1. Nelson Mandela’s birth name – Rolihlahla – is an isiXhosa name that means “pulling the branch of the tree”. Colloquially it also means “troublemaker”. His English name, Nelson, was given to him by a missionary schoolteacher.
2. Mr Mandela was also called ‘Madiba,’ a nickname taken from his clan. He said in Long Walk to Freedom that he was given the English name ‘Nelson’ by his teacher on his first day at school.
3. He fled the Eastern Cape for Johannesburg after Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the leader of the Tembu people, tried to set up an arranged marriage for him. After arriving in the city, he found work as a night watchman at a mine.
4. He lived in Alexandra township at first but later moved in with close friend Walter Sisulu and Sisulu’s mother in Orlando, Soweto.
5. Madiba’s first wife, Evelyn Mase, was a nurse and Sisulu’s cousin. She was the breadwinner in the family and supported Mandela while he studied law at Wits University and became further involved in politics. They had four children together and divorced in 1958.
6. He was not only the first commander in chief of the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, but was also, together with Oliver Tambo, co-founder of the country’s first black law firm, Mandela and Tambo, which defended people affected by apartheid laws.
7. Madiba was born on July 18, 1918 in South Africa.
8. The circumstances surrounding his arrest at a police roadblock outside of Howick later that year remain unclear but it is believed that an American CIA agent tipped off the police about his whereabouts. He was convicted of sabotage and attempting to violently overthrow the government.
9. During his time in prison, Madiba was restricted to a 2m x 2.5m cell, with nothing but a bedroll on the floor and a bucket for sanitation in it. He was consigned to hard labour in a lime quarry for much of that time and was, at first, only allowed one visitor and one letter every six months.
10. The apartheid government offered to release Madiba on no less than six occasions but he rejected them each time. On one such occasion Madiba released a statement saying: “I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people [the ANC] remains banned?”
11. Madiba wrote a memoir during the 70s, copies of which were wrapped in plastic containers and buried in a vegetable garden which he kept at prison. It was hoped that fellow prisoner Mac Maharaj, who was due for release, would be able to smuggle it out. But the containers were discovered when prison authorities began building a wall through the garden. As punishment, Madiba’s study privileges were revoked.
12. After he was separated from his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, he asked struggle stalwart Amina Cachalia, with whom he had a long relationship, to marry him but she turned him down. On his 80th birthday, Madiba married Graça Machel, the widow of Mozambique’s former president Samora Machel.
13. The ANC was labelled a terrorist organisation by the apartheid government and was recognised as such by countries including the US and Britain. It was only in 2008 that the United States finally removed Madiba and other ANC members from its terror list.
14. Zelda la Grange served as Madiba’s private secretary, gatekeeper and constant companion for the best part of 20 years.
15. Hundreds of awards and honours have been bestowed on Madiba. Among others, he was an honorary citizen of Canada, an honorary member of the British Labour Party, and an honorary member of Manchester United. He also had a nuclear particle (the ‘Mandela particle’), a prehistoric woodpecker (Australopicus nelsonmandelai) and an orchid (Paravanda Nelson Mandela) named after him.
16. He had a cameo in a Spike Lee film. He had a big part in Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic “Malcolm X.” At the very end of the movie, he plays a teacher reciting Malcolm X’s famous speech to a room full of Soweto school kids. But the pacifist Mandela wouldn’t say “by any means necessary.” So Lee cut back to footage of Malcolm X to close out the film.
17. He was a master of disguise. When Madiba was eluding authorities during his fight against apartheid, he disguised himself in various ways, including as a chauffeur. The press nicknamed him ‘the Black Pimpernel’ because of his police evasion tactics. “I became a creature of the night. I would keep to my hideout during the day, and would emerge to do my work when it became dark,” he says in his biography, ‘Long Walk to Freedom’.
18. Besides politics, Madiba’s other passion was boxing. “I did not like the violence of boxing. I was more interested in the science of it – how you move your body to protect yourself, how you use a plan to attack and retreat, and how you pace yourself through a fight,” he said in his biography.
19. He’s been wined and dined by world leaders. But what Madiba loved eating most was tripe, the stomach lining of farm animals.
20. He studied law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and opened the nation’s first black law firm in the city in 1952.
21. He drew his inspiration from a poem. While he was in prison, Madiba would read William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus” to fellow prisoners. The poem, about never giving up, resonated with Madiba for its lines “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” You may know it from the movie by the same name starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela.
23. In 1942, he joined the African National Congress.
24. He married Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in 1958. They had two children together but their marriage ended in divorce in 1996 due to political estrangement.
