His father was a counsellor to the Thembu royal family but he died when Nelson Mandela
was nine, and he was placed in the care.

In 1941, aged 23, he ran away from an arranged marriage and went to
Johannesburg.

He went to a mainly white university, where he met people from all races and backgrounds. He
was exposed to liberal, radical and Africanist thought, as well as racism and
discrimination, which fuelled his passion for politics.

The same year, he joined the African National Congress (ANC).
He married his first wife, Evelyn Mase, in 1944. They were divorced in 1958
after having four children.

Mr Mandela qualified as a lawyer and in 1952 opened a law practice in Johannesburg with his partner, Oliver Tambo who turned out to be one of the best and closes friends Nelson had.

In 1956, Mr Mandela was charged with high treason, along with 155 other
activists, but the charges against him were dropped after a four-year trial.

In 1958, Mr Mandela married Winnie Madikizela, who was later to take an
active role in the campaign to free her husband from prison

Tension with the apartheid regime grew, and soared to new heights in 1960
when 69 black people were shot dead by police in the Sharpeville
massacre.

He was eventually arrested and charged with sabotage and
attempting to violently overthrow the government.

In the winter of 1964 he was sentenced to life in prison.

In the space of 12 months between 1968 and 1969, Mr Mandela's mother died and
his eldest son was killed in a car crash but he was not allowed to attend the
funerals

In December 1993, Mr Mandela and Mr de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize.

Later that year, for the first time in South Africa's history, all races
voted in democratic elections and Mandela was overwhelmingly elected
president.

Mandela's greatest problem as president was the housing shortage for the
poor, and slum townships continued to blight major cities.

On his 80th birthday, Nelson Mandela married Graca Machel, the widow of the
former president of Mozambique.

Even after he stepped down as president he still travelled the world, meeting leaders, attending conferences and collecting awards

After his official retirement, his public appearances were mostly connected
with the work of the Mandela Foundation, a charitable fund that he founded.

On his 89th birthday, he formed The Elders, a group of leading world figures, "to tackle some of the world's toughest problems"

At a time when taboos still surrounded the Aids epidemic, Mr Mandela
announced that his son had died of Aids, and urged South Africans to talk about
Aids " to make it appear like a normal illness".

Nelson Mandela also played a key role in the decision to let South Africa host the 2010
football World Cup and appeared at the closing ceremony.

The first South African banknotes had his face went into circulation in
November 2012.