http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ExVfEL0y-E

On November 11, 2004, the Palestinian Liberation Organization confirmed the death of its Chairman, Yasser Arafat, at the age of 75. In this video, Nelson Mandela remembers Arafat, saying: “He was an icon in the proper sense of the word. He was not only concerned with the liberation of the Arab people, but of all the oppressed people throughout the world.” On the impact of the loss, Mandela notes: “To lose a man of that stature and thinking is a great blow to all those who are fighting against oppression.”

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Nelson Mandela On The Death Of Yasser Arafat appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il5fKBXSJmE

Academy Award winning writer and actor Matt Damon describes meeting Nelson Mandela for a second time with his kids on Anderson Cooper. In this interview, he describes how his kids were fixated on Mandela and seemed to sense his powerful aura–even through a door.

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Matt Damon Describes Meeting Nelson Mandela appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Okavango Delta

“Everyone’s face was streaked from crying, creased with giant smiles…We left as current and former South Africans, equal in the eyes of the law and humanity.”

I say “My Nelson Mandela” because we all have an intellectual, emotional, political relationship with Nelson Mandela and all that he stood for: as a man, as a leader, as an icon.

Mandela. 1918-2013.

Former South Africans have a complicated relationship with their homeland and heroes, especially if they left  for political reasons during what can now be called apartheid’s middle years. At the bottom of that relationship is raw emotion and it never goes away.

My parents had been active in the anti-apartheid community from at least the early 1950s: refusing to testify on “the pencil test” and related inanities after enaction of the anti-miscegenation laws; doing free medical rounds in the locations when Whites were banned from entering; standing with the Black Sash; signing the Freedom Charter; voting for Helen Suzman and the Progressive Party; arousing suspicion because of research on early humans; continuing to teach coloured university students at University of Cape Town after the government banned them from being educated with Whites. They finally left after being threatened with house arrest.

I had two personal encounters with Mandela, one symbolic, one experiential. In 1994, the first free election in South Africa took place. All ex-patriots were allowed a one-time, once in a lifetime opportunity to vote, regardless of where they now lived or what country’s citizenship they now held. I discussed this with my parents who now lived in Chicago, where there was to be a polling station. My father had always said that he would never return to South Africa until Nelson Mandela was President. I could not believe or understand my father’s response to this opportunity: He felt he could not legally vote in this remarkable election because he was now an American citizen! My entreaties to him to do this because it was a healing event, a closure to the pain of having to leave the physical country he had loved, a closure to the pain of being deprived of the life he would like to have lived there, were for naught. Clearly, being able to vote for his hero could not erase all that emotional turmoil.

The King County Courthouse in Seattle, Washington was the designated location of the polling station in our region of the country for this remarkable event. We, current and ex-South Africans, Whites, Blacks, Coloured, were to bring our birth certificates and our passports.

It was a rainy, cold day that April. As I approached the Courthouse, I just could not enter as I was so overcome with emotion. After walking around the building several times in tears, shaking with excitement and trepidation (of what, I could not say), I walked in. What an amazing sight! There were ANC poll watchers. There were hundreds of South Africans. Everyone’s face was streaked from crying, creased with giant smiles. It was such a cathartic experience.

We all left that building, no longer unequals because of an artificial racial designation determined by a minority of small-minded individuals who created a monstrous machine to control the lives of millions. We left as current and former South Africans, equal in the eyes of the law and humanity.

In 1999, Seattle University hosted a breakfast for Nelson Mandela. A Boeing colleague of my husband was also a Regent at that university and provided us with tickets to attend. I can only say that watching Nelson Mandela walk into that room was goose-bumps inducing. There was silence before a roar of applause. To be seated, not only in the same room, but within 50 feet of this man who embodied the ideals of my parents, a man of such principle and conviction and understanding of what doing the right thing meant, was truly awe inspiring and overwhelming.

Many people died and suffered on South Africa’s long road to freedom. People trying to live their lives with dignity. People wanting what we so often take for granted: freedom of self-determination, freedom of association, freedom of movement, freedom of opinion and thought, freedom to choose where to live, freedom to be a decent human being.

Nelson Mandela is dead. Long live Nelson Mandela.

Source: Blackpast.org

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Recalling Nelson Mandela appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo48ODpsDGo

Irish broadcaster George Hook remembers being very moved during the 1995 Rugby World Cup game when South Africa defeated New Zealand and the newly elected first black South African president, Nelson Mandela, came out into the stadium in a South African Springboks team jersey to hand the trophy to the team captain. Hook felt the racially divided country really came together to celebrate the rugby win and was moved to see that the national anthem was sung in the three common languages spoken in South Africa: Zulu, Afrikaan, and English.

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‘Sport Does Play a Part in Politics’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApxYq59t5KE

South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar during the 1995 Rugby World Cup describes Nelson Mandela’s aura and many virtues: “He’s such a humble person.” Pienaar says Mandela, also known as “Madiba,” would often phone him during the ’95 Rugby World Cup game in order to check-in with the team and give them encouragement. He remembers how Mandela said to him, “Thank you for what you’ve done for South Africa” after the historic victory of South Africa over the New Zealand rugby team when Mandela, the first black President of South Africa, famously sporting a Springboks rugby shirt and cap historically worn by only the white population of the country, personally handed Pienaar the Webb Ellis Cup. Pienaar remembers thinking how he wanted to thank Mandela for what he had done for South Africa and wanting to give Madiba a big hug.

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‘One Team, One Country’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja8fxGgjC94

Nelson Mandela’s wife, Winnie, describes the final moments of her beloved husband’s life. She gives an emotional account of the event and says she considers herself “blessed to have been there when he drew his last breath.”

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The Woman Who Knew Mandela Best appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wt1Bwm767I

Nelson Mandela’s close friend, Ebrahim Moolla, reacts to Mandela’s death on December 5, 2013 and reflects on their meaningful friendship. Mandela used Moolla’s apartment as the secret headquarters for his early revolutionary activities defying racial segregation in South Africa. Moolla explains why defying Apartheid was a cause that he and Mandela were both willing to die for. Moolla also shares what he would say to Mandela if he could have one last moment with him.

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On Mandela’s Death: ‘I Cried Myself to Sleep’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0icKn3SKRWc

A voting official remembers watching Nelson Mandela cast his first vote in the democratic election of South Africa on April 26, 1994.

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Watching Nelson Mandela Vote For the First Time appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grh03-NjHzc

After spending a significant portion of his life in prison for his anti-apartheid activism, on May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black democratically elected president. This video includes his entire inaugural address where he speaks of hope, liberty and joy. He talks about his desire to eliminate poverty, deprivation, suffering and discrimination in South Africa; and his hopes for a “rainbow nation.” Mandela served as president until 1999.

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Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Address appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHd2Y98pvbc

Nelson Mandela, during his imprisonment on Robben Island, was inspired by reading the Diary of Anne Frank. The book gave him and his fellow prisoners strength and encouragement. After his release from prison, Mandela went on to become the first black president of South Africa and an internationally-recognized champion of civil rights. Nelson Mandela passed away on December 5, 2013.

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Nelson Mandela on Reading the Diary of Anne Frank in Prison appeared first on Witnify.