Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born Transkei, South Africa in 1918 and died in 2013.
He was a lawyer in Johannesburg, then he joined African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 and for the next twenty years conducted a campaign of defiance against the South Africa government and its racist policies.
He continued to be such potent symbol for black resistance that in 1980s a coordinated international campaign was begun for his release. In 1990 he was released from prison. He was elected president of the African National Congress in 1991, a position from which he resigned in 1997.
In 1993 he shared a noble prize with President Fredrik Williem De Klerk for their work towards the dismantling and apartheid, and in 1995 he was awarded for order of merit. He retired in 1999.