A years-ago trip to South Africa ranks as my most memorable, but not only because of wondrous safaris and scenery: swimming hippos to lounging lions, blooming protea to craggy oceanfront.
The nation’s profound contrasts are unlike anything else I’ve experienced in one swoop. Such wealth (no one produces more gold) and such hardship (a majority live in poverty) between Capetown and Johannesburg.
Despite ongoing struggles, the poor persevere in a country where imbalance historically reigns. Although three-fourths of the population is Black, riches are much more likely dispersed among the 9 percent who are white.
My visit is on my mind today because of a new and major show at Milwaukee Public Museum until Aug. 1, about a man whose perseverance was all about improving the odds for his people – one conversation, one protest, one prison sentence and one election at a time.
“Nelson Mandela: The Official Exhibition” tells the activist’s story from farm boy and son of royalty in Mvezo, a riverside village, to South Africa’s oldest and first Black president.
In between were decades of protest, indignity and imprisonment as Mandela focused unflinchingly on his goal to abolish apartheid. He was made into a criminal because of what he stood for and sentenced to life in prison in 1964, the same year U.S. legislators voted to abolish racial segregation.
“The struggle is my life,” the Milwaukee exhibit quotes Mandela as saying. “I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.”
Global exposure and pressure influenced a reduction of Mandela’s incarceration to 27 years, 18 of them on harsh Robben Island, which today is a tourist attraction that helps tell the story of apartheid. In Johannesburg are tours of the Apartheid Museum (which opened in 2001) and Soweto (where a 1976 uprising by 20,000 ended brutally). robben-island.org.za and apartheidmuseum.org
Milwaukee is the first U.S. stop for the Mandela exhibit, which was put together in South Africa with the help of the activist’s family and friends. The display was in London and Berlin before Milwaukee Public Museum and the American Black Holocaust Museum partnered to bring the presentation to Wisconsin. It next goes to Portland, Ore.
The powerful immersion divides Mandela’s life into stages that cover hope, fight, despair and triumph. Film clips, handwritten letters and photos, some graphic, include material previously unseen by the public.
You will learn that “Nelson,” his Christian name, was given to him at age 7 by a teacher. His father, stripped of land and chieftainship after defying a British magistrate, died before the son became a teen.
You will see a ceremonial leopard skin headdress, an ancient warrior honor given to the young Mandela. And the white lion skin that draped his casket in 2013, almost 20 years after Mandela was elected president of South Africa at age 75.
Most artifacts to represent this extraordinary life are much simpler, such as a prison mess kit and pick-axe used to break up limestone quarry rocks. The trademark trench coat, prison uniforms, three-piece suit, colorful Madiba shirt and traditional Thembu garb all represent significant segments of Mandela’s life.
That Nobel Peace Prize medal? A replica of what he and predecessor F.W. de Klerk each received in 1993 for their efforts to dismantle apartheid together.
That necktie to promote cricket in South Africa? It’s the real deal, and a symbol of how Mandela used sport to help unite a divided nation. The work continues.
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Mandela exhibit tickets are by reservation and assigned a timed entry because of the pandemic: $22 for most adults, with discounts for children, college students, military vets and senior citizens. mpm.edu/mandela
Relevant online events include:
A two-part “Systems of Racial Violence” panel discussion moderated by Robert S. Smith, resident historian for America’s Black Holocaust Museum. The noon to 1 p.m. and 1-2 p.m. discussions are May 27.
A two-part “Milwaukee’s Fight for Social Justice” presentation led by Denise Thomas, owner of The Effective Communication Coach, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. May 10 and May 11.
Group discussion of “A Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela” (Little, Brown, 1994) begins at 6 p.m. June 3 (first six parts) and July 1 (last five parts).
Register for Zoom links to these events at mpm.edu/mandela.
Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, the late baseball legend Hank Aaron and wife Billye Aaron are honorary co-chairs of the exhibit’s Community Advisory Council.
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American’s Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee was founded by James Cameron, who survived a lynching as a teen. The bricks and mortar museum turned virtual in 2012, and efforts are under way to open galleries to visit in person that will provide a chronology from 1619 (the start of African slavery in North America) to the present. abhmuseum.org