Mandela launches prison archives

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From correspondents in Johannesburg, South Africa
17, March, 2005

Reuters---ANTI-APARTHEID icon Nelson Mandela today launched a
research centre documenting his life on a site where he was
jailed three times, marking the recent 15th anniversary of
his release.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Commemoration in
central Johannesburg features previously unseen documents and
photographs from the former president's 27 years in jail
including handwritten excerpts from his prison diary and
letters.

"May we never forget those generations that challenged the
apartheid regime and made our freedom possible through many
years of struggle ... We want this sample of memories to
dedicate itself to the recovery of memories," Mr Mandela
said.

Mr Mandela, who at the age of 86 appears increasingly frail,
was released in February 1990 as South Africa's apartheid
rulers began to relax their grip on power ahead of free
elections that took place four years later.

Visitors to the centre's opening exhibition, entitled
"466/64 - A Prisoner Working in the Garden" in reference to
his prisoner number, will get a glimpse of material found in
Mandela's prison files and personal collections. In his
autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" Mandela writes of his
love of gardening during his long incarceration.

The centre has also built an internet portal archiving
documents on Mr Mandela's life from all over the world and
plans to take its resources into communities through
education projects.

The centre is housed in Johannesburg's Constitution Hill
complex, home to the Constitutional Court and a flagship
exhibition centre built on the site of an apartheid era jail
where Mr Mandela was imprisoned three times between 1956 and
1962.

Constitution Hill is a key part of Johannesburg's plans to
use the country's history to draw more tourists to the heart
of the commercial capital, where a reputation for rampant
crime and poverty have put off foreign tourists from the once
affluent city centre.

Other museums document different aspects of Mr Mandela's
life, including one at his home in Johannesburg's Soweto
township and a new one being built near his birthplace at
Qunu, in Eastern Cape province.