Skip to content
  • Essence GU
  • Beautycon
  • NaturallyCurly
  • Afropunk
  • Essence Studios
  • Soko Mrkt
  • Ese Funds
  • Refinery29
  • 2025 ESSENCE Festival Of Culture
  • Celebrity
  • Fashion
  • Beauty
  • Lifestyle
  • Entrepreneurship
  • News
  • Shopping
  • Video
  • Events
  • Subscribe
Home • Celebrity

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man

A look back at this legendary leader's roots.
By Essence · Updated October 28, 2020
01
All Smiles

Nelson Mandela circa 1960’s.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Sowetan/Avusa Media Ltd/Gallo Images via Getty Images
02
Young Professional

Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela in 1960. The two partners opened the first Black legal firm in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Daily Dispatch/Avusa Media Ltd/Gallo Images via Getty Images
03
Young Love

Mandela marries Winnie Madikizela in June 1958 in Ponderland, South Africa.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
04
Up Close and Personal

Nelson Mandela circa 1960’s.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Sowetan/Avusa Media Ltd/Gallo Images via Getty Images
05
Mandela 1961

A file photo dated 1961 of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
STF/AFP/Getty Images
06
Champ

Nelson Mandela was a respectable boxer in his youth in the early 1950’s.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Apic/Getty Images
07
Eye of the Tiger

Nelson Mandela circa 1960’s.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Gallo Images/Getty Images
08
Talking Business

Nelson Mandela, President of the African National Congress, in discussion in 1964 with C Andrews, a Cape Town teacher.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Three Lions/Getty Images
09
Freedom Fighters

Nelson Mandela is smuggled out of the country. He attends the Pan-African Freedom Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is hosted by Oliver Tambo, and addresses the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in Addis Ababa, South Africa.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
10
On Trial

Defendants Moses Kotane (left) and Nelson Mandela leave a courtroom in Pretoria, South Africa, during the Treason Trial, 1958. The trial, of 156 people, lasted from 1956 to 1961. 

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Jurgen Schadeberg/Getty Images
11
Energizing the People

The South African political leader Nelson Mandela gives a speech before the African Congress in 1961.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
12
Handsome Young Man

Mandela becomes national president of the ANC Youth League in 1951.

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
13
Mandela in London

The ANC responds to government’s banning by endorsing an armed struggle. Mandela goes underground and launches the armed struggle by forming Umkhonto we Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation) or MK. MK’s policy is to target only government offices and symbols of apartheid, not people. Here, we see Nelson Mandela in London in 1950. 

Nelson Mandela As a Young Man
API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images