Nelson Mandela was born in Transkei, South Africa on July 18, 1918 . The first in his family to receive a formal education, Mandela completed his primary studies at a local missionary school. In 1939 Mandela entered the elite University of Fort Hare, the only Western-style higher learning institute for South African blacks at the time. The following year, he and several other students, including his friend and future business partner Oliver Tambo , were sent home for participating in a boycott against university policies. He studied law at the University of Witwatersrand. In 1944, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC) and worked with fellow party members, including Oliver Tambo, to establish its youth league, the ANCYL. That same year, he met and married his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase. He was a South African political activist who spent over 20 years in prison for his opposition to the apartheid regime. He was released in 1990 and, in 1994, was later elected the first leader of a democratic South Africa. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with F.W. de Klerk) in 1993 for his work in helping to end racial segregation in South Africa. He is considered the father of a democratic South Africa and widely admired for his ability to bring together a nation, previously divided by apartheid. Nelson Mandela is one of the most admired political leaders of the Twentieth and Twenty First Century for his vision to forgive and forge a new ‘rainbow’ nation.
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. ”and “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” That made me accomplish in my life.