(CNN) -- Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon, Nobel peace laureate and South Africa's first black president, celebrated his 90th birthday Friday by doing something he had indicated he would not do again -- grant an interview to journalists. Mandela sits at the 6th Nelson Mandela Lecture in Soweto, Johannesburg. A cheerful-looking Mandela welcomed CNN's Robyn Curnow, along with reporters from two other organizations, into the sitting room of his home in Qunu, a small village in the rolling hills of South Africa's eastern Cape region where he grew up. "What day is this?" Mandela joked, pretending not to realize it was his birthday.
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Mandela: Called on the rich to help the poor in birthday interview
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It was Mandela's first meeting with reporters since 2004
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F.W. de Klerk: Mandela "one of the greatest figures of the 20th century"
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While in prison, Mandela became most significant black leader in South Africa
He used a smile to dodge @placeholder's first question of what was his favorite memory from his long life.