Submitted by freenet on Sun, 09/11/2008 - 18:44
CHANNELS:
- Africa
- Africa
- Apartheid Museum
- Chris Hani
- Communist Party
- de Klerk
- Desmond Tutu
- Family Relation
- Johannesburg
- Kader Asmal
- Naledi Pandor
- Nelson Mandela
- Nelson Mandela Exhibition
- Nelson Mandela Museum
- Person Career
- Person Communication
- Person Political
- Person Political Past
- Person Professional
- Person Relation
- Quotation
- South Africa
- South Africa
- Winnie Mandela
By Michael Appel
Johannesburg - Large suspended images bearing testimony to the life of former President Nelson Mandela from childhood to recent times hang in the halls of the Apartheid Museum for the new Nelson Mandela Exhibition.
Some of the people who feature prominently among the photos and have had a profound impact on his life include his former wife Winnie Mandela, former President FW De Klerk, and assassinated Communist Party leader Chris Hani.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor, speaking at the opening of the exhibition on Saturday said the exhibition embodies what Mr Mandela stands for.
"The exhibition shows how Nelson Mandela built this country with the values of respect, forgiveness and reconciliation.
"The exhibition celebrates the life and statesmanship that embodies millions of South Africans and millions of people all over the world.
"It celebrates the life of a living legend," said the minister.
Chairman of the Nelson Mandela Museum and former Education Minister, Professor Kader Asmal highlighted that the Museum is delighted to be associated with the venture to exhibit the life of Madiba.
The exhibition embodies the essence of Madiba showing a man "driven by the insatiable desire for peace between people and communities," said Prof Asmal.
Nobel peace prize recipient who grew up on the same street as Mr Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said one of the most important things that the Apartheid Museum embodies is that South Africans can reclaim their history.
"When other people tell your story, they tell it from their own perspective … we want to tell our story and we want to remember this man who we revere and who the whole world reveres.
"[But it is important to remember that] he who we hold in such high regard is just a human being," Archbishop Tutu said.
The Archbishop told a captivated audience at the museum that South Africans are free today but that the price of that freedom must never be forgotten, and South Africans therefore need to guard that freedom jealously.
"We are free today but remember the cost of that freedom - our freedom did not come cheap - and it cost this man 27 years of his life," said the Archbishop.
The exhibition, which took over a year to compile, will be travelling the world to tell the story of South Africa's favourite and most treasured human being. - BuaNews