Prior to his presidency, Mandela was an activist against apartheid, and he was the leader of the armed wing of the African National Congress.  He was convicted by the South African courts of sabotage as well as other charges when he led the movement in his country against apartheid.  Because of his conviction, Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison, many of those years were spent on Robben Island.  After his release from prison, he supported negotiation as well as reconciliation in order to develop multi-racial democracy in the country.  Following the end of apartheid, many people have given Mandela praise, and this includes some of his former opponents.  He is now a statesman who states his opinion about many topics.  For his work, he had received more than 250 awards, and the most notable of these awards is probably the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. 

Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, a small village that was located in the district of Umtata.  His patrilineal great grandfather was the King of the Thembu pople.  Since he was only of the Inkosi's child by way of a wife of the Ixhiba clan, Nelson was unable to succeed to the Thembu throne.  When Mandela was nine years old, his father died from tuberculosis, and the regent, named Jongintaba, became the guardian of Mandela.  He went to a Wesleyan mission school.  At age sixteen he was initiated and attended the Clarkebury Boarding Institute.  He was able to complete his certificate in only two years rather than the typical three.  He then moved to Healdtown and attended school at the Wesleyan college in Fort Beaufort, and when he was nineteen, he was interested in running and boxing. 

After he enrolled, he studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo.  After he left Fort Hare, he was told by Jongintaba that he had an arranged marriage.  He was unhappy about this development and decided he would relocate to Johannesburg.  He was able to find a job as a guard, but he was terminated when it was learned that he was the runaway ward of the Regent's.  Mandla joined a law firm where he was an articled clerk and completed his B.A. degree from the University of South Africa through correspondence.  Then he began to study law at the University of Witwatersand, where he became friends with Joe Solvo, Harry Schwars, and Ruth First, future anti-apartheid activists. 

When the Afrikaner-dominated National Party won the election in 1948, Mandela began becoming involved in politics, as the National Party advocated the apartheid policy of segregation based on race.  During this time period, Mandela and Tambo operated their law firm in which they provided low cost legal counseling for black people who did not have attorney representation.  Mandela was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, and Mandela even participated in the New Delhi conference of Gandhi's introduction of satyagraha in the country of South Africa. 

At this time, Mandela was committed to nonviolent resistance.  He was charged with 150 others with treason on December 5, 1956.  The Treason Trial began, and they received acquittals. 

In 1961, Nelson Mandela became the leader of he ANC's armed wing called the Umkhonto we Sizwe, with which he coordinated campaigns of sabotage against both government and military targets.  They made plans for guerrilla war if the sabotage did not end apartheid.  On August 5 of 1962, Mandela was arrested following a life on the run for seventeen months.  The arrest was accomplished because of a tip by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, which tipped off the security police as to his disguise and where he was hiding.  In October of 1962, Mandela was sentenced to five years living in prison.  Nelson Mandela was on Robben Island for his imprisonment for eighteen out of twenty-seven of his total years in prison.  While he was in jail, he developed a reputation.  While there, he performed hard labor.  Prisoners were segregated.  Prisoners for political reasons received less privileges.  He was allowed one letter and one visitor every six months. 

Nelson Mandela was released in February of 1990 and he returned to lead the ANC.  An ANC leader, Chris Hani, was killed in April of 1993, and Mandela pleaded for calm.   The first multi-racial elections in the country were held on April 27 of 1994.  The ANC won 62% of the votes, and since Mandela was the leader of the ANC, he would become president.  This occurred on May 10, 1994, and he became the first black president in the country.  He was the President from May of 1994 until June of 1999. 

Nelson Mandela has been married three times.  He married Evelyn Ntoko Mase, but they broke up in 1957 after thirteen years of marriage.  The cause of divorce may have been the stress of constant absences as well as the fact that she was of Jehovah's Witness faith, which requires political neutrality.  The couple had two sons together, Madiba Thembekile and Makgatho Mandela.  They also had two daughters, and both were named Makaziwe Mandela.  The first died at nine months of age.  All of their children received their education at the United World College of Waterford Kamhlaba.  The first son died in a car crash in 1969 when he was only twenty five years old, and his father was not allowed to attend his son's funeral.  Makgatho died from AIDS in 2005.  Mandela's second wife, Winne Madikizela-Mandela, was the first black social worker in Johannesburg.  Together they had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa.  Zindzi was eighteen months old when her dad was put in prison.  Their marriage ended with a divorce in March of 1996, but for much of their marriage, he was imprisoned.  His third marriage was when he was eighty one years old, and he was married to Graca Machel, who was the widow of former Mozambican president Samora Machel, who had been killed in an air crash twelve years prior.  The wedding occurred after months of negotiations for the bride price to be given to Machel's clan. 

In July of 2001, Nelson Mandela was diagnosed with prostate cancer and was treated for it, which included seven weeks of radiation treatment.  When he was 85 years old in 2004, he announced that he would not be involved in political life any more.  He wanted to spend his final years with his family.  Now he has white hair and walks with the support of a stick. 

Since Mandela has retired, he has been fighting against AIDS, as his son Makgatho Mandela died from AIDS in 2005.  

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