Nelson Mandela With Michelle Obama, 2011 AP PHOTO/NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION
After she met Nelson Mandela at his 91st birthday party in 2009, Alfre Woodard, an American actress, told New York Magazine that she “was just trembling; not with fear, just with joy and energy.” She added: “I think I was levitating.”
Woodard is hardly the only star for whom meeting Mandela, the legendary South African activist and president who died today, was like a rite of passage. In the 23 years after his release from prison in 1990, Mandela embraced or shook hands with countless celebrities and world leaders, and judging by the photos of some of those encounters, he was a deeply venerated man—an icon among icons.
Some of the figures that appear beside Mandela have since passed away; others have simply faded from the public consciousness; and still others have become notorious. Taken together, the images tell the history of Mandela’s political career through the people he met. Through it all, Mandela remains Mandela.
Nelson Mandela with Ted Kennedy - AP PHOTO/CHARLES KRUPA
Nelson Mandela with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis AP PHOTO/PETER SOUTHWICK
Nelson Mandela with George H. W. Bush - AP PHOTO/DOUG MILLS
Nelson Mandela with Margaret Thatcher -AP PHOTO/CLEAVER
Nelson Mandela with Jesse Jackson FREDERICK WATKINS, JR. / AP
A wax double at Madame Tussaud’s - AP PHOTO/GILL ALLEN
Nelson Mandela with Whitney Houston - Photo by REUTERS/JUDA NGWENYA
Nelson Mandela with Pope John Paul II - AP PHOTO/JOHN MOORE
Nelson Mandela with Sidney Poitier - Photo by AP PHOTO / SASA KRALJ
Nelson Mandela with Michael Jackson - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with The Dalai Lama - AP PHOTO/SASA KRALJ
Nelson Mandela with Tony Blair - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Bill Cosby - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Princess Diana - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Barney - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Evander Holyfield - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Prince Charles, Scary Spice, and Ginger Spice - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Bill Clinton - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Diana Ross - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Queen Elizabeth II - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Stevie Wonder - Photo by REUTERS
Mandela with Fidel Castro- Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Tiger Woods - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Boris Yeltsin -Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Muammar Gaddafi - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Bill Gates - - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Lennox Lewis - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Naomi Campbell - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Arnold Schwarzenegger - Photo by REUTERS
Nelson Mandela with Michael Bloomberg, Robert De Niro, Hugh Grant -REUTERS/MIKE SEGAR
Nelson Mandela with Bono- REUTERS/JUDA NGWENYA
Nelson Mandela with Oprah Winfrey - REUTERS/JUDA NGWENYA
Nelson Mandela with David Beckham - REUTERS/JUDA NGWENYA
Nelson Mandela with Beyonce Knowles -REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS
Nelson Mandela with Don King - REUTERS/JUDA NGWENYA
Nelson Mandela with Will Smith -REUTERS/JUDA NGWENYA
Nelson Mandela with Annie Lennox and Yusuf Islam - REUTERS/MATT DUNHAM
Nelson Mandela with George W. Bush- REUTERS/KEVIN LAMARQUE
Nelson Mandela with The Black Eyed Peas - AP PHOTO/RUSSEL ROBERTS
Nelson Mandela with Oscar Pistorius
Hillary Clinton with Nelson Mandela
