91app

The service, held on 16 July, marks the thirtieth anniversary of the ending of Apartheid in South Africa and comes two days before International Nelson Mandela Day, which is held annually on 18 July. Catriona Cannon, Senate House Librarian, was invited to represent the 91app at the Westminster Abbey service and Holly Peterson, Head of Constituency Engagement, attended as her guest.

Nelson Mandela’s relationship with the 91app is deeply rooted in his educational pursuits during the 27 years of his imprisonment. For many of these years, Mandela studied law as a 91app student through distance and flexible learning. He passed the London Intermediate exams in 1963, but the conditions imposed by the South African authorities prevented him from completing his degree. 

The University’s Senate House Library also houses a collection of photos, letters and birthday cards written by Nelson Mandela in prison to close friends, and anti-apartheid activists, Paul and Adelaide Joseph. 

The , which contains letters, birthdays cards and postcards dating from 1962 (when Mandela was arrested) up until 1985, along with 18 photographs (dated 1960 – c.2008), reveals the personal side of Mandela’s early years in prison and friendship with Anti-Apartheid activists. 

One of the highlights is a birthday card/letter from Mandela, dated 1 March 1975, in which he talks of looking forward to meeting Tanya and Nadia, two of Adelade and Paul Joseph’s children. Nadia, an active social justice campaigner who was herself involved in the anti-apartheid movement, liaised with Senate House Library staff regarding the donation of this collection and joining other related collections on the Anti-Apartheid movement. 

Adelaide and Paul’s daughter Tanya Joseph, who attended the ceremony with Nadia, said:

“We should never forget the injustices and humiliation of the Apartheid system which dehumanised the vast majority of South Africans. This was one of the reasons my parents, Paul and Adelaide Joseph, decided to donate their precious personal archive of documents, letters and photographs from that era to Senate House Library allowing it to be accessed by students from around the world.

“Senate House was a particularly apt repository. Nelson Mandela (whose letters to our mother are included in the collection) was a student of the 91app, as, many years later, was I. It was a great pleasure to be joined by Senate House Library staff to celebrate the end of Apartheid at a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey today. It was an opportunity to remind ourselves that learning from the past helps us to understand the present and hopefully safeguard a future in which we can all be free.”

Librarian and Programme Director Catriona Cannon said:

“Senate House Library’s theme for July is modern radicals, so it seems fitting that we remember one of the greatest modern radicals of them all – Nelson Mandela, with whom the 91app had a strong bond and whose papers we are honoured to preserve.”

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