The South African activist and former president Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) helped bring an end to apartheid and has been a global advocate for human rights. A member of the African National Congress party beginning in the 1940s, he was a leader of both peaceful protests and armed resistance against the white minority’s oppressive regime in a racially divided South Africa.
In 1994, Mandela published his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, much of which he had secretly written while in prison. The book inspired the 2013 movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. He also published a number of books on his life and struggles, among them No Easy Walk to Freedom; Nelson Mandela: The Struggle Is My Life; and Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, from November 1962 until February 1990. Formerly committed to nonviolent protest, he began to believe that armed struggle was the only way to achieve change. In 1961, Mandela co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, also known as MK, an armed offshoot of the ANC dedicated to sabotage and use guerilla war tactics to end apartheid. In 1961, Mandela orchestrated a three-day national workers' strike. He was arrested for leading the strike the following year and was sentenced to five years in prison. In 1963, Mandela was brought to trial again. This time, he and 10 other ANC leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment for political offenses, including sabotage.
Afrikaans: Nelson Mandela
Arabic: نيلسون مانديلا
Azerbaijani: Nelson Mandela
Belarusian: Нэльсан Мандэла
Bulgarian: Нелсън Мандела
Bengali: নেলসন ম্যান্ডেলা
Bosnian: Nelson Mandela
Catalan: Nelson Mandela
Cebuano: Nelson Mandela
Czech: Nelson Mandela
Welsh: Nelson Mandela
Danish: Nelson Mandela
German: Nelson Mandela
Greek: Νέλσον Μαντέλα
English: Nelson Mandela
Esperanto: Nelson Mandela
Spanish: Nelson Mandela
Estonian: Nelson Mandela
Basque: Nelson Mandela
Persian: نلسون ماندلا
Finnish: Nelson Mandela
French: Nelson Mandela
Irish: Nelson Mandela
Galician: Nelson Mandela
Gujarati: નેલ્સન મંડેલા
Hausa: Nelson Mandela
Hindi: नेल्सन मंडेला
Hmong: Nelson Mandela
Croatian: Nelson Mandela
Haitian Creole: Nelson Mandela
Hungarian: Nelson Mandela
Armenian: Նելսոն Մանդելան
Indonesian: Nelson Mandela
Igbo: Nelson Mandela
Icelandic: Nelson Mandela
Italian: Nelson Mandela
Hebrew: נלסון מנדלה
Japanese: ネルソンマンデラ
Javanese: Nelson Mandela
Georgian: ნელსონ მანდელა
Kazakh: Нельсон Мандела
Khmer: Nelson Mandela
Kannada: ನೆಲ್ಸನ್ ಮಂಡೇಲಾ
Korean: 넬슨 만델라
Latin: Nelson Mandela
Lao: Nelson Mandela
Lithuanian: Nelsonas Mandela
Latvian: Nelsons Mandela
Malagasy: Nelson Mandela
Maori: Nelson Mandela
Macedonian: Нелсон Мандела
Malayalam: നെൽസൺ മണ്ടേല
Mongolian: Нелсон Мандела
Marathi: नेल्सन मंडेला
Malay: Nelson Mandela
Maltese: Nelson Mandela
Myanmar (Burmese): နယ်လ်ဆင်မန်ဒဲလား
Nepali: नेल्सन मंडेला
Dutch: Nelson Mandela
Norwegian: Nelson Mandela
Chichewa: Nelson Mandela
Punjabi: ਨੈਲਸਨ ਮੰਡੇਲਾ
Polish: Nelson Mandela
Portuguese: Nelson Mandela
Romanian: Nelson Mandela
Russian: Нельсон Мандела
Sinhala: නෙල්සන් මැන්ඩෙලා
Slovak: Nelson Mandela
Slovenian: Nelson Mandela
Somali: Nelson Mandela
Albanian: Nelson Mandela
Serbian: Нелсон Мандела
Sesotho: Nelson Mandela
Sundanese: Nelson Mandela
Swedish: Nelson Mandela
Swahili: Nelson Mandela
Tamil: நெல்சன் மண்டேலா
Telugu: నెల్సన్ మండేలా
Tajik: Нелсон Мандела
Thai: เนลสันแมนเดลา
Filipino: Nelson Mandela
Turkish: Nelson Mandela
Ukrainian: Нельсон Мандела
Urdu: نیلسن منڈیلا
Uzbek: Nelson Mandela
Vietnamese: Nelson Mandela
Yiddish: Nelson Mandela
Yoruba: Nelson Mandela
Chinese: 纳尔逊•曼德拉
Chinese (Simplified): 纳尔逊•曼德拉
Chinese (Traditional): 納爾遜•曼德拉
Zulu: UNelson Mandela