time in prison, and his walk to freedom, and it is written in a calm, clear, and honest voice, without bitterness, and without hate, even though it describes a life of suffering, and a country of injustice. It is one of the great autobiographies of the twentieth century, and it is still read today, in schools, in prisons, and in homes around the world, because it shows that a person can endure, can forgive, and can lead, even after twenty-seven years behind bars.

The book also shows Mandela’s sense of humour, his love of his people, and his belief in the future, and it ends with a hope, not with anger, that South Africa will be a country where all people live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. That hope is the heart of his legacy, and it is a hope that is still being worked towards, in South Africa and in the world, by people who read his book, and who are inspired by his example. The book was made into a film in 2013, starring Idris Elba as Mandela, and the film brought his story to a new generation, who had not lived through apartheid, and who needed to learn what he had done, and why it mattered.

The Later Years, Illness, and a Death Mourned by the World

After his retirement in 1999, Mandela lived in Johannesburg, and in Qunu, his home village, where he spent time with his family, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren, and where he worked for children, through the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and through the campaign to fight HIV and AIDS, which had killed his son Makgatho in 2005, and which was devastating South Africa. He spoke openly about AIDS, even though it was a difficult subject, and even though many leaders were afraid to talk about it, because he believed that silence would kill more people than the disease, and that the world needed to face it honestly. That openness saved lives, and it is one of the proudest parts of his later years.

He became ill in his later years, and he was in hospital many times, with lung infections, and with other problems, and the world watched anxiously, hoping he would recover, and fearing the day when he would die. He died on 5 December 2013, at the age of ninety-five, in his home in Johannesburg, surrounded by his family, and the news was announced by President Jacob Zuma, who said that South Africa had lost its greatest son, and that the world had lost a great leader. Leaders from more than ninety countries attended his memorial service in Soweto, and his funeral in Qunu, where he was buried beside his children, in the land where he was born, and where his long walk had begun, and ended.

My Take:

I think Nelson Mandela is the greatest leader I have ever read about, and I do not say that because he was famous, or because he won a Nobel Prize, or because he became president. I say it because he spent twenty-seven years in prison, and when he came out, he did not hate the people who had put him there. He forgave them, and he worked with them, and he led his country to freedom without a civil war. That is a kind of greatness that is almost impossible to understand, because most of us, if we were locked up for twenty-seven years, would come out angry, and bitter, and wanting revenge. Mandela came out with love, and with a belief that his country could be better, and that is why I admire him more than any other leader in history.

What I love most about his story is the prison years, because they show what a person can become when they are tested. He was in a small cell on Robben Island, breaking rocks in a quarry, eating poor food, and seeing his family once every six months, and he did not break. He studied, he exercised, he learned Afrikaans, and he thought about the future, and he kept his dignity, even when the warders tried to take it away. I think about that when I feel sorry for myself, when I think my life is hard, and I remember that Mandela was in prison for twenty-seven years, and he never gave up hope. That is a lesson in resilience that I carry with me, and it is a lesson that anyone can learn from, no matter what their own difficulties are.

I also think about his speech at the Rivonia Trial, and how brave it was. He stood in a court, facing a possible death sentence, and he said, plainly and calmly, that he had fought against white domination and against Black domination, and that he had cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society, an ideal for which he was prepared to die. He said it knowing that the judge could sentence him to death, and he said it anyway, because he believed it, and because he wanted the world to hear it. That is courage, and it is the kind of courage that changes history, because it shows that a person is willing to die for what they believe, and that belief is stronger than fear. I am moved every time I read those words, and I think they are among the most important words ever spoken in a courtroom.

The part of his story that I find most inspiring is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, because it was such a radical idea. Instead of punishing the people who had committed crimes under apartheid, Mandela and Archbishop Tutu invited them to tell the truth, to confess, and to ask for forgiveness, and they invited the victims to tell their stories, and to be heard. It was painful, and it was controversial, and many people thought it was too soft, but it worked, in the sense that it allowed South Africa to face its past without a civil war, and to move forward as a nation. I think that is a profound lesson for the world: that truth and forgiveness can heal a country, and that revenge only makes the wound deeper. It is a lesson that is still relevant today, in many countries that are divided by history, and by hate.

