Free Nelson Mandela

'Free Nelson Mandela!' is a slogan I remember from my days as an undergraduate. It is remarkable, and makes me feel rather old, that today is the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. You can read about the anniversary of the BBC website. The Nelson Mandela Foundation also covers the story in detail.

Some of my first political campaigns were around Mandela's imprisonment and once or twice I ventured to Glasgow to the South African consulate in what is now called Nelson Mandela Place to protest about his imprisonment. I also had the great honour to be in the same room as Mandela at a Labour Party conference, I didn't speak to him or even get particularly close to him but still it was a great honour.

In Dundee it is important to remember that Nelson Mandela has the Freedom of the City. When this was awarded in the 1980s some people still said he was a terrorist or that awarding him the freedom of Dundee was a pointless gesture as he would never be released. I don't think awarding Nelson Mandela the freedom of Dundee brought down apartheid but it was part of an international campaign which did play a part in bringing down apartheid. Recently Dundee awarded the freedom of the city to Aung San Suu Kyi, we can only hope that a similar transformation is not too far away in Burma.

I am a supporter of ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa) click on the picture of Nelson Mandela to visit their website and look at their work.