Nelson Mandela, pictured for Glasgow City Council's newspaper The Bulletin in October 1993 speaking in the City Chambers after receiving the Freedom of the City of Glasgow. The freedom of eight other British towns was conferred on him at the ceremony. His inspirational address was heard by an audience of 400, and he later spoke to a crowd of around 10,000 people in George Square, thanking them for the stand Glasgow had taken against apartheid.
Glasgow was chosen by Mandela for the presentations because it was the first city to make him a freeman, in 1981. The South African government at the time refused him permission to leave prison to accept the honour, fuelling the worldwide campaign to set him free. In 1986 the city renamed St George's Place, the location of the South African consulate, as Nelson Mandela Place in his honour. Mandella, the leader of the African National Congress, was eventually released in 1990 and became his country's first democratically-elected president in 1994.
Reference: Bulletin photographs, Box 11, November 1993
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries Information and Learning
Keywords:
African National Congress, Africans, ANC, apartheid, awards, black men, Bulletin, City Chambers, consulates, Freedom of the City, freemen, presidents, prisoners, South Africans
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