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South Africa: Mandela's Life Goes Live On the Web |
| Source: |
Radio Netherlands Worldwide |
| Source Date: |
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 |
| Focus: |
ICT for MDGs
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| Country: |
South Africa |
| Created: |
Mar 29, 2012 |
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The digital archive of South Africa's first black president and global icon, Nelson Mandela, is now live on the web and freely available to all with web access. With extensive information about Mandela's life and legacy, the archive arose from a collaboration between the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Google.
A new online multimedia archives - complete with manuscripts, photographs and videos - details Nelson Mandela's childhood, prison time, presidential years and retirement.
Personal correspondences
Some of the collection's highlights include Mandela's diaries and correspondences with family, comrades and friends, written during his 27 years of imprisonment, and the notes he made while leading the negotiations that ended apartheid in South Africa.
"I think what young people will probably learn most from browsing these archives, is that it is possible to sustain positive values," said the Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor during the launch of the digital archive in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Mandela's childhood
Born in 1918 in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, Mandela spent most of his childhood in the countryside. As the son of a chief from the abaThembu tribe, his early life was greatly influenced by the customs of his people.
At age 16 he took part in a traditional initiation ceremony, where boys leave their homes to stay in the bush where they are taught how to become responsible men.
As a child, Mandela attended the local Methodist Church and his church membership cards are now part of the digital archives. He was obviously a devote Christian. "As you know I was baptised in the Methodist church and was educated in Wesleyan schools. At Fort Hare I even became a Sunday school teacher," says Mandela in one of the documents from the collection.
The group photograph with Mandela and his fellow students at Healdtown College, where he studied between 1937 and 1938, is considered one of his earliest known photos.
"At an early age I drifted away from my parents and moved about, played and ate together with other boys," says Mandela in another document.
The archive then continues in providing information on how Mandela joined the liberation struggle, as well as his detention, release, presidency and retirement.
20th century story
During the launch, Steve Crossan, director of the Google Cultural Institute, explained why his company invested over 800,000 euros on the project. "Our mission is to use technology to help bring all of our shared stories online and help all of us to tell these stories to each other. In the stories of the 20th century there are none more inspiring than the story of Madiba's life. And that's what makes it such an exciting project for us to be involved with."
Archmat Dangor, the chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory also expressed the excitement of being able to fulfil one of the world icon's most cherished wishes. "The heart of the strategy is to make this unique archive, which depicts the life of Nelson Mandela, available to the world."
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South Africa: Mandela's Life Goes Live On the Web The digital archive of South Africa's first black president and global icon Nelson Mandela is now live on the web and freely available to all with web access
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