Bill Clinton Visits Mandela for 94th Birthday

During a visit in 2007, former U.S. President Bill Clinton embraces former South African President Nelson Mandela following remarks by Clinton during a visit to the Nelson Mandela Foundation July 19, 2007 in Johannesburg. Clinton is on an eight day trip to the African continent to visit sites supported and founded by the Clinton Foundation. (Win McNamee/Getty Images for the Clinton Foundation)

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton traveled to a village in South Africa to meet the country’s former leader Nelson Mandela ahead of his 94th birthday.

Clinton visited Mandela in Qunu, the Eastern Cape village where Mandela grew up.

“I want to remind the young people of the world that they must develop their minds and their hearts, and help us to share the future,” Clinton was quoted as saying at a visit to open the No Moscow Primary School library, reported South Africa"s Eyewitness News.

Media photos show Clinton meeting with Mandela in his home Tuesday, accompanied by his daughter Chelsea Clinton.

Clinton, who was president at the same time as Mandela in the 1990s, said, “We worked together as presidents and even after we left office we continued working together to improve education of the children worldwide in order for them to share the future,” reported AFP.

Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black president after spending 27 years in prison for protesting white apartheid in the country.

Silumko Mandela, a close relative of the former president, said some journalists were a bit too pushy.

“Look, those guys come here often, but at one time the chief in the village told us to be kind to visitors, so we are. The journalists are here to record the history” of Nelson Mandela, he told the Times Live newspaper.

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