Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is a peace maker! 

Born on 18^th July 1918, Nelson Mandela was the first South African President to be elected by a fully representative democratic country after he won a very hard fought battle against apartheid and racialism. He eventually influenced his whole country to be peacemakers and created a more equal society by being one of the main voices against apartheid in South Africa.

Early in his life, Nelson became an active member of the ANC -a movement created to unite African people no matter what race they are. When the ANC was banned in 1960 he led protests to recreate it. Mandela tried everything to convince the government that apartheid was wrong, but he just couldn’t seem to get the message across. He spoke and taught the laws of peace and happiness but not many people would listen. Mandela was taken to court over suspected plotting to overthrow the government (and therefore stop apartheid) and so Mandela’s group was then sentenced to a life time’s imprisonment. During this time Mandela's reputation grew and he became known as the most significant black leader in South Africa for his anti-apartheid movement. He consistently refused to step down from his true beliefs even when he could have been released. After 27 years of imprisonment Mandela was released on February 11^th 1990. 


Mandela realised what little time he had left to change his country for good and pushed himself into his work to save South Africa from racialism. Mandela was soon after elected to be president of the ANC as well as the whole of South Africa on 10th May 1994 as the ANC won 62% of the votes in the first ever multi-racial South African elections. He truly did lead his country to peace.  Mandela received the Noble Peace Prize in 1993 for his hard work for peace.