KINGSTON, Jamaica — Today the World celebrates the memory and legacy of the first black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.

The United Nations has marked July 18, Mandela’s birthday as “International Nelson Mandela Day”

Mandela, also known as ‘Madiba’, devoted his life to the service of humanity and socio-political equality in his native South Africa.

A human rights lawyer, prisoner under the South African Apartheid regime, international peacemaker, and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa, Mandela died December 1, 2013, at the age of 95.

During his lifetime Mandela emerged as a global symbol of peace and tolerance and inspired socio-political change across the world.

In celebration of Mandela OBSERVER ONLINE presents facts on the legendary leader:

1. Mandela’s birth name was Rolihlahla Mandela. According to NelsonMandela.org, “Rolihlahla” is often translated as “troublemaker” in the Xhosa language, but colloquially the word means “pulling the branch of a tree.”

It was in grade school that a teacher gave Mandela the Western first name of “Nelson.” It was customary during that time to give African children English names because their African names were difficult to pronounce by British colonials.

2. Mandela was born into the Thembu royal family in Mvezo village in southeastern South Africa.

3. Mandela’s life changed drastically when his father died of lung cancer. He was adopted at 9-years-old by Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo of the Thembu people.

4. Mandela pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of Fort Hare but was expelled from the institution because of his role in student activism. After this, Mandela ran away with his cousin to start a career of his own in Johannesburg.

5.  In 1952, Mandela and Oliver Tambo set up South Africa’s first black-run law firm. They provided affordable legal counsel to blacks who had broken Apartheid-era laws.

6. Mandela spent 27 years of his life in prison on Robben Island in South Africa, after being imprisoned in 1963 for his anti-apartheid stance. He was released in 1990.

7. He was inaugurated on May 10, 1994 as South Africa’s first black president.

8. Mandela was married three times. First in 1944 to a nurse named Evelyne Mase with whom he had four children. Mandela and Mase divorced in 1958 and he married Winnie Madikizela that same year. They divorced in 1996, six years after Mandela’s release from prison for his anti-apartheid activism. He then married his third wife, Garca Machel.   

9. After his retirement from politics, Mandela started the Nelson Mandela Foundation that focused on combating HIV/AIDS and supported rural development and school construction.

10. Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for peacefully destroying the Apartheid regime and laying the foundation for democracy.

Deandra Morrison