School students pays tribute to Nelson Mandela

The father of South African democracy Nelson Mandela is being laid to rest in his home country.  In Soweto earlier today, a four-hour memorial service was held in Mandela’s honor.  The ceremony was attended by a throng of seventy thousand mourners, including heads of state from at least one hundred countries.  While eulogies were read by the presidents of Brazil, China, Cuba and India, the farewell speech delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama was most rousing, propelling everyone in attendance out of their seats.  Here in Belize, a tribute is also being paid to the anti-apartheid icon with the signing of a book of condolences by students and admirers of the former South African president.  The written expressions of sympathy is an initiative by the UBAD Foundation and, according to Adele Ramos of the Amandala Newspaper, the Library of African and Indian Studies remains open for persons interested in sharing their thoughts to do so.

Adele Ramos, Assistant Editor, Amandala Newspaper

Adele Ramos

“We realized in the process of doing the story on Nelson Mandela at Amandala that there is nowhere in Belize that there is a book of condolences open for this great, world-famous leader.  And so it was a late idea but we decided that we could do something in that regard and so the Kremandala Enterprise, along with the UBAD Foundation decided to launch this book signing today, here at the Library of African and Indian Studies.  We called out the students because it’s very important for them to know who Mandela was because having spent twenty-seven years of his life in prison, I think that he made a sacrifice that every man, woman and child in this world ought to know about because it’s the kind of sacrifice that helps us build ourselves as a people, as a people, as a nation and as a global community.”

Isani Cayetano

“Now, the question is how will this book make its way from here to the other side of the world to be delivered either in Johannesburg or Soweto?”

Adele Ramos

“That is a very interesting question Isani and I haven’t quite wrapped my head around it yet but one thing I do believe is that where there is a will there is a way and I am sure that there is a way that we can do this in a very effective manner.  What I hope to do before I send off this physical book is to do a scan so that we have an electronic documentation and that will be preserved just in the event that it might get lost along the way.”

Isani Cayetano

“Is this open to members of the general public other than the students?”

Adele Ramos

“Definitely, we issued a public call this morning for anybody who wishes to come and sign the book to come on over to the library and we reached out in particular to some of the schools in the immediate vicinity.  We will continue to make contact with other schools as the days go by because, as you know, in South Africa it’s ten days of mourning for Nelson Mandela.  So it doesn’t just end with the memorial service which was held earlier today but it continues into the weekend when he will be formally laid to rest and so the book will be opened

until the weekend.”

The library will be open from three in the afternoon to seven p.m. from Wednesday to Friday for persons interested in sharing their condolences in writing.