US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Nelson Mandela.
(Image: Nelson Mandela Foundation)>Aug 7, 2009 – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a courtesy call on Nelson Mandela at his office in Houghton this afternoon before viewing his archival collections.
Clinton and Mr Mandela spent 30 minutes in private conversation before she toured the Nelson Mandela Foundation Centre of Memory and Dialogue, which she said later she had been “delighted” to do.
“I’m delighted, [not only] because I had a chance to see Madiba today but I also got to see the archives and some of the archival material which is being displayed for the first time. I saw with my own eyes the very careful record keeping that Madiba did during his life which will be a treasure trove of information, stories, lessons and guidance which generations to come will be able to learn from,” Clinton said.
The Centre of Memory and Dialogue was conceptualised after a bench-marking exercise which studied institutions founded in the name of an individual. The Bill Clinton Presidential Library and the Clinton Foundation were included in that exercise.
In 2006 Mr Mandela asked former US President Bill Clinton to meet Verne Harris, Head of the Memory Programme, to advise him on strategic planning for the establishment of the Centre. Later that year the Foundation’s Board of Trustees adopted Memory and Dialogue as the core functions of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Hillary Clinton visited the Resource Centre at the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Archival Room, which fall under the Centre of Memory. She was briefed by Harris, who showed her archival materials related to Mr Mandela, including hand-written copies of letters he wrote while in prison, his Methodist Church membership cards dating from 1929, his prison diaries and the first known photograph of him.
“We value Secretary Clinton’s interest in the memory work of the Foundation,” Harris said.
