Nelson Mandela - a life in pictures

Nelson Mandela led the fight against apartheid in South Africa and became the country's first black president after spending 27 years in jail as a political prisoner

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A rare glimpse of Nelson Mandela (left) with hat, spade and dark glasses doing prison work in the garden of Robben Island jail where he spent 18 of his 27 years as a political prisoner. Working alongside him in the picture, taken surreptiously sometime in the 1970s, are Andimba Toivo ja Toivo (centre), who later became Namibian Minister of Mines and Minerals, and Brigadier Justice Mpanza (right), a former commander in the African National Congress' armed wing. Photographs of Mandela as prisoner were banned by the apartheid government, fearing his status as an African icon.

Mr Mandela, who was one of Africa's most committed campaigners in the battle against Aids, announcing that his only surviving son had succumbed to the disease, on January 6th, 2005. Makgatho Mandela (54) died in a Johannesburg clinic where he had been receiving treatment for more than a month. "Let us give publicity to HIV/Aids and not hide it," said a frail-looking Mr Mandela, surrounded by his grandchildren and other family members. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

Fri Dec 06 2013 - 08:13

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