Tag Archives: South Africa under apartheid

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Official Google blog archives – Nelson Mandela – a repost – Black History

02/11/2023 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Nelson Mandela Born: July 18, 1918 Age: 94 years old Birthplace: Transkei, South AfricaOccupation: World Leader, Journalist

On February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Nelson Mandela

Last year we announced a $1.25 million grant to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory to help preserve and digitize thousands of archival documents, photographs and videos about Nelson Mandela. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory (NMCM) is committed to documenting the life and times of one of the world’s greatest statesmen and spreading his story to promote social justice throughout the world.

Today, the Mandela archive has become a reality. Along with historians, educationalists, researchers, activists and many others around the world, you can access a wealth of information and knowledge about the life and legacy of this extraordinary African leader. The new online multimedia archive includes Mandela’s correspondence with family, comrades and friends, diaries written during his 27 years of imprisonment, and notes he made while leading the negotiations that ended apartheid in South Africa. The archive will also include the earliest-known photo of Mr. Mandela and never-before seen drafts of Mr. Mandela’s manuscripts for the sequel to his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

We’ve worked closely with the NMCM to create an interactive online experience which we hope will inspire you as much as us. You can search and browse the archives to explore different parts of Mandela’s life and work in depth: Early Life, Prison Years, Presidential Years, Retirement, Books for Mandela, Young People and My Moments with a Legend.
For example, you might be interested in Nelson Mandela’s personal memories of the time he was incarcerated and click into the Prison Years exhibit. You can immediately see a curated set of materials threaded together into a broader narrative. These include handwritten notes on his desk calendars, which show, for example, that he met President F.W. De Klerk for the first time on December 13, 1989 for two and a half hours in prison; the Warrants of Committal issued by the Supreme Court which sent him to prison; the earliest known photo of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island circa 1971; and a personal letterwritten from prison in 1963 to his daughters, Zeni and Zindzi, after their mother was arrested, complete with transcript.

From there, you might want to see all the letters held by the archive, and click “See more” in the letters category, where you can discover all personal letters or use the time filter to explore his diaries and calendars written between 1988 and 1998, where you can see that in the last page of the last diary, he met with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda to exchange ideas about the situation in northern Uganda. If you were a researcher, you can search through various fragments of Madiba’s memory that relate to Ahmed Kathrada, his long-time comrade, politician and anti-apartheid activist, where you can find photos, videos, manuscripts and letters that relate to him.
Finally, by clicking into the exhibit, My Moments with a Legend, you can go beyond Madiba’s personal materials to get a diverse perspective through photos, videos and stories, via the memories of people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, F.W. De Klerk and Nomfundo Walaza, a community worker.

The Nelson Mandela Digital Archive project is an initiative by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the Google Cultural Institute, which helps to preserve and promote our diverse cultural and historical heritage. Some of our other initiatives include the Art Project, digitizing the Dead Sea Scrolls and bringing the Yad Vashem Holocaust materials online.
You can start exploring the Nelson Mandela archive right now at archive.nelsonmandela.org. We hope you’ll be inspired by this influential leader—the face of South Africa’s transition to democracy.
Posted by Mark Yoshitake, Product Manager, Google’s Cultural Institute

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

His 21st Birthday, in Prison

03/20/2012 Nativegrl77

What’s the Word?

For most people, prison is punishment. For a few, it becomes a badge of honor.

One Member of Congress told me that every few years, he gets arrested. So that people can see whose side he’s on.

Eugene Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison for protesting against United States involvement in World War I. Debs ran for President from prison, and he received almost a million votes (3.4% of the total).

And on March 11, 1986, on his 21^st birthday, you would have found Jesse Jackson, Jr. in jail, for protesting at the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C., against apartheid in South Africa.

Both before and after that, if you wanted to find Jesse Jackson, Jr. at lunchtime on Thursdays, you wouldn’t go looking for him in a diner or a fast-food joint. You’d find him at 444 N. Michigan Avenue, in Chicago, in front of the South African Consulate, protesting against apartheid. Week after week after week. The protests at the Consulate started in 1977, and they went on for more than a decade.

The protests ended only after Nelson Mandela was released from his 27 years of incarceration – another badge of honor. On the day of his release, Mandela made a speech that was broadcast around the world. Mandela called for peace and reconciliation. On the stage with Mandela that day was Jesse Jackson, Jr.

