Students and staff from Stellenbosch University (SU) celebrated Mandela Day with a walk around campus to learn more about Mandela’s legacy.
This is according to Chevaan Redwaan Peters, the manager of knowledge information systems and marketing at SU’s division for social impact.
Erhard Thiel, Stellenbosch-based photographer and artist, was the photographer who took a picture of Nelson Mandela’s first visit in Stellenbosch University 1991. He had taken the picture for the student newspaper Die Matie, according to Thiel. PHOTO: Ntokozo Khumalo
Highlights of the walk
The attendees gathered at the Rooiplein entrance of the Neelsie Student Center, on 23 July to commence the walkabout.
They were taken to various points on the university campus where they could discuss the different artefacts representing Mandela’s legacy, and could ask questions from the multiple presenters from the different venues they visited, according to Peters.
“We have some unique landmarks in this institution that speak life to [Mandela’s] values,” said Peters.
Landmarks include the image of Nelson Mandela’s first visit to SU, as depicted at the entrance to the student centre. Mandela had addressed students by the balcony of the Langenhoven Student Center, according to Dr Leslie van Rooi, the senior director of social impact and transformation at SU.
“In 1991 it was the first time that Mandela was on the campus,” said Erhard Thiel, a Stellenbosch-based photographer and artist, and one of the presenters.
Students in SU during apartheid had never seen Nelson Mandela, as the government had prohibited any images of Mandela from being seen, according to Thiel.
Nelson Mandela’s second visit to SU was in 2008 when he was there in support of his second wife Graca Machel who was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university, according to van Rooi.
The walk also stopped at the special manuscript exhibition from SU Library, according to van Rooi.
Other landmarks on the walk, included the world-renowned collection An End to Waiting by Paul Weinberg, The Person is in the People collection by Kneo Mokogopa, and the iMadiba installation at the SU Museum, as well as an artwork at the Ou Hoofgebou of the constitution in the SU official languages, according to van Rooi.
Staff members and students viewed the special collections from the Afrikana Department in the Stellenbosch University Library during the walking dialogue Mandela Day event. The Afrikana department is open for people to help with research and finding old archived information, according to Marieta Buys, the head of special collections. PHOTO: Ntokozo Khumalo
What the attendees gained during the walk
“What I learned back [home] was that Nelson Mandela was arrested and he came out of prison. It was not as detailed [as it was during the walk],” said Mkhwananaz.
One attendee shared that in the 30 years they had been a part of the university, the walking dialogue event was something that they had never experienced at the institution, according to Peters.