Did you know that Nelson Mandela has a woodpecker named after him?  

“It is in your hands, to make a better world for all who live in it,” said Nelson Mandela, the leader who doesn’t need an introduction. This anti-apartheid activist of South Africa, who served as the president of the country from 1994 to 1999, was a visionary and a master politician with uncompromising principles and canny pragmatism. While most of you are aware of his achievements as a freedom fighter and political leader, very few of you know that also appeared in a movie once. Here are some of the lesser-known surprising facts about Mandela.  

Cameo in a Spike Lee film 
You must be wondering, how did such a public figure end up in a movie and which famous Spike Lee film are we talking about? We are talking about the famous movie, Malcolm X. It is a superhit biopic released in 1992 and produced by Spike Lee. Mandela played a teacher in the film. He is seen reciting the famous speech of Malcolm X to a room full of school children. This became the ending scene of the movie. He appeared in many documentaries and news programmes. 

Has a woodpecker named after him 
You might be aware of the Mahatma Gandhi Road or Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Marg. Naming streets after famous people is quite common. But have you ever heard of a woodpecker being named after a person? After discovering a prehistoric woodpecker, scientists called it Australopicus nelsomandelai to honour the iconic leader. But this is just one of the discoveries named after him. In 1973, a physics institute at the Leeds University, England, named a nuclear particle as the Mandela Particle.  

A master of disguise 
As a freedom fighter, Mandela would often get in trouble with the police. Mandela had to disguise himself to escape the police constantly looking for him during the freedom struggle. His disguising tactics became so famous that the press nicknamed him 'The Black Pimpernel.' Mandela would hide during the day and come out only at night to work. He even disguised himself as a chauffeur (driver) once to evade the authorities. These stories of disguise make for a great spy movie for sure!  

Mahatma Gandhi was his inspiration 
Though the two never met personally, they are often compared. Mandela was a practitioner of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence all his life. On many accounts, he referred to Gandhi as his role model who inspired him to lead South Africa to independence. Surprisingly, there are some striking similarities between the two visionaries. Both were lawyers by profession and spent time in jail in Johannesburg's Old Fort prison. During the time of Mandela's prison term of 27 years in the Robben Island prison, there was a room full of books of Gandhi with other classics. Mandela immersed himself in these books and meditation for the next 27 years of his imprisonment! So, now you know, how deeply Gandhi and his ideologies impacted Mandela.