Answer:
Nelson Mandela was the first South African President to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. Prior to his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid campaigner and leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and its armed wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe. He was convicted of crimes committed when he led the fight against apartheid. For his part in these crimes, he spent 27 years in prison with many of these years spent on Robben Island.
In South Africa and internationally, Mandela became a symbol of freedom and justice in his opposition to apartheid, while the apartheid government and countries that supported this system condemned Mandela and called him and his supporters communists and terrorists. Following his release from prison on February 11, 1990, his activism led to a multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, even Mandela has received much praise from his former opponents.
Mandela received over a hundred different awards over four decades, including the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993 and the Sakharov Prize in 1988.
