This was common practice in South Africa and in other parts of the continent, where a person could often be given an English name that foreigners would find easier to pronounce.

Rolihlahla is not a common name in South Africa. It is Xhosa, one of the 11 official languages in the country, spoken by about 18% of the population. It literally means "pulling the branch of a tree", but its colloquial meaning is "troublemaker".

His circumcision name was Dalibunga, meaning "founder of the Bunga", the traditional ruling body of the Transkei - the rural area where he was born. "To Xhosa traditionalists, this name is more acceptable than either of my two previous given names," he wrote in his autobiography. However, in South Africa, Mr Mandela was often called by his clan name - Madiba - which South Africans used out of respect.

3. He was on a US terror watch list until 2008.

Prior to that, along with other former ANC leaders, Mr Mandela was only able to visit the US with special permission from the secretary of state, because the ANC had been designated a terrorist organisation by South Africa's former apartheid government.

Ronald Reagan originally placed the ANC on the list in the 1980s.

"It is frankly a rather embarrassing matter that I still have to waive in my own counterparts - the foreign minister of South Africa, not to mention the great leader, Nelson Mandela," then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in 2008.

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