For the past quarter-century, in one way or another, Jesse Jackson, Jr. has devoted himself to the causes of justice, equality and peace. He is the kind of Democrat that Democrats always ask for: tough, fearless, compassionate and unstoppable.

He faces a serious challenge in his primary on Tuesday, from a former Democratic Member of Congress.

He needs our help. He deserves our help. Let’s help him.

Remember, we don’t just need more Democrats. We need more Democrats, and better ones. We can’t let one who is this good slip away.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

Paid for and Authorized by the Committee to Elect Alan Grayson

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Seeing Red …Alex Wilks – Avaaz.org

06/01/2011 Nativegrl77

Dear Friends,

Red Bull must decide whether to lend its name to clean the image of the blood-soaked Bahraini government, or pull out of the Formula 1 race that’s due to be held there. Let’s stand with the students, nurses and other innocent protesters who’ve been killed and tortured and call on Red Bull and the other teams to stay away from Bahrain. We’ll use hard-hitting ads to turbo charge our message. The decision is in 48 hours —

Red Bull has built a reputation as a sporty, fun drink — but by this Friday, it and other leading F1 teams may become better known for endorsing government torture and murder. Formula One has 48 hours to decide whether to hold its already-delayed race in Bahrain, site of one of the most brutal crackdowns in the Middle East.

If Red Bull refuses to race in Bahrain, other teams will pull back as well — and the Formula One race could be taken off the schedule, sending shock waves through Bahrain’s brutal government and sending an unmistakeable message that the world will not ignore state brutality. Sports boycotts have piled pressure on other regimes such as apartheid South Africa — we can do it again.

Red Bull will only act if enough of us join together to make clear that its brand, its very reputation, is on the line. Let’s raise a cry that Bahrain’s government thugs can’t silence, and call on Red Bull to pull out of the Formula One race slated for Bahrain. If 300,000 of us sign the petition, Avaaz will run hard-hitting adverts carrying our messages to Red Bull executives. Just two days remain — sign now and pass this message along:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_f1_in_brutal_bahrain/?vl

The Bahraini government has booted out the world’s media — even torturing a female journalist working for a French TV channel. Under cover of this blackout it is claiming that all is calm and orderly. That’s a blatant lie. Early one morning last week teargas bombs were shot through a window of a leading human rights activist. He only just rescued his brother, wife and daughter who were close to suffocation. He now appeals to Avaaz “to do whatever you can to stop the government from attacking me and my family”.

Bahrain has even sacked and abused a quarter of the workers at its F1 race track. One badly bruised track worker says that policeman “put my head between his legs, flipped me on to the floor – and then the beatings really began”. Many people are still missing — such as a student who was injured during attack on university of Bahrain. Doctors, journalists and others have given harrowing accounts of torture and abuse at the hands of the police.

Earlier this year – before other uprisings pushed Bahrain off our front pages – the Bahrain race was postponed. But now Formula 1’s boss wants to go ahead with it. He says it isn’t his business to play politics, but knows that racing in Bahrain in front of the world’s cameras would play into the the bload-soaked government’s hands. Let’s stand up for the Bahraini nurses, students and others who’ve been felled and injured by telling Red Bull, which prides itself on a young, fun image, to say no to F1 in brutal Bahrain. Sign the petition now and send to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_f1_in_brutal_bahrain/?vl

The sports we play and watch can uplift us, but can also be used as pawns in political games. Together we can show that people standing for human rights everywhere, trump money and brutality anywhere.

With hope and determination,

Alex, Sam, Ricken, Mia, Pascal and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Bahrain doctors to be tried for helping protesters
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article380678.ece

boss hopes to reinstate Bahrain
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26052011/66/ecclestone-hopes-fia-reinstates-bahrain.html

Bahraini

female doctors recount detention ‘horror’
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jojcZ8GM-0J_0gTLt5KsY12IiiJQ?docId=CNG.ccc3b0204b5da8e7cce5b8854b144bdf.611

France

24 correspondent tortured for covering pro-democracy demonstrations
http://en.rsf.org/bahrain-france-24-correspondent-tortured-30-05-2011,40374.html

Letter

to Federation Internationale de l’Automobile and Formula One Teams Association Regarding Bahrain Event
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/05/26/letter-federation-internationale-de-lautomobile-and-formula-one-teams-association-re

Citizens’