He was born in 1918 in Mvezo, South Africa and he died in 2013 in Johannesburg.
He served 27 years in prison from 1964 to 1990.
In 1993 he received the Peace Nobel Prize together with the president of his country F.W. Klerk, for abolishing the Apartheid.
In 1994 he was elected as the President of South Africa, being the first black president of the country.
There are many films based on his life, one of them is Invictus: about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, following the dismantling of apartheid.