News – Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

A second reunion

Former Treason Trialists meet again at the Old Fort Prison

13 March 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Mar 13, 2008 – A group of former Treason Trialists visited the Old Fort Prison at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg today, reliving an extraordinary time when many of the top leaders in the Congress Alliance were held there over 50 years ago.

Legends of liberation struggle gather to honour Sisulus

Exhibition opening a celebration of Walter and Albertina Sisulu

12 March 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

March 12, 2008 – Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Archbishop Desmond Tutu gathered at the Nelson Mandela Foundation today to open an exhibition documenting the lives of Walter and Albertina Sisulu.

New exhibition highlights lesser-known roles of Walter and Albertina Sisulu

Walter and Albertina Sisulu: Parenting a Nation

12 March 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

March 12, 2008 ‒ “Walter and Albertina Sisulu: Parenting a Nation” is an intimate account of the private and political lives of the Sisulu family during the struggle against apartheid.

Mandela’s 90th birthday year celebrates diversity of ideas

Plans unveiled for a multitude of activities

6 March 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

March 5 2008 – Nelson Mandela’s charity organisations announced their plans in Johannesburg to celebrate the former South African president’s 90th birthday, which is on July 18 this year.

‘A celebration of ideas’

Remarks from Prof Jakes Gerwel at 90th celebrations announcement

5 March 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

March 5, 2008 - It’s not quite yet the birthday, I must say, before we start singing “happy birthday”.

Where we come from, there’s a superstition that you shouldn’t be wishing people happy birthday before their birthday, so it’s not quite time to celebrate the birthday but it’s time to make a couple of important announcements around this important year and this important date.

90th celebrations events programme

90th birthday celebrations

5 March 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Sep 15, 2008 - Celebrations of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday occurred throughout the year.

Events featured exhibitions, dialogues, a book launch and a 46664 concert.

Passports tell a story

Nelson Mandela’s early travels documented by Foundation archives

4 March 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

March 4, 2008 – In June 1961, on the instructions of the ANC, Nelson Mandela went underground and spent many months hiding out in different locations, including Liliesleaf farm in Rivonia, north of Johannesburg – on the pretext of being a ”houseboy” or caretaker. “I had taken the name of David Motsamayi, the name of one of my former clients,” he wrote in Long Walk to Freedom.

Foundation remembers Robert Sobukwe

Man of principle earned Mandela’s respect

28 February 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Feb 28, 2007 – Today the Nelson Mandela Foundation marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. This great South African was the first leader of the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) and a former Robben Island prisoner.

Nelson Mandela, in Long Walk to Freedom, wrote: “The founders of the PAC were all well known to me. Robert Sobukwe was an old friend. He was the proverbial gentleman and scholar (his colleagues called him ‘Prof’). His consistent willingness to pay the penalty for his principles earned my enduring respect.”

Nelson Mandela corrects identity of woman in photograph

Batshaka Cele, not Evelyn Mase, in Eli Weinberg picture

27 February 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Feb 27, 2008 – Nelson Mandela has rectified an identification error in two photographs taken by the late Eli Weinberg.

The photographs show Mr Mandela sitting with a young woman, who had been mistakenly identified in several books as his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase. The woman is in fact Batshaka Cele, a relative of Mr Mandela’s second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Frequently asked questions answered

All the information’s there on a new FAQ page

22 February 2008 | Category: Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Feb 22, 2008 – The Nelson Mandela Foundation is launching a new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on its website.

The FAQ page will help the Foundation deal with the numerous queries it receives each day on Nelson Mandela and the work of the Foundation.