Nelson Mandela Didn't Once Say, 'When Two Neighboring Countries Fight … the USA Visited One'

A claim that anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela once said that "when two neighboring countries fight each other, just know the USA visited one" has been circulating online since at least September 2024 (archived).

For example, the rumor appeared on Instagram and Facebook in October, on Facebook in November and on X in December (archived).

(X user @Laza__89)

However, various posts featuring the quote drew comments from users who said it was incorrectly (archived) attributed (archived). 

In fact, there is no evidence that Mandela ever produced the quote. No credible news outlets have ever reported him saying it, and the quote did not appear in searches of newspaper and other online archives.

Neither the South African government's Mandela speech archive nor the United Nations' collection of Mandela quotes yielded any evidence of the former politician saying those words.

There was also no credible evidence of the quote being attributed to another speaker, nor evidence of the quote existing prior to Dec. 5, 2013, when Mandela died. Therefore, we have rated this quote as misattributed.

Snopes has reached out to the Mandela Foundation, a nonprofit organization set up by the late activist, and Martin Meredith, a biographer of Mandela, for comment on whether they have the quote in their archives. We will update this article if we receive a response.

We have previously fact-checked other quotes supposedly attributed to Mandela, including: "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians," and: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."