South Africa’s largest monument to Nelson Mandela, a 30-foot bronze state in Pretoria. Mandela is revered worldwide and celebrated on July 18, his birthday. But at home, a younger generation is disillusioned with the country, his party and the anti-apartheid leader, too. — Photos: ©2023 The New York Times Company
IN South Africa, Nelson Mandela is everywhere. The country’s currency bears his smiling face, at least 32 streets are named for him and nearly two dozen statues in his image watch over a country in flux.
Every year on July 18, his birthday, South Africans celebrate Mandela Day by volunteering for 67 minutes – painting schools, knitting blankets or cleaning up city parks – in honour of the 67 years that Mandela spent serving the country as an anti-apartheid leader, much of it behind bars.
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Memories of Mandela
South Africa’s largest monument to Nelson Mandela, a 30-foot bronze state in Pretoria. Mandela is revered worldwide and celebrated on July 18, his birthday. But at home, a younger generation is disillusioned with the country, his party and the anti-apartheid leader, too. — Photos: ©2023 The New York Times Company
A 20-foot sculpture of a young Nelson Mandela as a boxer outside the Johannesburg Central Magistrate’s Court. Nearly two dozen statues in his image watch over a country in flux.
A Mandela sculpture in Howick, KwaZuluNatal, at the site where Mandela was captured by the apartheid government in 1962.
Odes to Mandela are aplenty, like this statue at Nelson Mandela Square, a shopping centre in the Sandton district of Johannesburg.
A statue depicting Nelson Mandela at the City Hall in Cape Town.
A statue depicting Nelson Mandela on July 12, 2023 outside a prison in Paarl, South Africa, where Mandela was held for 14 months until his release in Feb 1990. — Photos: ©2023 The New York Times Company
