Nelson Mandela was a human.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( [ mænˈdɛlə ] 18 July 1918 -- 5 December 2013 ) was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary , politician , and philanthropist , who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 . He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg . In 1962 , he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial .