Remembering Nelson Mandela

As I woke to the news of Nelson Mandela’s death at the age of 95 on 6 December, 2013, I remembered my visit in July to the Nelson Mandela exhibition in Paris.

To commemorate Nelson Rolihlhla Mandela’s life, an exhibition of his images appeared in Paris from 29 May to 6 July 2013 as part of the France-South Africa Seasons 2012 and 2013, in association with the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. The free exhibition in the Hotel de Ville celebrated Mandela’s relationship with the people of France.

The “Nelson Mandela – from Prisoner to President” exhibit displayed Mandela in photographs, 10 film screens, cartoons, sculptures, paintings, news reels, and posters. It began with his rural upbringing and schooling in Transkei and moved to Johannesburg where he studied law. The exhibit also showed his arrest in 1962 and his imprisonment on Robben Island in 1963. There was also a recreation of his prison cell, measuring 2 metres by 2.5 metres. Twenty-seven years later, the exhibit shows images of his release in February 1990 and the year he took office as the first democratic president in 1994.

Born in Transkei, South Africa, on July 18, 1918, his legacy as the most significant leader of his country will be more than justice and reconciliation. It will be a legacy of a person that cared passionately about peace and harmony, of one who knew what must be done and why.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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