Nelson Mandela, born 18 July 1918, was South Africa's eleventh president and its first democratically elected president. Before his election to the presidency, Nelson Mandela protested against apartheid by leading the African National Congress (ANC). He was jailed for 27 years on a charge of sabotage for his work with the ANC.

The apartheid government deemed him a terrorist at the same time he was becoming a hero to anti-apartheid groups. Nelson Mandela was seen internationally as being responsible for helping to end apartheid. In 1993, three years after his freedom from the confines of jail, Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

South Africans call Nelson Mandela either "mkhulu" which means grandfather, or Madiba, the Mandela family name for a respected elder. Nelson Mandela was given his first name by a school teacher who had trouble saying his actual first name, Rolihlahla. She called him "Nelson" after Horatio Nelson, the British admiral. Mandela was seven years old when he started school and was the first one in his family to go to school.

Nelson Mandela finished the three year Junior Certificate program at the Clarkebury Boarding Institute, a missionary school, in only two years. He attended the University of South Africa (UNISA) and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree while clerking in a law firm. Apartheid was a way of life in the 1950's, given the political climate of South Africa. Mandela and his friend and law partner, Oliver Tambo, did pro bono and reduced cost legal work for blacks. They were also involved in the cause against apartheid, believing that blacks and whites should not be segregated.

Nelson Mandela, along with a group of anti-apartheid protesters, was arrested on the charge of treason in 1956. The whole group was acquitted. Mandela soon gave up on non-violent protests as these tactics were not successful and the opposition's violence was only getting worse. Seeing no other way, Mandela led an armed division of the ANC. Mandela's violent strategy amounted to human rights violations, since the guerrilla warfare by the ANC killed many civilians, but he insisted it was the only way to end apartheid.

Nelson Mandela was arrested 5 August 1962 and released from prison 2 February 1990. Pro-apartheid South African president, P.W. Botha, had a stroke in 1989 and Botha's replacement, Frederik Willem de Klerk, freed Mandela. Botha had once offered Nelson Mandela release from jail in 1985, but only on the condition that Mandela would stop the armed conflict. Nelson Mandela chose to stay in prison as he believed it was the right thing to do in order to put an end to apartheid.