25. In 1962, he left the country to garner support for the armed struggle. During this time he received guerilla training in Morocco and Ethiopia.
26. Madiba made it a point to always arrive on time. He regarded lack of punctuality as a character flaw.
27. Madiba made his bed every morning.
28. A courtroom speech about being ready to die helped save his life. Madiba”s speech during his trial received international attention and was published as I Am Prepared to Die.
29. He served 27 years until an international campaign was established that lobbied for his successful release out of prison.
30. During his time locked up, the apartheid government offered to release him on six earlier occasions but he rejected each time.
31. He was released from prison on February 11, 1990, Madiba urged supporters to increase pressure on South Africa’s white minority government, and called on the international community to maintain its sanctions.
32. After becoming the first black president of South Africa on May 10, 1994, many feared that South Africa would descend into civil war and that there would be mass acts of violent retribution. But Madiba established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate human-rights abuses under Apartheid and largely averted bloodshed.
33. Madiba was a practicing lawyer since 1952 in Johannesburg. With Oliver Tambo, they opened the first black law firm in South Africa.
34. He has six children (Madiba, Makaziwe, Makgatho, Makaziwe, Zenani, and Zindzi), and he also had 17 grandchildren.
35. He married his third and final wife, Graca Machel when he was 80-years-old.
36. People in at least 126 countries are set to volunteer their time for the common good on Mandela Day – for the first time since Nelson Mandela’s death last year.
37. Madiba shared the Nobel Peace Prize with FW de Klerk in 1993.
38. Madiba is also an honorary member of Manchester United.
39. The fictional grandchildren of Cliff and Clair Huxtable from the popular television series, The Cosby Show were named Winnie and Nelson Tibideau after Nelson Mandela and his former wife.
40. Madiba’s chef published a cookbook of his favorite meals. Farm chicken, tripe and sour milk are some of his favorite things to eat.
41. Once he was finished with his presidency, he became an advocate in support of people suffering from HIV/Aids.
42. His only son passed away due to HIV/Aids.
43. Madiba was hospitalized for over a month in Pretoria before his death.
44. After suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection, Madiba died on December 5, 2013 at the age of 95.
45. Approximately 90 representatives of foreign states travelled to South Africa to attend his memorial events.
46. He received more than 695 awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.
47. Madiba’s prison number was 46664. The number stems from the fact that he was the 466th prisoner of 1964. He has since embraced the number, making it the name of his HIV/Aids awareness campaign and the name of a series of charity concerts benefiting said charity.
48. Madiba was 1.84m tall.
49. Madiba was born into the royal Thembu family.
50. Most people know Madiba was imprisoned at the Robben Island prison but Mandela was also held at Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison during his 27 year sentence.
51. Madiba is the only person to ever receive both the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Soviet Order of Lenin and the Nobel Peace Prize.
52. Madiba was baptized a Methodist.
53. Ballroom dancing was among Madiba’s skills.
54. Stevie Wonder dedicated to Madiba his 1985 Oscar Award for the song “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” Wonder’s music was banned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
55. Madiba was 9-years-old when his father died of a lung disease.
56. As a young boy, he lived in Qunu, a village so small that there were no roads. There were only footpaths, and families lived in huts.
57. In 1962, he left the country to garner support for the armed struggle. During this time he received guerilla training in Morocco and Ethiopia.
58. In 1997, he stepped down as ANC leader and in 1999 his presidency of South Africa came to an end.
59. Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a 2013 British-South African biographical film directed by Justin Chadwick from a script written by William Nicholson and stars Idris Elba and Naomie Harris.60. Although western media always painted him as a hero he always insisted that he was “an ordinary man who had become leader because of extraordinary circumstances”.
61. Mandela joined Johnny Clegg on stage in 1999.
62. Nelson Mandela was known as the ‘Great Black Hope’.
63. Last public appearance of Madiba was in 2010 during the FIFA World Cup South Africa. It was the final match between Netherlands and Spain at Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa.
64. Madiba received honorary degrees from more than 50 universities worldwide.
65. In 1995, Madiba encouraged South Africans to rally behind the once-hated Springboks, the national rugby team, who won the Rugby World Cup. Clint Eastwood made a movie titled “Invictus” to immortalize the historic South African win.
66. Hundreds of locations around the world, and even golf tournaments, have been named after the former president.
67. United Nations declared in 2009 that his birthdate, every July 18th, be celebrated as Nelson Mandela International Day.
Sources: www.newsone.com, Los Angelas Times, Biography.com, www.factmonster.com, www.list25.com, www.boomsbeat.com, CNN, www.inewmed.org, Mail and Guardian Online and www.wikipedia.org, News24.com
