Everyone knows Nelson Mandela’s insightful injunction: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” In this centenary year of Mandela’s birth we remember and build on his social justice legacy, with these words ringing in our ears.

Our education initiatives aim to fulfil all four of the primary objectives of this centenary year:  the eradication of poverty and inequality, the dismantling of structural racism, the building of institutions of democracy, and the broadening of freedom of information.

“A real leader uses every issue, no matter how serious and sensitive, to ensure that at the end of the debate we should emerge stronger and more united than ever before.” – Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela’s love of reading and respect for the arts is well-known. In the years directly after Mandela was elected South Africa’s first post-democracy president, he set up a group of arts leaders to develop a plan for arts transformation and funding in South Africa.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation, in collaboration with publishers, will release several books and publications in honour of Nelson Mandela during his centenary year. There will also be a stage play and a TV series, among others.

Nelson Mandela charmed the world with his bright, patterned Madiba shirts and his ability to dance. In this, his centenary year, Madiba will also be celebrated in song, dance and other forms of art.

“During the worst years of repression, when all avenues of legitimate protest were closed by emergency legislation, it was the arts that articulated the plight and the democratic aspirations of our people. This affirmation was demonstrated through drama, dance, literature, song, film, paintings and sculpture that defied the silence that apartheid sought to impose.” – Nelson Mandela

Dialogue and negotiation is one of the things Nelson Mandela is best remembered for. Although he was always quick to point out that he was not the only person who should be credited with negotiating an end to apartheid that avoided civil war, it was Mandela’s message of peace and reconciliation that brought South Africans together at a dangerous time.

“Unfortunately none of us can escape blame for the situation in which humankind finds itself. In almost every part of the world, human beings find reasons to resort to force and violence in addressing differences that we surely should attempt to resolve through negotiation, dialogue and reason.” – Nelson Mandela

There are few photographs more conciliatory in South African history than the 1995 photograph of Nelson Mandela, wearing a Springbok jersey, hoisting the World Cup trophy with Springbok captain Francois Pienaar.

Sport was always important to Mandela. He is remembered as an enthusiastic and dedicated boxer, during his 27 years in prison he kept up a punishing exercise regimen which he continued as president of South Africa, famously rising at 5am – sometimes earlier – to keep this up.

“I found that I worked better and thought more clearly when I was in good physical condition, and so training became one of the inflexible disciplines of my life.” – Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela campaigned all his adult life, for a better life for his fellow South Africans, and for people everywhere.

"If freedom was the crown which the fighters of liberation sought to place on the head of mother Africa, let the upliftment, the happiness, prosperity and comfort of her children be the jewel of the crown." - Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela's life was one of service to others, and Nelson Mandela International Day reminds us that we, too, should be making the world a better place in whatever ways we can. Mandela Fridays are there to encourage us to do this more often than once a year, in fact to do this at least on the last Friday of every month: Mandela Friday.

"It is in your hands to make of the world a better place." - Nelson Mandela