Nelson Mandela was a giant of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and the country’s first democratically elected President, but he also had a wonderful sense of humour.

That is just one of the recollections of American politician and activist Andrew Young, a former US Ambassador to the UN and friend of the man who was affectionately known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name.

Mr. Young was US Ambassador in the late 1970s, when Mr. Mandela was still serving out a lifetime sentence for treason before being released in 1990 after 27 years in prison.

Mr. Young, 91, was back at the UN on Thursday for the official commemoration of Nelson Mandela International Day.  He spoke to UN News’s Dianne Penn.