1. By Charlie Bourke 5 th Class

2. Nelson Mandela was born on the 18 of July 1918 He was originaly called Rolihlaha Mandela but when he went to school his name was changed to Nelson. He was given the name ‘Madiba’ by his tribe.

3. At the age of seven Nelson joined a small school for poor black children. On his first day of school his teacher gave him the name Nelson. Even though Nelson was at school all day when he camee home in the evenings he would help out at home with the animals.

4. One day when Nelson came home from school he was shocked to hear that his father had died. The new chief of the Thembu tribe decided to adopt Nelson. At the age of 16 Nelson was sent to a boarding school. When he finished university he went on to be a qualified lawyer.

5. Nelson and his friend Oliver Tambo decided to set up a group called the “African National Congress” Nelson and his friend had now spread the word of their society to millons of south africans that didn’t agree with the government being made up of white people.

6. When the government ignored their peaceful protests they decided that they would not co-operate either. But the government got word of this society and it was banned.

7. Life in jail Now the government had found out about the ANC Nelson was put to jail. Nelson was sentenced to life in prison. As time went on people all over the world had heard about mandela and they demanded that he would be released and they were successful.

8. On the 11 of february 1990 Nelson was released after serving 10,000 days in prison. After all that the white government had put him through he forgave them and that is only one thing that makes nelson so inspiring all around the world.

9. At that time the laws were so bad for black people in south africa that even if they drank from the wrong water fountain once the would be thrown into jail. And they got treated very poorly even if they never did anything wrong.

10. In 1994 black people were allowed vote in elections for the first time and Nelson was elected as the first black president of south africa. In 1993 Nelson won the nobel peace award.