He spent 27 years in jail for opposing the racist government in his country. After his release, he went on to become South Africa's first black president in 1994.
Google is celebrating Nelson Mandela's 96th birthday with an interactive doodle. People across the world marked the day as 'Mandela Day' - his first birthday since he died in December last year.
The doodle uses imagery with bits and pieces of Mr Mandela's life story. It features some of Nelson Mandela's most famous and inspiring lines including "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but rising every time you fall".
"Something that stood out to me about Nelson Mandela was his eloquent way with words. I thought his words gave a great insight into the kind of man he was, so I wanted to focus the creative direction of the doodle on his quotes against a backdrop of the history of South Africa, " says Google Doodler Katy Wu.
The doodle follows his journey through his incarceration to him being elected as South Africa's first black President
Wu, the creator of the doodle, says, "At first I thought I would have to make a very serious, sombre sort of doodle and I wasn't sure what to do. But after learning more about Mandela as a person I started to understand that he was a man with a lot of character, and not always just a serious figure."