Mandela's Statue in London

About the Mandela statue
The 9-foot statue, which is cast in bronze, shows Mandela speaking, gesturing with his hands.

Before his death in 2006 the sculptor, Ian Walters, wrote about his inspiration for the statue:

"When Nelson Mandela came to Bedford in 2000 to unveil my bust and inscription of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (the former president of the Anti-Apartheid Movement), I had the opportunity to observe him closely for the first time. It was a moving and memorable occasion, marked by the intensity of the speech he made to the huge crowd filling the streets around him. As he turned so that everyone could face and hear him I saw the gesture with his arms and hands and in it the tension of making contact, I knew immediately it had the truth I sought to develop into a design for the statue."


Saidi Yakubu's view
My hero and freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela, sasa anaungana na watu mashuhuri wengine walio na sanamu zao hapo, sanamu yake ipo karibu kabisa na sanamu ya Abraham Lincoln, muasisi wa taifa la Marekani na Winston Churchill ambae aliongoza mapambano dhidi ya ubaguzi wa kiNazi.

I have idolised Mandela ever since I can remember and seeing him in the flesh in his frail days walking with a stick and must be aided but you couldn't help feeling for the man who have spent almost all my age up to now [I am 28] in prison and yet he came out of it and taught the world that you can achieve justice without vengeance!

One of his famous qoutes I learned today was
'' I was made by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done but for what I stood for'' and ''To make peace with an enemy, one must work with that enemy, the enemy becomes your partner''

Reporters walikuwa wengi sana kureport tukio hili la leo la kihistoria. I couldn't help feeling that I was covering one of the historic moments in our times, seeing Nelson Mandela in the flesh and unveiling this statue that will be here long after our generation has perished.

Umati wa watu ulikuwa ''wa kumwaga'' ....

Meya wa London akizungumza kabla ya uzinduzi wa sanamu ya Mandela, alisema kuwa
'' The statue of Nelson Mandela is to be placed in Parliament Square to demonstrate that the struggle of the South African people to overcome the tyranny of the racist apartheid state was itself the struggle for universal human rights''

Waziri Mkuu Gordon Brown nae alikuwepo na ndie hasa aliezindua sanamu hiyo pamoja na Meya wa London. Alisema
'' Mandela is one of the greatest and most courageous leader of our generation and it is fitting that we have his statue here in the best forum for democracy in the world i.e The Parliament Square''.
Sanamu ya Mandela ni kielelezo cha uzee wake kwa sasa akiwa na tabasamu lake la asili na lenye shati ambalo ndio ''trademark'' yake i.e. Shati la kung'ara lenye michoro ya maua na lililofungwa vifungo mpaka kwenye kolla shingoni.
One famous Mandela quote is:
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.

source: SAIDIYAKUBU blog


UK Prime Minister's Speech:
Today let me on behalf of the people of our country welcome you to Britain.

The man who will be remembered forever as the leader who ended apartheid.

The man whom no prison cell, no intimidation, no violence, no show trial and no threat of execution could ever silence.

A man whose belief in the future was so powerful that not even 27 years behind bars and barbed wire could destroy his dream and his demand - that - by fighting apartheid from his prison cell - millions today could be free.

And from this day forward, this statue will stand here, in sight of this ancient forum of democracy, to commemorate and celebrate for the ages triumph in the greatest of causes and the most inspiring and greatest leader of our generation - and one of the most courageous and best-loved men of all time.

He is the leader who became the liberator, who always chose reconciliation over revenge, who when he left his country's prisons to become his country's president led South Africa away from dictatorship and a multi-racial democracy was born.

And when people look back on this generation they will say of this great man wherever there was oppression, wherever there was poverty, wherever there was injustice, wherever there was inequality, there Mandela was and is fighting for justice.

And when the history books of the liberation struggles are finally written, they will say of these last decades, this was the age of Mandela.

And this statue lovingly planned two decades ago by Donald Woods and Richard Attenborough is - for us today - and for future generations much more than just a monument.

For only a street away from where tens of thousands over the years demonstrated for the release of Nelson Mandela, this statue is a beacon of hope that sends round the world the most powerful of messages that "no injustice can last for ever".

That suffering in the cause of freedom will not be and never be in vain.

But no matter how long the night of oppression the morning of liberty will break through and we can and will overcome.

And there is nothing we the peoples of the world cannot achieve together.

And let us salute today not just the greatness of Nelson Mandela but the goodness of the man too, of a life where as the poet said, "he rose above the greatest without arrogance and he stooped to help the weakest without condescension".

Always respectful of everyone, subservient to no one.

And such is his humanity that even not Mandela - having climbed one mountain, and triumphed over the evil of apartheid - is at the age of 89 climbing another, fighting the evil of global poverty.

And let us welcome today with him - and thank for her leadership - his courageous and inspirational wife Graca Machel whose path-breaking achievements in fighting the poverty of children are recognised in the award announced today as dame Graca Machel.

Both these great leaders telling us that by our common endeavours we can abolish poverty and illiteracy and become the first generation in history to ensure every child in every continent has the right to education.

That by our shared resolution we can be the first generation to eradicate the deadliest diseases of malaria, diphtheria, polio, TB and then together attack the scourge of HIV aids and next week inspired by Nelson Mandela we will announce our plans to do so.

And that if what seemed the impassable pinnacle of ending apartheid can be scaled in the last century, then in this century we can make poverty history and "make the world anew" and so now I invite Ken, Wendy and Richard to unveil this statue with me across from Winston Churchill, who led us in the defeat of fascism, and near to Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator will stand Nelson Mandela, the great liberator of people. May Nelson Mandela's story and his statue, summon us and future generations to stand with him and seek a world worthy of what is best in our common humanity. President Mandela, you will be here with us always.

(Speech by Gordon Brown, PM)