The Most Amazing Facts
- Mandela’s middle name, Rolihlahla, means ‘troublemaker’ in the South African Xhosa language.
- Amazingly, it wasn’t his release from prison or when he was elected president that Mandela said was the greatest day of his life - it was meeting the Spice Girls.
- For his efforts in ending apartheid in South Africa, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1993. He shared it with president F.W. de Klerk.
- Whilst in Prison, Mandela and the other prisoners found various ways of communicating - these included writing messages on toilet paper, hiding messages in the bottom of food buckets, taping notes underneath toilet seats and putting notes into dirty dishes!
- As a big fan of music, whilst in prison Mandela organised a number of concerts - and even sang himself!
- Mandela’s favourite poem is Invictus by William Ernest Henley. Not only did he enjoy reciting it in prison, but he also read it to the South African rugby captain before his team’s win in the 1995 world cup final.
- His favourite meal is freshly slaughtered sheep, accompanied by a bowl of Amarhewu - a fermented maize drink.
- In 1985, Stevie Wonder won an Oscar for the song “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. He dedicated the song to Mandela.
- Nelson is a big fan of classical music, and particularly enjoys listening to Handel and Tchaikovsky.
- He has been awarded over fifty honorary degrees from universities across the world.