It’s no longer news that Nelson Mandela died on the night of December 5, 2013, but what people do not really know is the life story of this legend and how he lived it. Julia Blaise Blog (JBB) gathered a little information on how he lived. He was born Rolihlahla Mandela in a small village in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in July 18, 1918. He jined the African National Congress (ANC) in1944, and married his first wife Evelyn Mase in1948.

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In 1952, he was sentenced to nine months hard labour, suspended for two years, for civil disobedience campaign against apartheid. In 1958, he was charged with high treason as part of a round-up of 156 activists. He divorced Evelyn Mase and married social worker Winnie Madikizela in 1959.

In 1961, Mandela was acquitted of treason at the culmination of four-year trial. He went underground on the same day and was tagged, ‘The Black Pimpernel’ by the media for his ability to evade the police.

In January 1962, he used the name David Motsamayi, to leave the country and traveled around Africa and to England to gain support for the struggle and returned to South Africa in July 1962. He was arrested again in August 5, 1962 for leaving the country without a passport and inciting workers to strike.

November 7, 1962, Mandela was convicted and jailed for five years. In 1963, he joined 10 other activists on trial for sabotage in what was known as the Rivonia Trial.

He was convicted and jailed for life with seven others and sent to Robben Island in 1964. Mandela lost his mother in 1968, and his eldest son was killed in a car crash in 1969, but he was not allowed to attend their funerals.

In 1982, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town. He rejected President PW Botha’s offer to release him if he renounced violence. Mandela underwent prostate surgery in 1985. In August 1988, he was treated for tuberculosis.

After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela walked free from Victor Verster Prison, and became president of the ANC in 1991.
In May 10, 1994, Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first democratically elected president as the head of the Government of National Unity. He divorced Winnie Mandela in 1998, and married Graca Machel, former first lady of Mozambique.

He stepped down as president in 1998, as Thabo Mbeki took over after ANC won elections. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001 and went through treatment. He retired from public life in 2004.

He was admitted to hospital in Johannesburg where he was treated for a chest infection for two days in 2011, and in February 2012 he went back to the hospital for one night with abdominal pains. In December, he went back to hospital, this time with a lung infection.  In December 2012, he had an operation to remove gallstones. He returned to hospital with a recurrence of his lung infection in March 2013. He went back to the hospital June 8, and on December 5, 2013, Mandela died at age 95.