Nelson Mandela-Not for Sale
Auction of Mandela Heritage Suspended
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Nobel Laureate, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.1
GUIDE TO NELSON MANDELA
Cornell University provides an open-source guide to Nelson Mandela’s historical achievements and writing.2
PLANNED AUCTION HALTED
The planned auction of dozens of artifacts belonging to Nelson Mandela has been suspended pending a court application to completely halt it, the South African Heritage Resources Agency, the body that protects South Africa’s cultural heritage has announced.
The online auction had been scheduled by New York-based Guernsey’s auction house3 for 24 February 2024, in conjunction with Dr Makaziwe Mandela, the eldest daughter of Nelson Mandela.4
Items listed in the auction included Mandela’s “book” – his identification document following his 1990 release from prison.
Bible
Mandela’s iconic Ray-Ban sunglasses
“Madiba” shirts,
Walking stick
personal letters he wrote from prison,
gifts from former US president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.
a champagne cooler, a present from former US president Bill Clinton, was also on the list, with bidding for it starting at $24,000.
This has been the subject of much concern as discussed in the South African press.5
South African Heritage Resources Agency
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) is mandated to coordinate the identification and management of the national estate. The aims are to introduce an integrated system for the identification, assessment and management of the heritage resources and to enable provincial and local authorities to adopt powers to protect and manage them.6
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) acknowledges and respects the recent judgment of the High Court relating to the unpermitted export for exhibition or sale on auction of items associated with former President Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela. SAHRA’s commitment to upholding heritage preservation principles is unwavering. Out of concern regarding the potential impact of the judgment on the preservation of heritage objects in South Africa, SAHRA, together with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (the Department), and the Robben Island Museum (the Museum), lodged an application for leave to appeal the judgment on 28 December 2023.7
Personal Information Management in the Family Context
Dr. Peter Johan Lor, a scholar of international librarianship, suggests that those who wish to understand the larger context might wish to read the essay, “Personal Collections and Personal Information Management in the Family Context.”8 Issues of preserving heritage have also been addressed by Cloonan.9
A selection of books by or about Nelson Mandela:
Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom : The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. 1st ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1994.
Mandela, Nelson. The Struggle Is My Life: His Speeches and Writings Brought Together with Historical Documents and Accounts of Mandela in Prison by Fellow-Prisoners. [Rev. ed.]. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1986.
Mandela, Nelson, and Henry Russell. Let Freedom Reign: the Words of Nelson Mandela. Cape Town: Zebra Press, 2010.
Sampson, Anthony. Mandela: the Authorized Biography. 1St American ed. New York: Knopf, 1999.
Meredith, Martin. Mandela: a Biography. New York: PublicAffairs, 2010.
Meer, Fatima. Higher than Hope: the Authorized Biography of Nelson Mandela. 1St U.S. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.
Waldmeir, Patti. Anatomy of a Miracle: the End of Apartheid and the Birth of the New South Africa. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997.
Guernsey's - Upcoming Auctions (guernseys.com). SUSPENDED.
Auction of Nelson Mandela’s belongings suspended after outcry from South Africa heritage agency. The Guardian. January 30, 2024.
February, Sue. (February 28, 2024). Tawdry auctioning off of Madiba memorabilia aptly sets tone for 2024 elections Daily Maverick.
The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) is mandated to coordinate the identification and management of the national estate. The aims are to introduce an integrated system for the identification, assessment and management of the heritage resources and to enable provincial and local authorities to adopt powers to protect and manage them. Website is here: The South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA.
South African Heritage Resources Agency. MEDIA STATEMENT 2024 | SAHRA & Others vs Dr Makaziwe Mandela & Others. Media-Statement-Mandela-Objecs-Auction.pdf (sahra.org.za)
Krtalić, Maja, Jesse David Dinneen, Chern Li Liew, and Anne Goulding. ‘Personal Collections and Personal Information Management in the Family Context’. Library Trends 70, no. 2 (2021): 149–79. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1353/lib.2021.0020.
Abstract
People who produce something notable for future generations during their lives often have collections of documents and artifacts with potential cultural heritage value, but such collections can be lost forever just as easily as preserved and enjoyed by future generations. This paper reports on five case studies of significant individuals’ collections to explore how such individuals and their families value and manage their collections, the decisions they make and challenges they face in doing so, and what effects these and other challenges may have on the transference of their collections to preservation institutions. We found that family bonds play a significant role when
deciding what to do with a collection, as does having the awareness, skills, and support to organize collections and negotiate with libraries, archives, and museums. Participants viewed personal collections as proof of their professional identities and as having valuable storytelling potential. However, the locus of responsibility for safeguarding personal collections of significant individuals remains unclear. The paper outlines how to more effectively organize personal collections and protect them from being lost and contributes to closing a knowledge gap at the intersection of several areas of information science, namely information behavior, personal information management, and cultural heritage management."
Cloonan, Michelle. 2015. Preserving Our Heritage: Perspectives from Antiquity to the Digital Age. Chicago: Facet.
The suspension of the sale is good news. Mandela was a true hero and a patriot. His memory and the artifacts that represent his life should be preserved for future generations.
Suspend it and kill it off! His daughter should be ashamed. On a tinier scale, my George Orwell musical play - One Georgie Orwell - the script and nine original songs - is being donated to any theatre group in the world that wants it. It played at Greenwich theatre in 2012 and in New York (way off Broadway!) two years later.