Nelson Mandela: 10 surprising facts you probably didn’t know

3. There’s a woodpecker named after him

4. He married a primary girl

5. He was a grasp of disguise

When Mandela was eluding authorities throughout his combat in opposition to apartheid, he disguised himself in varied methods, together with as a chauffeur. The press nicknamed him “the Black Pimpernel” due to his police evasion ways. “I became a creature of the night. I would keep to my hideout during the day, and would emerge to do my work when it became dark,” he says in his biography, “Long Walk to Freedom.”

6. A bloody sport intrigued him

Besides politics, Mandela’s different ardour was boxing. “I did not like the violence of boxing. I was more interested in the science of it – how you move your body to protect yourself, how you use a plan to attack and retreat, and how you pace yourself through a fight,” he says in his biography.

7. His favourite dish is probably not yours

8. He stop his day job

He studied regulation on the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and opened the nation’s first Black regulation agency within the metropolis in 1952.

9. He was on the US terror watch checklist

10. He drew his inspiration from a poem

While he was in jail, Mandela would learn William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus” to fellow prisoners. The poem, about by no means giving up, resonated with Mandela for its traces “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.” You might know it from the film by the identical identify starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela.