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A huge cake has starred at Robben Island
On the occasion of Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, BBC World Service is producing the first ever live broadcasts from the prison on Robben Island that was used to hold the former South Africa president for 18 years.
Follow the day live below, or contribute to the debate at the World Have Your Say blog here.
End of Section
1800GMT: Lionel recalls that the prison wardens would keep the lights of the prison on all night. But they aren't staying on here - they are going out like 90 candles. Goodnight, and once again, happy birthday Mr Mandela.
1755GMT: Andrew in Australia emails to express his discontent at Mandela's legacy. "Ultimately he did not deliver on the big promises he made to his people and look at South Africa now it is as if he never lead that nation considering the problems still rife within the country," he says.
1750GMT: Cape Town mayor Helen Zille expresses her anger at South Africa's lack of action against Zimababwe, contrasting it with her country's own experience in the 1980s. "I find it quite unacceptable that South Africa, having relied so much on international isolation to bring down apartheid, won't apply the same medicine to Zimbabwe," she says. "If we did, we could bring down Mugabe within a week."
The day boosted the island's population many times over
1740GMT: Former Civitas director and long-term World Have Your Say commentator Kumi Naidoo considers the implications of taking up arms as the ANC did, especially in Zimbabwe. "The decision for armed struggle in today's world is one you cannot completely negate when you have a defenceless, unarmed people... however, I think that right now what Nelson Mandela would say to the world is that what we need is vigourous civil disobedience, to ensure we mobilise people and have a new generation of activists," he says.
1729GMT: The Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, explains how she believes Mandela was able to turn his struggle for freedom into political power."We saw the convergence of leadership... Mandela agreed to negotiate before he had won, and De Klerk agreed to negotiate before he had lost."
1719GMT:Albertina Lutuli, daughter of Albert Lutuli, one of Mandela's predecessors as leader of the ANC, remembers the young Mandela. "He was tall and handsome," she says. "I was a young girl then, so that was the first thing I noticed about him."
Listen Listen to Albertina Lutuli
1716GMT: The comments are flowing into the World Have Your Say blog now. "Mandela is the hero of Africa, and also father of Africa", says geeljire. But Asad Babyl argues that Mandela's legacy is like that of Mikhail Gorbachev's - "well-intentioned theories do not always manifest soundly in practice."
1712GMT:Eugine, another former prisoner, recalls that on Fridays they were allowed to relax a little, "sharing thoughts of good times we used to have on a Friday evening."
1710GMT: Ros Atkins talks to one ex-prisoner, Lionel David, who describes what happened when he was first incarcerated. "On my arrival on Robben Island, I was made to stand here with a group of fiive. We were told to take our clothes off," he recalls. "As we were standing there, the head of the prison came and started to interrogate us. We refused to tell him which organisation we belonged to. He said that we know, in the fullness of time, where we belonged."
Listen Listen to Lionel describe his first day at Robben Island (57 secs)
1707GMT: World Have Your Say begins - live from Robben Island - with the clang of the door which would have slammed behind Mandela in 1964.
1645GMT: The Europe Today programme has birthday greetings from Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam.
Listen Listen to Europe's birthday wishes
1640GMT:Ros Atkins is in the room where all prisoners were brought when they first arrived at the island. The tourists have all left now, giving a better impression of what it would have been like to a prisoner. He adds that World Have Your Say will be looking at whether South Africa is evidence that only violence can achieve justice.
1605GMT: All five of Siobhann Tighe's interviews with the key figures of Nelson Mandela's team are available on the BBC News website. As well as lawyer Arthur Chaskalson, they include Zelda La Grange, Mandela's personal gate-keeper; Ahmed Kathrada, a former co-prisoner; Mothomang Diaho, who manages the justice side of his foundation; and Achmat Dangor, who protects the Mandela "brand." You can read them here.
1520GMT: With World Have Your Say beginning at 1700GMT, now's the time to think about what comment you'd like to make. The ways to get yourself on air are:
Email worldhaveyoursay@bbc.co.uk;
Or call +44 20 7557 0635.
Healther Glenn has said that listening to our coverage has "given me goose bumps." Mandela "has a very strong shoulder becuase many of us are standing on him," she adds. But Bryan disagrees, urging that we "don't get too carried away here... Mandela was a great statesman, sure. But he was also a tribalist, unwilling to intervene to stop the horrific violence between his tribe, the Xhosa, and the Zulu, which raged across the province of Natal and elsewhere in the early nineties."
What do you think?
1445GMT: A number of photos of the day are now available on the World Have Your Say Flickr pages - including Mandela's cell, the visitors on the day, and of course the giant cake.
Have a look at all the photos here.
1415GMT: Outlook's Siobhann Tighe has spent the week interviewing some of the key figures who protect Mandela from the public gaze. Today she spoke to Arthur Chaskalson, one of the lawyers who defended Mandela at the trial that saw him committed to life imprisonment in 1963. "It was certainly a privilege to be part of his defence, but it was also an extraordinary responsibility," he says. "They were on trial for their lives, and the fact that their defence was to put apartheid on trial. The whole case was conducted on that basis."
Listen Listen to Arthur Chaskalson (7 mins 37 secs)
Mandela was held in the high-security B Section of Robben Island
1330GMT: Some quiet scepticism on the World Have Your Say blog from Alistair Walker. Mandela "has remained silent since his release in 1990 on the deteriorating situation in neighbouring Zimbabwe," he says. "He could have brought pressure to bear on Mugabe. It would be churlish not to wish Nelson Mandela many happy returns on his 90th birthday. I feel the BBC is rather gushing in its tributes though."
1254GMT: Around 40-50 people from all around the world have arrived into the courtyard, Ros Atkins reports. He also brings a selection of birthday messages, including one from the man himself.
Listen Listen to Mandela's birthday messages (1 min 35 secs)
1218GMT: Dennis Goldberg, a former member of the ANC's armed wing who was sentenced at the same trial as Nelson Mandela gave his thoughts. "The day he came out of prison, there was a huge rally in Cape Town, and he thanked the people for rescuing him from prison. It was not that he had led them to freedom - they had fought for his freedom. That's the kind of man he is."
Listen Listen to Dennis Goldberg (2 mins 51 secs)
1212GMT: In London, the BBC's Julian Marshall, who covered Mandela's release for the BBC African Service, remembers how many South Africans had grave doubts about the country Mandela wanted to create - not to mention the scepticism in the wider world. "There was a tremendous lack of belief in the ANC throughout the entire world," Julian recalls. "Figures like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Thabo Mbeki - who were big figures within black South Africa - really didn't have much of a following around the world; they were still regarded by many Western governments as a terrorist organisation."
Listen Julian Marshall recalls covering Mandela's release (1 min 22 secs)
The World Have Your Say team are leading the coverage
1130GMT: The BBC's Mike Wooldridge, who saw Mandela's release in 1990, brings stories from some of his friends. Rory Stain, who led one of Mandela's protection teams, recalled how when the President was trying to woo his new wife Gracie, he would insist on going to the shops and buying the flowers and chocolates himself.
Listen Listen to Mike Wooldridge's report (1 min 58 secs)
More people recall the day they met Mandela
1105GMT: The tributes continue on the World Have Your Say blog. "If aliens visited our planet and said, 'take us to you leader'", the world would bring them to you," says Mienoo.
1020GMT: Mr Mandela has used his birthday speech to speak out on behalf of the country's poor. He said the rich should share "with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty."
Read more on the BBC News website
1005GMT: Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says there is a "warm glow" across the continent today. "Most people want Nelson Mandela to be enjoying his retirement... what people really want is for the ANC to carry on the struggle to improve the quality of life for South Africans," he adds.
0955GMT: Kent Jones from Michigan in the US writes to say "Thank you BBC for your historic coverage from Robben Island." Our pleasure, Kent.
More from the World Have Your Say blog
0940GMT: Former Robben Island inmates Tokyo Sexwale and Ahmed Kathrada have revealed that prisoners kept track of each others birthdays by secretly scratching the dates into the walls.
0935GMT:Sharlo Mbatha, a journalist during the struggle and now a spokesperson for the Robben Island Museum, talks about the secrets of the prison. Was was in the garden - where part of the script for Long Walk To Freedom was hidden. Meanwhile she also explained how the prisoners would play tennis - with balls inside of which information would be hidden, to be passed over the fence due to a seemingly careless forehand lob.
Listen Listen to Sharlo Mbatha (1 min 59 secs)
0900GMT: The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has described Mr Mandela as "a leader no prison cell, no intimidation, no threat could silence."
0808GMT: The BBC's Southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles rounds up the commemorations - including concerts, lectures, and coins and stamps - and details what Mr Mandela himself will be doing today.
Listen Listen to Peter Biles (1 min 50 secs)
0758GMT: Mohammed Ali on the World Have Your Say blog says: "If Africa had the opportunity of having two or three more leaders with just half of the traits of Nelson Mandela, the continent will be better off."
Do you agree? Add your comments here.
Mandela hid his writings in the wall on the left
0726GMT: Freelance journalist Geoff Dalgleish says that as President, Mandela "surpassed all expectations" - but that policy of the ANC leadership since then has not delivered. "There is a feeling some of his policies have been diluted. The baton has been passed, but it has not been carried," he says. He adds that he would like to hear in particular Mandela's thoughts on Zimbabwe, believing he would have "a number of harsh things to say", but is choosing not to.
Listen Listen to Geoff Dalgleish (2 mins 22 secs)
0710GMT: Christo Brandt, Mandela's warden for a number of years, says he "very proud and very happy that Mr Mandela is no longer here and that the cells can be empty." He recalls how 30 years ago thousands of birthday cards arrived at the prison for Mr Mandela's 60th. Twelve were delivered to him; the guards burned the rest.
Listen Listen to Christo Brandt (1 min 7 secs)
0704GMT: Some of your birthday messages are coming through on the World Have Your blog. "Nelson Mandela is on a mountain compared to all current heads of state that I am aware of," says Pangolin, from California. Fred expresses similar sentiments: "God bless you, Mr Mendala - hope you live a hundred more years to put more wisdom into African leaders' heads."
0653GMT: Tokyo Sexwale and Mac Maharaj cut the giant, one-metre-wide cake. Among the guests are a number of the former wardens of the prison. We will be speaking to the wardens later; if you have a question for them, you can ask it at the World Have Your Say blog.
Put your questions to the Robben Island wardens
0637GMT: As Ros walks down one of the corridors in the prison, a group of burly men pass - hauling a vast circular cake emblazoned with a photo of Mandela and "happy 90th birthday Madiba". The team hope to grab a slice very soon... Meanwhile we hear from the Latare school in Soweto about what 14-year-olds think of Mandela. "He's a great hero," says one. "If I was to meet Madiba, I would say to him, 'you're the man'," says another.
Listen Listen to the Latare school pupils (55 secs)
0627GMT: Ros describes one of the lesser-known aspects of Robben Island - the debate over wildlife. The place is a haven for many rate birds. But these are being hunted and killed by feral cats - the decendents of pets brought to the prison by warders in the 1960s.
Mandela's cell is little changed since he was imprisoned in 1964
0606GMT: Tokyo Sexwale, one of South Africa's most successful businessmen who was held at Robben Island for 15 years until 1990, says he is "filled with emotion" to hear the birthday message of FW de Klerk - the last president of white minority rule in the country - saying Mandela was "born to be a leader" and "one of the greatest figures of the last century." Interviewed within Mandela's cell, Mr Sakwale says it is little different to how Mandela found it in 1964 - a blanket on the floor, a small night-soil pot, and six thick bars on the window.
Listen Listen to Tokyo Sexwale (5 mins 1 sec)
Listen Listen to FW de Klerk's birthday message to Nelson Mandela (1 min 0 secs)
0558GMT: Ros ask to a history teacher what she tells her children, not even born when Mandela was president, about the man whose birthday they are celebrating today. "I tell them that we are here because of Nelson Mandela," she says. Her children then sing "happy birthday to Madiba."
0533GMT: Ros Atkins describes the "shockingly small cells" that Mr Mandela and others of the ANC were held in - not wide enough for a man to lie down in. He also speaks to Mandela's fellow activist Ahmed Kathrada, sentenced in 1964 for acts of sabotage. Ros asks him what he would put on a birthday card. He says that "there is too much to say, but one would like to wish him many more years with us... he became a symbol of a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa."
Listen Listen to Ahmed Kathrada (6 mins 0 secs)
0530GMT: For a quick appraisal of the Nelson Mandela story, take a look at the Timeline put together by our collegues at the BBC News website - tracking him through audio and video from his early days with the ANC to his imprisonment and release, and finally his becoming president of South Africa.
0510GMT: Ros Atkins speaks to former ANC activist Mac Maharaj - himself a prisoner on Robben Island for 12 years - who says he would like to "thank the world" for "saving [Mandela] from the gallows". He recalls the work spending the day breaking rocks into pebbles, and how he and Mandela made an audacious bid for freedom by making keys from lard saved from their bread.
Listen Listen to Mac Maharaj (5 mins 50 secs)
0500GMT: Welcome to our live blog, bringing you the highlights of Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday from the BBC World Service team in South Africa - building up to the live World Have Your Say programme at 1700GMT.
The first thing to say is, of course, happy birthday to Mr Mandela.
Meanwhile, the first thing to bring to your attention is an interview with leading Apartheid opponent, Helen Suzman, recounting her first meeting with Mr Mandela on Robben Island in 1967.
