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A tribute to all who fought apartheid: Mandela

SALUTE TO A HERO: A statue of the former South African President, Nelson Mandela, being unveiled in London on Wednesday. Mr. Mandela (third from right) and his wife Graca Machel look on. - PHOTO: AP

LONDON: Whoops of joy reverberated across Parliament Square here on Wednesday morning when Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled a statue of Nelson Mandela as a tribute to one of the world’s most famous living symbols of freedom.

Mr. Mandela, who was helped to the stage by his wife Graca Machel, said it was a tribute to all those who had fought apartheid. The history of South Africa was full of heroes, he declared, his voice belying his age and frail health at 89.

The statue, which stands yards away from the scene of some of the most memorable anti-apartheid protests, was described by Mr. Brown as “more than a monument”. It was a “beacon of hope”, he said as a frail but optimistically cheerful Mr. Mandela looked on.

The former South African President is among a clutch of select world statesmen — Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli and Abraham Lincoln — to be thus honoured. Mr. Brown pointedly said that to the symbols of anti-fascism and anti-colonialism had now been added a monument to anti-apartheid struggle.

Mr. Mandela, in his trademark floral cotton shirt, was visibly moved as Mr. Brown and the London Mayor Ken Livingstone pulled the wrapping around the statue to reveal a 2.7 metre-high bronze look-alike of the man whom Mr. Livingstone described as symbolising the “idea of a better world”.

The statue, conceived by the anti-apartheid activist, late Donald Woods, and took seven years to complete, was mired in controversy over its location.

Mr. Livingstone wanted it to be installed in Trafalgar Square facing the South Africa House, the venue for many an anti-apartheid demonstrations. But eventually it was agreed to put it up in Parliament Square.

Richard Attenborough, maker of the film Gandhi and trustee of the Mandela Statue Fund, described him as an inspiration for the world.

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