Setting up the Nelson Mandela centre of memory and commemoration

Abstract

Stories about Mr. Mandela's life and work are scattered around the world. They are to be found in institutions holding collections of archival material, in archival collections in the custody of individuals, in the organizations that Mr. Mandela belongs to or has been closely associated with, and in the interactions that Mr. Mandela has had with countless numbers of people, for instance, as a family member, friend, colleague, anti-apartheid leader, political prisoner, chief negotiator, international statesperson and first democratically elected President of South Africa. Equally significant are the largely untapped stories of ordinary individuals, both from within and outside of South Africa's borders. On 21 September 2004, the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and Commemoration Project was launched by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The Project is planning to invest a significant amount of time and resources into conducting both South African and international audits of Mandela-related materials, with the aim of creating a single web-based portal to the widely scattered “Mandela Archive.” This article aims to outline the process of the audits, highlight the issues involved in the development of the web archive, as well as provide details on the development of the database architecture.

Keywords: centre of memory and commemoration, Constitution Hill Heritage Site, Nelson Mandela Foundation, South Africa

ESARBICA Journal Vol. 24 2005: 109-115