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Nelson Mandela

Political leader and president

By South African Index Editorial Desk · Published · Updated

Nelson Mandela in Washington, DC, in 1994
Photograph: John Mathew Smith · Source · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized and converted to WebP for this site.

Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid leader who served as the country’s first democratically elected president from 1994 to 1999. He and FW de Klerk jointly received the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. [1][2]

Biography

Mandela was born in Mvezo in the Eastern Cape on 18 July 1918. He helped form the African National Congress Youth League in 1944. After legal studies, he and Oliver Tambo established a law practice in Johannesburg in 1952. The Nelson Mandela Foundation notes that other Black-owned law firms existed earlier, so this record does not call theirs the first. [1]

Mandela was among defendants acquitted in the Treason Trial in March 1961. Later that year he helped establish Umkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. Arrested in August 1962, he was convicted on charges of leaving South Africa without a permit and inciting a strike. In the separate Rivonia Trial, he and seven others were convicted in June 1964 and sentenced to life imprisonment. These proceedings must not be collapsed into one case. [1]

He was released on 11 February 1990 after more than 27 years in prison. He then took part in negotiations to end white minority rule, and in 1993 shared the Nobel Peace Prize with FW de Klerk. Mandela was inaugurated on 10 May 1994 and stepped down after one presidential term in 1999. He died in Johannesburg on 5 December 2013. [1][2]

Key contributions

Participated in the negotiations that led to South Africa’s democratic transition and served as president during the first elected government. [1]

Helped establish the ANC Youth League and later the Mandela & Tambo law practice. [1]

Career timeline

  1. Born in Mvezo in the Eastern Cape. [1]

  2. Acquitted with the remaining defendants in the Treason Trial; later helped establish Umkhonto weSizwe. [1]

  3. Convicted in the Rivonia Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. [1]

  4. Released from prison on 11 February. [1]

  5. Served as South Africa’s first democratically elected president. [1]

Sources

  1. Nelson Mandela Foundation, Biography of Nelson Mandela. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-23. ↩
  2. Nobel Prize Outreach, The Nobel Peace Prize 1993. Original source. Accessed 2026-09-23. ↩