Nelson Mandela, in full Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, byname Madiba, was born July 18, 1918, Mvezo, South Africa and died December 5, 2013, Johannesburg. 

He was a black nationalist and the first Black president of South Africa (1994–99). His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de Klerk helped end the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation. 

Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader and philanthropist.

 He was the country’s first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.

He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993, along with South Africa’s president at the time, F.W. de Klerk, for having led the transition from apartheid to a multiracial democracy.

He was inaugurated into power on 10 May 1994 .

His accomplishments are now celebrated each year on July 18, Nelson Mandela International Day.

Mandela served 27 years in prison, split between Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. Amid growing domestic and international pressure and fears of racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela is one of my favorite African presidents of all time because he went to prison for 27 years fighting for peace in his country. Not every person can do that for their country.