Events around the world to salute Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday

Mar 14, 2018

Nelson Mandela thegrio.com — A boy plays with a South African national flag in front of a mural of Nelson Mandela in Soweto Township, as the funeral of former South African President takes place in Qunu, on December 15, 2013 in Soweto, South Africa. Mr Mandela passed away on the evening of December 5, 2013 at his home in Houghton at the age of 95. Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994 after spending 27 years in jail for his activism against apartheid in a racially-divided South Africa. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Nelson Mandela, and the life-changing contributions that he’s made to South Africa and the world, have not forgotten and to celebrate his 100^th birthday this July worldwide events are being planned to commemorate the anti-apartheid leader.

Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918 and died in 2013 at the age of 95.

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According to the Atlanta Black Star, the Nelson Mandela Foundation is preparing to unveil a Mandela traveling exhibit this fall that examines the life of the legendary political leader—from his painful 27-year stint as a prisoner to his release and rise to become the first Black president of South Africa.

Mandela’s Concerts is also reportedly attempting to pull off “the single largest musical tribute event in history delivered live in multiple host cities on the same day, the 18th July 2018, in support of liberating children from poverty through improved literacy,” according to its website.

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The traveling exhibit will tour around the world for five years.

South Africa’s new president causes controversy

South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, wants to address the legacy of colonization in his country by taking land from white farmers and giving it to the Black citizens.

Ramaphosa said in an address to South Africa’s parliament in Cape Town that the “original sin” of the country was the European colonizers taking land from the tribal people in the 1600s.

The president said that he wanted to see “the return of the land to the people from whom it was taken… to heal the divisions of the past.”

“The expropriation of land without compensation is envisaged as one of the measures that we will use to accelerate redistribution of land to black South Africans,” Ramaphosa said.

He went on to promise, “We will handle it in a way that is not going to damage our economy.”

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It’s certainly one way to address the long history of division and hurt that has followed South Africa since its colonization. The racism and division put in place by colonization and perpetuated by apartheid and other racist policies have left the country’s Black citizens playing an extended game of catch up when it comes to wealth.