The daughter Dr. Makaziwe Mandela and granddaughter Mrs Tukwini Mandela of Nelson Mandela will be returning to Liverpool.
They’re here as guests of Mandela8 for Mandela Week. Mandela8 started as a campaign in the Liverpool 8 community after Mandela’s death (2013) resulting in them being established as a charity in 2017.
Mandela week runs from July 17 - 23 including; the memorial launch in Princes Park, Toxteth and an audience with the Mandela family at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre on July 18. Mandela8’s vision following Mandela’s death was for a permanent piece of artwork in Liverpool 8 to commemorate and celebrate his achievements for humanity and the strong links between South Africa and Liverpool.
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Chair of Mandela8 Sonia Bassey told the ECHO: "The decision to locate the memorial in the Joseph Paxton designed Prince’s Park followed consultation and engagement processes and an open design tender. The memorial reflects the meaningful legacy of Mandela and the significant history of anti-apartheid activism in Liverpool.
"It's an opportunity to showcase an artwork and memorial integral to the process of change and promotion of diversity, humanity and equality: key principles Mandela campaigned for all his life. The memorial design reflects an outdoor classroom to educate people of all ages about humanity, social justice and how to celebrate each other for our differences".
Mandela8 has education and the environment as a fundamental part of their plans including work carried out by themselves, Liverpool City Council and Friends of Princes Park. They aim to increase and protect the current wildlife and have been a catalyst for recent improvements that’s taken place to the lake and surrounding area.
Mandela, while in Pollsmoor prison and Robben Island, cultivated his own garden from 16 barrels which the memorial takes its inspiration from. The planning of the memorial was applied for in 2018 and eventually approved in 2022.
Liverpool dock workers, at Ford's Car Factory and individuals across the city played a role fighting apartheid in South Africa and were part of the global effort to get the system overthrown and for Mandela's release. People from Liverpool risked imprisonment and their lives in taking information in and out of South Africa during apartheid.
Sonia added: "His gardens were symbols of resistance, tools for resilience, spaces for reflection and platforms for community. Food grown provided a resource to counter the food inequality linked to racial discrimination in the prison system, which provided less nutritious rations to non-white prisoners".
32 stonework pedestals on the island will be inscribed with Mandela quotes and the new Freedom Bridge is reimagined from the original Joseph Paxton design when a pedestrian bridge connected the island. Key messages of the bridge are; connectivity, cohesion, building bridges and to represent no one being imprisoned on an island as it allows freedom to enter the space.
Sonia said: "The memorial will be a wonderful space to educate people about humanity, social justice and peace. An outdoor classroom to be used by schoolchildren, so offers significant opportunity to educate young people about the environment and how to protect it and all living things on it.
"We’re working with environmental groups so people using the space use it respectively as a cohabited space for people and wildlife. There will be CCTV around the memorial which is more important due to ongoing acts of vandalism to signs and around the site".
"There will be a final assessment of bird nesting in and around the island given the legal obligation to not disturb nesting birds. This includes establishing a buffer zone around the construction areas and actively monitoring throughout the works”.
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