The Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the naming of Nelson Mandela Place in Glasgow on 16 June 2021 with a special video at 12 noon on Wednesday 16 June 2021 on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MandelaScottishMemorial/) and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sel1MQ8b6p0). Links also, and a donate page, are at https://mandelascottishmemorial.org.
The street was previously known as St George’s Place, and was the location of apartheid South Africa’s consulate in Scotland at the time. Its renaming in 1986 meant that the racist regime’s official representatives were to be found at an address named after the country’s highest profile prisoner.
The re-naming ceremony took place on 16 June commemorating the Soweto Uprising on that day in 1976. After the ending of apartheid 16 June was designated as South African Youth Day and is a public holiday in South Africa.
The Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation has received planning permission to site a statue of Mandela in Nelson Mandela Place and is well on the way to reaching the target for its creation. The Foundation has also been conducting educational activity about apartheid, the life and struggle of Mandela, his connection with Scotland and the continuing struggle against racism, inequality and injustice.
Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation chair Brian Filling said: “Thirty-five years after the people of Glasgow sent shockwaves to the apartheid government in Pretoria, we are within touching distance of putting Nelson Mandela at the heart of Nelson Mandela Place. It is thanks to the donations – large and small – from individuals and civil society that we have come this far.
“Three and a half decades after Scotland sent that powerful message, racism is sadly still at large, at home and abroad. A permanent memorial to Nelson Mandela will not only remind Scots of their proud history of solidarity with the South African people, but it will also educate future generations to stand up against racism and prejudice wherever it rears its ugly head.”
ENDS