Early Years

Mandela was born on 18th July 1918 and grew up poor in a small                                                       South African village. When Mandela was nine, he was adopted by                                                      and sent to live with his father’s friend, a prosperous clan chief.

Mandela was the first of his family going to school, there he                                                               learned about African history and his ancestors’ struggles with                                                           discrimination. He wanted to help his countrymen. So he later                                                            traveled to Johannesburg, where he studied law and opened the                                                         country’s first black law practice. He also joined the African National                                                   Congress, a group that fought for racial equality.

Fight Against Apartheid

In 1948, the government introduced apartheid, which left the country’s nonwhite majority with few economic opportunities. In response, Mandela traveled throughout South Africa and encouraged people to take part in nonviolent demonstrations against the government. He was arrested for organizing anti-government activities and eventually sentenced to life in prison. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities,” he said during his trial. “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.”

Mandela’s imprisonment led people protest all around the world and economic sanctions, or limits on trade, against his country.

First Black President

On 11th February 1990, South African president de Klerk released Mandela from prison, and the two worked together to end apartheid. Three years later, they won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

In 1994, for the first time in South African history, black peopel were allowed to vote in democratic elections. Mandela was elected president by an overwhelming majority. While in office, he worked to improve housing, education, and economic opportunities for the country’s large black population.