Tag: Nelson Mandela

Read and watch Maya Angelou’s poem tribute to Nelson Mandela below.

Photos from http://philippinediplomaticvisits.blogspot.com/2012/08/philippines-south-africa-1997.html

Twenty-seven years in prison, a long period of that in darkness and limited access to sunlight, affected the eyesight of world hero Nelson Mandela.One of his requests when he came to the Philippines on a state visit on March 1, 1997 was to have the lights dim in his hotel room.

His office also specified a room temperature for the almost 80-year old South African leader, whose unrelenting fight against apartheid and boundless capacity to forgive even those who had persecuted him have made him an inspiration and an icon.

I am not sure where he stayed during his Manila visit but usually at that time state visitors stayed at the Manila Hotel.

I was then a Malacañang reporter and I felt privileged covering the visit of the distinguished leader. I brought his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom” hoping for a chance to have him autograph it. When I did not get the chance to approach him during the press conference, I gave the book to the protocol officer hoping that he would have the opportunity in between the visiting leader’s official activities.

The protocol officer returned the book to me without the much-desired autograph explaining that he was told by Mandela’s aides said that the South African leader has made it a policy not to autograph books and memorabilia.

A 2010 news item in The Guardian carried a request from the Nelson Mandela Foundation that “Because of the sheer volume of requests for his autographs, he no longer signs books, memorabilia, photographs, etc. “