Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 in South Africa and belonged to the Xhosa ethnic group. He had a happy childhood but spent 27 years in prison for his opposition to apartheid. Even in prison, he continued his struggle against apartheid and became the most significant black leader in South Africa. After his release, he was elected president in 1994 and worked to establish democracy and end discrimination and injustice in the country, ruling until 1999 when he retired. Mandela later died in 2013 at the age of 95 in Johannesburg.