Nelson Mandela introducing the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

We have travelled a long journey. We have fought for peace and reconciliation, for social justice for all men, women and children to live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. These are ideals I still believe in, ideals that I still live for. But the time has come to hand over my work. Memory is a vital force in the life of people and nations and can help unite divided societies. Music [new location] In our view the work of archives in the South Africa of today is potentially one of the most critical contributions to restoration and reconciliation. All of us have a powerful moral obligation to the many voices and stories either marginalised or suppressed during the apartheid era. Today we are launching the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory Project. It will be run by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. We want it to be part of what we have called the processes of restoration and reconciliation. It is our hope that from these small beginnings it will grow into a vibrant public resource offering a range of services to South Africans and visitors from all parts of the world. We want it to work closely with the many other institutions that make up the South African archival system. And, most importantly, we want it to dedicate itself to the recovery of memories and stories suppressed by power. That is the call of justice: the call that must be the project’s most important shaping influence. The history of our country is characterised by too much forgetting. A forgetting which served the powerful and dispossessed the weak. One of our challenges as we build and extend democracy is the need to ensure that our youth know where we come from, what we have done to break the shackles of oppression, and how we have pursued the journey to freedom and dignity for all For those of us who are older and have lived through the transition from apartheid to democracy, the processes of remembering offer us healing and a means of respecting the many comrades who made it possible. This is what archives are about. This is what we want the Centre of Memory Project to be about. We will be grateful for any assistance in helping us to achieve this objective. I thank you.