International anti-apartheid activist Coen Stork passed away on Monday 23 October, aged 89.
He attended the Rivonia Trial when he was a diplomat at the Dutch Embassy in South Africa, not scared to take personal risks in following his belief in justice and his abhorrence of oppression. "Hardly anybody at the Department of Foreign Affairs had heard of Mandela," Stork recalled in an interview a couple of years ago.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has fond memories of Coen, who gladly donated to us a sizable collection of his Rivonia Trial documents, which are now part of our digital archive. Besides court documents and his report to the Dutch government about the trial, the collection also contains the "Thank you" letter Madiba wrote to him on 11 June 1964, as well as a version of Mandela’s "Speech from the Dock" with handwritten edits, and a typed version of Mandela’s autobiographical notes.
After a long career as a diplomat, holding onto his beliefs no matter where in the world he was posted, he served as chairperson of the Netherlands Institute on Southern Africa (NiZA), the successor of the former Dutch anti-apartheid movement.
Hamba kahle, Coen. You will always stay with us.
Typed version of Mandela’s autobiographical notes