The voice of Nelson Mandela, imprisoned in 1964 and sworn in as South Africa’s president 30 years later, was preserved forever on Thursday with the launch of a CD featuring his most famous speeches.
The 83-year-old spent 18 years in a tiny prison cell on Robben Island just off the coast of Cape Town and the remaining years in a nearby jail, before his release in 1990. The CD, entitled “The Voice of Mandela”, includes his liberation speech, his swearing-in as president, as well as the famous speech by apartheid’s last president, Frederik de Klerk, announcing freedom of movement for blacks and Mandela’s imminent release.
Perhaps the most compelling piece of oratory on the CD is Mandela’s defence speech at his 1964 trial in Rivonia outside Johannesburg, where he faced a death sentence on charges of plotting and sabotage. “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people”, Mandela said at his trial. “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination”. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which everybody lives together in harmony and with equal opportunities”, Mandela continued. “It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”. The CD, the inspiration of an SABC employee, will be available within the next few days in South African stores and then abroad. -AFP