{"id":41414,"date":"2024-07-20T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/stories-from-the-un-archive-meet-the-first-black-president-of-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2024-07-20T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T12:00:00","slug":"stories-from-the-un-archive-meet-the-first-black-president-of-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=41414","title":{"rendered":"Stories from the UN Archive: Meet the first Black President of South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When Mr. Mandela addressed the Assembly in October 1994, he received a hero\u2019s welcome. History was unfolding as he took his place on the dais in the white leather chair reserved for Heads of State and Government. Cheers erupted as he approached the podium. A collective standing ovation rose across the Assembly Hall.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the previous year, the lawyer and civil rights leader had received the Nobel Peace Prize for his costly battle in ending apartheid, a system of legalised segregation, modelled after the United States\u2019s \u201cseparate but equal\u201d Jim Crow race laws for Blacks, that was strictly enforced by South Africa\u2019s white-only government from 1948 to 1994.<\/p>\n<div class=\"context-un_news_large_credit type-remote_video media media--type-remote-video media--view-mode-un-news-large-credit\">\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/media\/oembed?url=https%3A\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch%3Fv%3D5roIQJVHWLA&amp;max_width=0&amp;max_height=0&amp;hash=E71jozCUEsNwpjooT1r1phxejTTL85DVqogtFtqxzzw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" class=\"media-oembed-content\" loading=\"eager\" title=\"Nelson Mandela Addresses UN as President of South Africa\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>It took 46 years for Mr. Mandela, along with countless brave South Africans and tens of millions of supporters protesting worldwide, to help topple that racist system and the regime that upheld it, including the 27 years he spent incarcerated on Robben Island for taking a stand against apartheid.<\/p>\n<p>But, it was not the first time that Mr. Mandela stood before the iconic marble podium in the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York.<\/p>\n<p>He addressed a UN audience for the first time on 8 June 1990 \u2013 soon after his release from prison \u2013 in a speech to the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) as the Vice-President of the African National Congress (ANC).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite the thickness of the prison walls, all of us in Robben Island and other jails could hear your voices demanding our release very clearly,\u201d Mr. Mandela said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe drew inspiration from this. We thank you that you did not tire in your struggle. We thank you for your sense of humanity and your commitment to justice which drove you to reject the very idea that we should be imprisoned and that our people should be in bondage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"context-un_news_full_width_credit_caption type-entermedia_image media media--type-entermedia-image media--view-mode-un-news-full-width-credit-caption\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-thumbnail field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-authors field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items\">\n<p>UN Photo\/Ariana Lindquist<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Unveiling ceremony of the Nelson Mandela statue, a gift from South Africa, at UN Headquarters in 2018. (file)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>When the iconic leader died at age 95 in December 2013, the President of the General Assembly encouraged the UN to honour Mr. Mandela \u201cby letting his legacy live on\u201d in the world body\u2019s continued struggle against poverty, injustice and the destruction of the human person and human spirit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet us remember that we can also be like him because we too can choose the better way, choose to work toward those causes that are greater and better than our narrow interests,\u201d John Ashe said during a\u00a0special meeting convened at UN Headquarters to give Member States an opportunity to pay tribute to the former South African leader.<\/p>\n<p>The Assembly President urged UN representatives to remember that \u201cwe too must work together to reduce hunger and injustice, to build lasting peace and sustainable development, to stop genocide and combat hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just as Mr. Mandela drew inspiration from supporters during his incarceration, the world has become equally inspired by his legacy, with hundreds of thousands of activities planned to celebrate his life on this international day.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to a 2010 report from UN Radio\u2019s Ben Malor reflecting on the struggle against apartheid and the campaign for Mr. Mandela\u2019s release, in which the UN played a key role:<\/p>\n<p><em>UN News<\/em> is showcasing epic moments across UN history, cultivated from the\u00a0UN Audiovisual Library\u2019s 49,400 hours of video and 18,000 hours of audio recordings.<\/p>\n<p>Catch up on UN Video\u2019s <em>Stories from the UN Archive<\/em> playlist\u00a0here and our accompanying series\u00a0here.<\/p>\n<p>Join us next week for another dive into history.<\/p>\n<div class=\"context-un_news_large_uncropped_credit_caption type-entermedia_image media media--type-entermedia-image media--view-mode-un-news-large-uncropped-credit-caption\">\n<div class=\"field field--name-thumbnail field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/global.unitednations.entermediadb.net\/assets\/mediadb\/services\/module\/asset\/downloads\/preset\/assets\/2017\/07\/mandela-big-1500481801.jpg\/image1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Nelson Mandela International Day is marked annually on 18 July.\" title=\"Nelson Mandela International Day is marked annually on 18 July.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field--name-field-authors field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items\">\n<p>Nelson Mandela Foundation<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Nelson Mandela International Day is marked annually on 18 July.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2024\/07\/1152331\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Mr. Mandela addressed the Assembly in October 1994, he received a hero\u2019s welcome. History was&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1523,1521,1522,505,296,255,1520],"class_list":["post-41414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","tag-africa","tag-archive","tag-black","tag-meet","tag-president","tag-south","tag-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stories from the UN Archive: Meet the first Black President of South Africa - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2024\/07\/1152331\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stories from the UN Archive: Meet the first Black President of South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gulf News| UAE&#039;s Largest News aggregator site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/feed\/view\/en\/story\/2024\/07\/1152331\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gulf Times | News by the minute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100084981843786\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-20T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1721482981_image1170x530cropped-jpg.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Gulftimesuae\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gulftimes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stories from the UN Archive: Meet the first Black President of South Africa - 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