I want to be honest about the difficulties of his presidency, because a full picture includes them. South Africa after apartheid was a country with huge problems: poverty, unemployment, crime, and the AIDS epidemic, which was killing millions of people, and Mandela’s government did not solve all of those problems. He was criticised, fairly, for not doing enough about AIDS, for not moving fast enough on economic reform, and for leaving too much of the old system in place. I do not think those criticisms take away from his greatness, but I think they remind us that even a great leader cannot solve every problem, and that freedom is only the beginning, not the end, of the work of building a just society. Mandela knew that, and he said so, and he stepped aside after one term, because he knew that the work would take generations.

I think about his decision to serve only one term as president, and how rare that is. Most leaders who win power want to keep it, and they change the rules to stay, and they become dictators. Mandela won power, he served for five years, and then he retired, willingly, because he believed in democracy, and because he believed that a leader should know when to go. That is a kind of humility that is almost unknown in politics, and it is one of the reasons the world respects him so much. He did not want power for its own sake. He wanted freedom for his people, and once he had helped to win it, he was content to let others carry on the work. I wish more leaders thought that way.

His personal life was not perfect, and I want to say that honestly. His first marriage ended in divorce, his second marriage to Winnie ended in separation and divorce, and his children suffered because he was in prison for so long, and because he was absent for most of their childhoods. Winnie herself became a controversial figure, and she was accused of crimes, and Mandela’s relationship with her was painful and complicated. I do not think those facts make him less great, but I think they make him more human, and they remind us that a life devoted to a cause often comes at a personal cost, and that the cost is often paid by the family. Mandela paid that cost, and his family paid it too, and that is a sad part of his story, but it is also a true part.

I also think about his book, Long Walk to Freedom, and about how it was written in prison, in secret, and smuggled out page by page, and how it became a bestseller, and a book that is still read today. He wrote it without bitterness, and without hate, even though he had every reason to be bitter, and to hate, and that is a remarkable thing. He wrote about his childhood, about his time as a lawyer, about his prison years, and about his hope for the future, and he wrote it in a voice that is calm, clear, and honest, and that voice is the voice of a man who has suffered, and who has forgiven, and who wants the reader to understand, not to pity him. I think that book is one of the great books of the twentieth century, and I think anyone who wants to understand Mandela should read it, because it is his story, in his own words, and it is a story that will stay with you long after you finish it.

I think about his son Makgatho, who died of AIDS in 2005, and about the way Mandela spoke openly about it, even though it was a painful subject, and even though many leaders were afraid to talk about AIDS. He said that his son had died of AIDS, and that the world needed to face the disease honestly, and that silence would kill more people. That openness was brave, and it saved lives, because it showed other families that they did not need to be ashamed, and that they could talk about AIDS, and seek help, and support each other. I admire that courage, and I think it is one of the most important things he did after he retired, because it used his fame to help people who were suffering, and who had no voice of their own.

Another thought that stays with me is about his retirement, and about the way he gave up power willingly, after one term, because he believed in democracy, and because he believed that a leader should know when to step aside. I have seen so many leaders who cling to power, who change the rules to stay, and who become dictators, and Mandela did the opposite. He won, he served, and he left, and he left with dignity, and with the respect of the whole world. That is a lesson for every politician, and for every person in a position of power: know when to go, and go gracefully, because the work is bigger than you, and because the future belongs to the next generation.

I also think about the day he walked out of prison, on 11 February 1990, and about the image of him holding Winnie’s hand, raising his fist, and smiling, a smile that was seen around the world. He was seventy-one, he had been in prison for twenty-seven years, and he was free, and he was smiling, not with anger, but with joy, and with hope. That image is one of the most powerful of the twentieth century, and it is a reminder that freedom is not only a political idea, but a human feeling, and that a person who has been locked up for most of his adult life can still smile, and still believe in the future. I will never forget that image, and I think it is the image that best captures who Mandela was.

