Veronika, the president of AUSA PIR Society, began the event with a moment of silence to remember and think about the inspirational man that is Nelson Mandela.
The first speaker was Dr. Karen Salt. She began with telling us how Nelson Mandela moved her as a young person growing up along side the apartheid and witnessing him as a man of resistance. 'a man, a movement, a people, a passion' The first time she realised that the apartheid was an extremely closeted situation, was when she was set an assignment at school, and she chose to go as Winnie Mandela. People looked at her and tried to work out who she was dressed as, and what she was representing, and it was talking to her peers about something they had absolutely no idea about, and was so alien to them, that was a cataclysmic moment for her. She said it changed her, and made her think so much more clearly about things. She began to join anti-apartheid movements, and decided that if we were living in a world like this, no one would ever be safe.
There was a moment here where Dr. Salt began to get emotional. You could see how much the anti-apartheid movement changed her life, and changed the way she looked at life.
So Dr. Karen Salt began to march, and think, and question, and think quite sincerely about what this kind of work meant. It was really hard work to live it, and do it, and to be a revolutionary, and for Dr Karen Salt, this is the part of the legacy Nelson Mandela leaves us.
In 1990, Dr. Karen Salt was there when Nelson Mandela was released. She said it was an amazing moment to see him walking around, talking to everyone. He was shaking hands with everyone, and all he began to speak about was reconciliation, forgiveness and breaking down the veils that had made all of this happen. He was talking about a new way of living, a new society. He spent 27 years in prison, it was older than most of the people in the room at the event, and yet he came out, and reconciles and forgives the people that put him there.. what does this mean for us?
She ended with a small quote from Barack Obama's speech at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. Being that they were both the first black presidents of different countries, they share something no one else shares yet, he said: 'and while I will always fall short of Mandela's example, he makes me want to be better'.
So that was a short excerpt of the event.I have put the videos of the event on youtube too for you to view!
