Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 in a small village in South Africa. He was one of 13 children and became the first in his family to attend school. After finishing school, Mandela studied law at university. In 1964, he was sentenced to life in prison for trying to bring down the apartheid government, and spent 18 years imprisoned on Robben Island. In 1990, Mandela was released from prison by Prime Minister F.W. de Klerk. Mandela then fought against apartheid as a lawyer and member of the African National Congress, and in 1993 he and de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize. A year later, Mandela became the first black President of South Africa.