Finally, I want to say something about ubuntu, the African idea that a person is a person through other people, and that we are all connected, and that our humanity depends on each other. Mandela believed in ubuntu, and he lived it, in prison, in negotiations, and as president, by listening, by forgiving, and by treating even his enemies as human beings. That is a beautiful idea, and it is an idea that the world needs today, when so many people are divided, and when so many leaders speak of hate. Mandela spoke of ubuntu, and he showed that it works, not only as a philosophy, but as a way to lead a country, and to heal a nation. I try to remember ubuntu in my own life, in small ways, by treating people with kindness, and by remembering that we are all connected.

What I take from Mandela’s life, in the end, is a lesson about forgiveness. He forgave the people who imprisoned him, he worked with them, and he led his country to peace, because he believed that hate would only destroy the future, and that love could build it. That is a simple lesson, and it is a very hard one to live, because forgiveness is not easy, and it is not natural, especially when you have been wronged. But Mandela lived it, and he showed the world that it is possible, and that it is stronger than revenge. I try to remember that when I am angry, when I feel wronged, and when I want to hate. Mandela did not hate, and his country is better because of it, and the world is better because of it. That is why I will never forget him, and why I think his story will be told for as long as people believe in freedom, in justice, and in the power of forgiveness. I also think about the children of South Africa today, who were born after apartheid ended, and who learn about Mandela in school, and who may think of him as a figure from history, like a king from a storybook. I hope they learn that he was a real person, who was afraid, who made mistakes, and who kept going, because that is a more useful lesson than the story of a perfect hero. He was a man who spent twenty-seven years in prison, and who came out and forgave, and that is a story that any child can understand, and that any adult can learn from, in any country, and in any time. I also think about the way Mandela’s name is used today, in schools, in streets, and in foundations around the world, and about how easily a name can become a slogan, and lose its meaning. He was not a slogan. He was a man who spent twenty-seven years in prison, who forgave his jailers, and who led his country to freedom, and that is a story that should be told in full, with all its difficulty, and all its pain, not as a simple tale of a hero, but as the life of a human being who chose love over hate, again and again, even when hate would have been easier. That choice is the heart of his legacy, and it is a choice that each of us can make, in our own lives, in small ways, every day.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where was Nelson Mandela born?

Nelson Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo, in the Transkei region of South Africa, the son of a Thembu chief. He was given the name Rolihlahla, meaning troublemaker, and his teacher gave him the English name Nelson when he first went to school.

How long was Nelson Mandela in prison?

Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison, from 1964 to 1990, after being sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial for sabotage. He spent eighteen years on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town, and was freed on 11 February 1990 at the age of seventy-one.

What was apartheid?

Apartheid was a system of laws in South Africa that separated Black and white people in every part of life, including where they could live, work, and go to school. It was introduced by the National Party government in the 1940s and 1950s, and Mandela and the African National Congress fought against it for decades.

What did Mandela say at the Rivonia Trial?

At the Rivonia Trial in 1964, Mandela said he had fought against white domination and against Black domination, and that he had cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony, an ideal for which he was prepared to die. The speech saved his life, as he was sentenced to life imprisonment rather than death.

When did Mandela become president of South Africa?

Mandela became president in 1994, after South Africa’s first democratic elections, in which Black people could vote for the first time. He was the first Black president of South Africa, he served one term until 1999, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 with F.W. de Klerk for ending apartheid peacefully.

When did Nelson Mandela die?

Nelson Mandela died on 5 December 2013 in Johannesburg, at the age of ninety-five, after a long illness. Leaders from around the world attended his memorial service in Soweto, and he was buried in his home village of Qunu, in the Transkei, beside his children.