Monument to Nelson Mandela (London)

The discussion lasted five years, whether the monument to the fighter with apartheid should stand on Trafalgar Square . This idea was ardently upheld by London Mayor Ken Livingston , who believed that it was here that the South African freedom fighter should stand up in all his bronze grandeur, and the Embassy of South Africa was located on Trafalgar Square. Thirty years ago, mass rallies of the British were held here demanding the release of Mandela, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher called him a terrorist, and students from the Conservative Party wore badges calling to hang a fighter against apartheid. However, authorities in the Westminster area opposed it, saying that the sculpture did not match the appearance of the square on which the monument to Admiral Nelson had already been erected. As a result, a compromise was found: the statue of Mandela will face the Parliament building , next to the three prime ministers of Great Britain - Winston Churchill , Benjamin Disraeli and Robert Peale .

Once Mandela himself predicted the appearance of his monument at Westminster. In the book “The Long Road to Freedom, ” he recalled how he once walked around London with his comrade-in-arms Oliver Tambo : “When Oliver and I saw a statue of General Jan Smats (a famous South African leader) near Westminster Abbey, we joked that it might when here, in turn, our statues will appear here as well ” ^[1] .

On August 28, 2007, speaking at the opening ceremony of his monument, Mandela promised to arrange in the summer of 2008 , on the eve of his anniversary, a grand charity concert in London Hyde Park and to attend it personally. To the podium at which he made a speech, he was escorted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown . He called Mandela "the greatest and most courageous leader of the current generation." The ceremony was attended by Mandela's wife, Graça Machel . In addition to the former president of South Africa , the mayor of London Ken Livingstone and British actor and director Richard Attenborough attended the opening ceremony of the sculpture. It was Attenborough who threw back the cover hiding the statue.

According to Ken Livingston , the fact that the Mandela monument was erected on Parliament Square reflects the role of the South African leader as "one of the key political figures of our time." This sculpture is the second in London. The first Mandela in Bronze, also by Walters, stands on the south bank of the Thames ^[2] .