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Nelson Mandela

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Incarcerated by his country's government for 27 years, Nelson Mandela is one of the most inspirational and best-loved world leaders of the 20th century. After almost 50 years spent fighting apartheid, he became the first democratically elected President of South Africa at the age of 71, four years after emerging from Victor Verster prison.

Born Rolihlahla Mandela – "Nelson" came later, added by a primary school teacher – in South Africa on July 18, 1918, he was groomed for the role of chief of Thembuland after his father's death. Following a boarding school education, he enrolled at Fort Hare college where he continued until his participation in student protests against white colonial rule forced him to finish his studies by correspondence.

Upon learning his guardian was planning an arranged marriage for him, Mandela fled and joined a law firm in Johannesburg as an apprentice articles clerk. It was during this period that he started to take an interest in politics, joining the African National Congress in 1942.

Involvement in programmes of passive resistance led to him becoming targeted by the government in a protracted "treason trail". When the country was convulsed by 1960's Sharpeville Massacre – in which the police opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protestors, killing 56 people – the authorities came down hard on all opposition. The ANC was declared illegal and Mandela went underground to lead the newly outlawed organisation. To evade the government Mandela disguised himself – sometimes as a labourer, at other times as a chauffeur – earning the sobriquet of Black Pimpernel.

In 1961, concerned that its peaceful methods didn’t seem to be bringing about a change in the apartheid system, the ANC founded the armed movement Umkhonto we Sizwe. "I came to the conclusion," explained Mandela, "that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force."

After several months spent travelling outside South Africa, Mandela was arrested after being charged with leaving the country illegally and incitement to strike. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in 1962. Within months, his fellow ANC leaders had also been arrested and Mandela was accused of sabotage. They were facing the death sentence.

When the trial drew to a close in 1964, he was given a life sentence. But despite being incarcerated in the maximum security prison of Robben Island, seven kilometres off the coast of Capetown, Mandela had no intention of giving up the fight. Along with other inmates he instigated a remarkable education system in which prisoners gave each other classes in history, economics, politics or philosophy. And during his nearly three decades of imprisonment, Mandela never once compromised his political principles, rejecting all offers of freedom and sentence reduction.

But change for South Africa had to come eventually – and when it did, the imprisoned ANC leader played a major role in events. Since 1986 Mandela had been involved in secret talks with government ministers. These came to fruition on February 2, 1990, when FW de Klerk, South Africa's then president, lifted the ban on the ANC, and with it, Mandela's sentence.

When, nine days later, Mandela was released, the world celebrated. In 1993 he and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa" and in May of the following year, the man who had walked to freedom just four years previously, became the country's first democratically elected president.

Mandela has been married three times. In 1957, after 13 years of marriage, he divorced his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko, with whom he had three children. The following year he married Winnie, a prominent ANC activist 16 years his junior. They had two daughters before separating in 1992 and divorcing four years later. A statement issued by the ANC announcing their separation bears testament to the warmth of Mandela's character. "My love for her remains undiminished," it read. "I part from my wife with no recriminations. I embrace her with all the love and affection I have nursed for her inside and outside prison from the moment I first met her."

He is now married to Graça Machel, the widow of Samora Machel, a freedom fighter from Mozambique who, like Mandela, rose to become his country's president. They tied the knot in a simple ceremony on Mandela's 80th birthday, when she was 52. The current South African president, Thabo Mbeki, then Mandela's deputy, gave a press conference afterwards. "When asked to kiss, they kissed," he reported, "and the President said it was the first time he had kissed her."

In June 1999, Mandela retired from public office. His autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom, published in 1994, tells his story in moving and articulate terms and is a best-seller. He and Graça now live in his childhood home town of Qunu, but are still the guests of heads of state throughout the world. He has been awarded over 50 honorary degrees and is a tireless worker for good causes. His own charity, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, is supported by people from one end of the globe to the other, including model Naomi Campbell, who calls Mandela her grandfather.

In 2003 he launched an initiative to fight Aids in Africa called "46664", after his prisoner number from his days behind bars. "Millions of people today infected with Aids are just that – a number," said Mandela at the campaign launch in London. "That's why for the first time, I am allowing my prison number to be used, to brand this campaign. A tragedy of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Africa."

Unbelievably, the legendary statesman shows no sign of rancour or bitterness about the suffering he endured while fighting for his people. "No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate. And if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite," he says.

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