Nelson Mandela
Leader of the struggle against apartheid who spent twenty-seven years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, and in 1994 became South Africa’s first black president.
| Lived | 1918 – 2013 |
| Known as | President of South Africa |
| Birthplace or main place | Mvezo |
| Places on the map | Johannesburg, Cape Town |
MvezoSee the world of Nelson Mandela in the interactive map
Who ruled these places in his lifetime
| Place | At birth (map of 1914) | At death (map of 2010) |
|---|---|---|
| Mvezo | South Africa | same |
| Johannesburg | South Africa | same |
| Cape Town | South Africa | same |
From the border maps nearest to each date; borders are approximate.
Events in his lifetime
| Year | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | The Soweto uprising | Johannesburg |
| 1990 | Nelson Mandela speaks from City Hall after his release | Cape Town |
| 1994 | South Africa's first multiracial election | Johannesburg |
Battles and sites of the time
- Robben Island · 1964
Further reading
Contemporaries
| Lived | Person | |
|---|---|---|
| c. 1897 – 1978 | Jomo Kenyatta | First president of Kenya |
| 1892 – 1975 | Haile Selassie I | Emperor of Ethiopia |
| 1909 – 1972 | Kwame Nkrumah | First leader of Ghana |
| 1890 – 1970 | Charles de Gaulle | President of France |
| 1918 – 1970 | Gamal Abdel Nasser | President of Egypt |
| 1890 – 1969 | Ho Chi Minh | Vietnamese revolutionary leader |
| 1874 – 1965 | Winston Churchill | British prime minister |
| 1889 – 1964 | Jawaharlal Nehru | First prime minister of India |
| 1879 – 1955 | Albert Einstein | Physicist |
| 1878 – 1953 | Joseph Stalin | Soviet leader |
Last updated 9 November 2026. Sources: border data from historical-basemaps, land and rivers from Natural Earth; texts written for Chronica Maps from standard reference works. How we make the maps.