What have Jack Straw and Nelson Mandela got in common? Not much, really. But both were presidents of the Leeds University Student Union in Britain in the 1960s.
Well, Straw was the real thing in 1966, taking a first step towards becoming British Foreign Secretary. Mandela was of the honorary sort, elected in 1965 not long after he had been dispatched to Robben Island. Perhaps Straw had a hand in it. Perhaps he even used the idea of honouring Mandela as his weapon of mass destruction during his election campaign.
Good practice for three decades on. Whatever the case, Leeds’s student union was one of the first international bodies to honour Mandela and to establish a trend that gained only modest momentum in the 1960s and 1970s before taking off in the 1980s.
They must have been a right lefty lot at Leeds University, for it wasn’t long (1973) before they were naming a nuclear particle after him. That probably ranks alongside the Gaddafi Prize for Human Rights [sic] in 1990, the Freedom of Miami Beach in 1992 and Greenland’s Santa of the Year Award in 1995 as among Mandela’s more forgettable honours. And not half as fancy as his investiture by the Duke of Gloucester as a Knight of Grace of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in 1995.
Or indeed, the Royal Order of St Olav by King Harold V of Norway in 1998. And not as long-lasting as the new cornice on the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York, which sports an angel with the face of Mandela. And probably not as valuable as the Freedom of Pick ‘n Pay awarded in 1999: does this mean he gets free groceries alongside his presidential pension?
If so, he may well down a few beers, which probably came with the Castle Lager Struggle Hero of the Century Award granted in 2000, as he tucks into his cornflakes. He clearly likes a quiet drink, as he also got the South African Breweries Gold Medal later that year.
Of course, Mandela is well known for his technicolour shirts. They probably take up half his wardrobe. At least he can wear them. Not so the doctoral gowns, which must surely take up the other half. Well, he might wear them now and again, just for a change, but he must look a bit funny if he wears them when he is pottering around Pick ‘n Pay.
If he does, he is thoroughly spoilt for choice. The National University of Lesotho was among the first to award him an honorary doctorate in 1979. On the whole, universities only started jumping on the wagon after that, once the anti-apartheid mass protests began to pick up pace.
City College of New York was one of the first in 1983, followed closely by Britain’s Lancaster University the same year and the Free University of Brussells in 1984. After that, he was honoured by universities in Brazil, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, the United States, Cuba, the German Democratic Republic, Venzuela, Italy and Canada during that decade.
After 1994 the floodgates opened with at least another 30 honorary doctorates awarded by universities in Egypt, Canada, Malaysia, the US, Senegal, Taiwan, Belgium, the United Kingdom (nine presented at the same time at Buckingham Palace!), France, Germany, Phillipines, Thailand, Israel, Australia, Holland, Botswana, Tanzania and Ireland. He was also the first person since the Iranian revolution of 1979 to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the Iranian University. We don’t know what he said as he picked it up, but he certainly lectured the Chinese on human rights when he picked up a degree from Beijing University in 1992.
To their shame, local universities cottoned on rather late. Not surprisingly, students were ahead of the authorities, with Natal Students Representative Council nominating Mandela for the university’s chancellorship in 1983. After that, Madiba had to wait until he was a mite more respectable, with the University of the Western Cape being the first to offer him a doctorate, doing so in 1990, followed closely by the University of Cape Town. He then had to wait until 1994 (Unisa) before doctorates were offered thick and fast. A total of 18 South African universities and technikons have honoured him this way, alongside naming a variety of buildings, professorships and studentships after him.
Degrees apart, he also has numerous streets, parks, monuments, schools, squares and even a public holiday (Zimbabwe) named after him. And he has been granted the freedom of about 40 cities.
The sporting world hasn’t forgotten either: as befits an ex-pugilist, he was made president of the World Boxing Council in 1998. And, gosh, he has also met David Beckham.
Not least, as an icon of the struggle for freedom, he has received major awards commemorating his contribution to Human Rights and Peace. The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to him jointly with then president FW de Klerk in 1993 is probably the best-known of these, but he has received 40-odd others from around the world. And Madiba has also been a Canadian since 2001. Bet he’s never had trouble with the immigration department.
Roger Southall and Arlene Grossberg of the democracy and governance programme of the Human Sciences Research Council are undertaking a study of the iconography of Nelson Mandela for the Nelson Mandela Foundation