A monument to former South African President Nelson Mandela was unveiled at the intersection of Michurinsky Avenue and Ramensky Boulevard in Moscow on 9 September, reports the correspondent of the African Initiative.
The monument was erected on the square named in honour of the former head of South Africa. The sculptor was Mikhail Baskakov.
“Mandela was a true hero who fought for freedom, peace and justice. First of all, we immersed ourselves in the history of Nelson Mandela, studied it and on this basis created our work,” Baskakov said, “It seemed relevant to us to do it now (the monument is set for December 2023 – “AI”), against the background of the upheavals taking place in the world, including in Africa.
According to Baskakov, the Mandela monument is the first work in Moscow to combine bronze, aluminium and mosaic smalt in one piece.
“We increasingly understand and realise that Africa is becoming a strategic partner of Russia because we have common tasks, common goals to create a freer, fairer and more merciful world. I think that together with African friends, colleagues, associates, we are capable of building the kind of world that Nelson Mandela dreamed of,” said Irina Abramova, Director of the Institute of African Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The monument was created by the Russian Military Historical Society with the assistance of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and the Government of Moscow.
“Mandela showed that even one person can defeat the system, can defeat inequality, can fight for freedom. And all his life, starting from his student days and up to his old age, he proved it,” said Alexei Ignatyev, Director of the Centre for Strategic Cooperation of Russia with Africa and the Middle East, at the opening ceremony.
He thanked the Russian Military Historical Society, the Ministry of Defence, and the Moscow Government for the opening of the monument.
“I am such an endangered species of Africanist practitioners, and for us this is not even a step, but a half step towards the Republic of South Africa. And moreover, to the African continent, to which the eyes of absolutely the whole world with different goals and objectives are now turned,” Ignatieff concluded.
Mandela led South Africa from 10 May 1994 to 14 June 1999 and became the country’s first black president. From a young age he opposed racial discrimination and defended the indigenous population of the state, for which he was repeatedly arrested by the police.
In 1964, the country’s Supreme Court sentenced Mandela to the death penalty, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. He spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them in solitary confinement on Robben Island.
During his imprisonment he became world famous, and for two decades the slogan “Freedom to Nelson Mandela!” was heard in the USSR.
The South African leader first came to Russia in 1999, a month before the end of his presidential term.
By African Initiative
