Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Meet Nelson Mandela's Close Friend at Powerful New Exhibit

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry spent Tuesday morning focused on the stunning legacy of Nelson Mandela.

The South African leader and iconic Nobel Peace Prize winner, who died at age 95 in 2013, is being honored in London with an exhibit to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Meghan wore a sleeveless trench dress from up-and-coming Canadian label, NONIE, for the outing, while the prince paired a gray suit jacket with casual pants. Upon arrival, Harry and Meghan met Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela, Mandela’s granddaughter.

The royal couple received a history lesson about South Africa’s first black President, learning about his journey from young freedom fighter, through incarceration and his role as the inspiration for the movement against South Africa’s violent and oppressive apartheid system.

Inside the Mandela Centenary Exhibition, Harry, 33, and Meghan, 36, met close Mandela friend Andrew Mlangeni, 93, who was accused of sabotage against the then-apartheid government and spent 26 years imprisoned on Robben Island, and Thembi Tambo, the South Africa High Commissioner to the U.K. and daughter of anti-apartheid politician Oliver Tambo, who was a close colleague of Mandela.

The exhibit was organized by the Apartheid Museum in South Africa, the British Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives, and the Southbank Centre and is based around six themes: character, comrade, leader, prisoner, negotiator, and statesman. The couple are touring the exhibition just before Nelson Mandela Day on July 18, which marks the centenary of his birth.

The newlyweds’ outing came a week after their successful two-day visit to Dublin, Ireland, and Meghan’s day out at Wimbledon with sister-in-law Kate Middleton on Saturday.

Their visit to the exhibit on Tuesday also honors a past royal connection. Freed from jail in 1990 and elected in 1994, Mandela was a renowned figure on the world stage, and his visits with Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth are held fondly in her memory, insiders have said.

The Nelson Mandela Centenary Exhibition will run at Southbank Centre from July 17 to August 19.