Nelson Mandela was born in Muezo, South Africa on 18th July 1918. He had got curly hair and black skin. His father died when he was nine and he went to live with a chief of the Thembu tribe. Nelson grew up in two worlds: the traditional culture of his tribe and the terrible reality of apartheid. In 1939 he started to study law at the university and left in 1942.
He started working in a law company. During this time he was living in Alexander and was very poor. In 1952 he started his own law company with a friend, Oliver Tambo. They defended black Africans.
It was at this time that Nelson Mandela became active in the ANC (African National Congress) and he began to have problems with the police because of his anti- apartheid views. He was very active in politics and he spent very little time with his family because he was often hiding from the police – or in prison. He went to prison in 1964 and spent a total of 27 years there.
He was finally released in February 1990 and continued his work as a freedom fighter. He had a lot of international support and on May 2nd 1994, he became South Africa’s first black president.
He married Winnie, his second wife, in 1958 and they had two daughters called Zenani and Zindzi. Two of his other four children are still living. He is now divorced from Winnie.