A Virtual Exhibition on the Life and Times of Nelson Mandela

Celebrating the life and legacy of Madiba
Located at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, the exhibition offers a perspective on Mandela's life within the contexts of colonialism, apartheid and democracy. This virtual version also includes a behind the scene tour of the archive repository and of the facility itself.

Church membership cards, 1931
"Congregation of the Wesleyan Church of South Africa Children’s Class Three monthly ticket June 1931
“Your word I have hidden in my heart” – Psalms c119 v11."

Colonialism
By the beginning of the 20th century most of Africa had been colonised. Long struggles for liberation saw the start of the independence process from the early 1950's but in some countries formal colonial government was replaced by various forms of European settler rule. South Africa was the last country in Africa to have such rule ended by a transition to democracy.

School photograph, 1938
Earliest school photo of Nelson Mandela taken in 1938 at Healdtown School. Nelson Mandela is in the back row, 5th from the right.

Apartheid
In 1948 an Afrikaner nationalist class alliance assumed power with a broad racial ideology offering the protection of the "Afrikaner people" and also the maintenance of white supremacy. The term Apartheid was used by the National Party as an election slogan in 1948.

Facing down the enemy
Nelson Mandela quickly rose to leadership positions within the ANC (African National Congress). By the late 1950's he was a prominent public figure and a thorn in the apartheid regime's flesh. His work as an attorney with OR Tambo in their legal firm at the time mostly involved in defending black victims of the Apartheid system. As Volunteer-in-chief in the 1952 defiance campaign, he led thousands to break apartheid laws. He was frequently arrested and banned.

Nelson Mandela in Ethiopia, 1962
Mandela at a meeting in Addis Ababa during his trip through Africa in 1962.

Learning the language of the enemy
In 1962 Nelson Mandela was sentenced to five years in prison for leaving the country illegally and for inciting a strike. The next year, from prison he became accused number one in the Rivonia trial, which saw most of the senior leadership of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage. Mandela would be a prisoner for over 27 years.

Nelson Mandela made a dramatic entrance in court wearing a Thembu royal costume, emphasising his African identity.

Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island, 1977.

Talking to the enemy
In 1986 Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela took the fateful decision to inaugurate "talks about talks" with representatives of the apartheid state. He did this before consulting with his comrades in the prison or ANC President OR Tambo. It was a moment of great leadership, but also of great danger. Even though Mandela established lines of communication with Tambo and other leaders, comrades outside feared that he might have "sold out'. They need not have worried. He managed the process masterfully, and ensured that it was integrated with other 'talks about talks' processes that emerged from 1987. Soon after his release in 1990, he led the formal negotiations with the National Party and its allies.

Discovering new enemies
Mandela's presidency (1994-1999) focused on the challenges of nation-building, reconciliation, and reckoning with the past. Rebuilding South Africa's reputation was also high on his agenda. He relied on his deputy president, Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet to look after governance and the nuts and bolts of transformation. The challenges were many. Apartheid socio-economic patterning was resilient. The damage wrought to the social fabric by centuries of oppression was profound. And there was considerable vested interest in avoiding significant restructuring of the state and the economy.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation
On stepping down as President of South Africa in 1999, Nelson Mandela founded the Nelson Mandela Foundation to manage his post-presidential office and support his continued work.