The Nelson Mandela Foundation's Centre of Memory
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has updated its Centre of Memory with new exhibitions that illuminate the life and times of Nelson Mandela, and stand as a tribute to his legacy.
The original exhibition was launched three weeks before Madiba passed away on 5 December 2013, so the upgrade needed to include elements that would enable visitors to glean special insight into his monumental journey and pay their respects with personal messages of remembrance.
One of the new installations is a telephone booth that contains recordings of touching tribute messages left by the general public, initially from a campaign that was run by Telkom and the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Now, as part of the permanent exhibition at the Centre of Memory, visitors can listen to a selection of these messages in all eleven official South African languages and four international languages, including French, Portuguese, Kiswahili and Silozi.
With education being an important pillar of the work carried out by the Foundation, the new additions include an interactive touchscreen monitor aimed at children. It has a quiz, an “on this day in Madiba’s life” feature, audio recordings of Mandela speaking about various topics, as well as other interesting facts about his life and work.
Other installations include:
- A display of the jackal-skin kaross that Mandela famously wore to his 1962 trial, where he was convicted for leaving the country illegally and inciting workers to strike. The kaross is on loan to the NMF from Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
- A TV showing images of Mandela meeting various people at the Foundation has been installed in his old office that he used from 2002 to 2010
- A photograph of Mandela’s coffin as it was transported through Pretoria, en route to the Waterkloof military base from 1 Military Hospital
“When we initially developed the permanent exhibition, it was clear that some elements that we wanted would take longer to develop and that we therefore needed a phased approach,” says Razia Saleh, Senior Archivist at the Foundation.
“The interactive display aimed towards children took some time to develop and design, and the jackal-skin kaross needed painful restoration work as the pelt had deteriorated considerably over the last 50 years since Madiba had worn it to court.”
Saleh explains that plans are already underway to enhance the exhibition space further.
“We also want to periodically add new elements to the exhibition, which will add rich layers to the well-known narrative of Madiba’s life story. So as we uncover or discover new artefacts or facts about him, we will make them available to the public through various means, including the exhibition.
“We are already planning to add an interpretive layer to the glass representation of Madiba’s cell.”
Members of the public are free to visit the Foundation’s Centre of Memory from 9am to 4pm on weekdays, to reflect on and experience Madiba’s life and times.