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The late South African president Nelson Mandela was memorialized with a statue on his 100th birthday.
Last September, a life-size statue of Mandela was raised at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Mandela’s statue is the only life-size figure at the facility. It portrays Mandela as he was delivering a speech on June 22, 1990, when he spoke to the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid [uh–PAHRT-hahyt] for the first time.
Before he became president, Mandela led the opposition against apartheid, a system that promoted racial segregation and inequality in South Africa. Under this system, black people were denied many rights, such as the right to vote or to run for office. Mandela first fought apartheid by organizing peaceful protests. Later, however, the government criminalized and violently silenced protests against the system. This led Mandela to establish an armed group called the “Spear of the Nation” to fight for freedom.
When apartheid came to an end, Mandela became the first president of the Republic of South Africa in 1994. Throughout his term, he pushed for national reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa. Mandela stepped down in 1999 and established the Nelson Mandela Foundation to support different charitable organizations.
In addition to the statue at the UN headquarters, Nelson Mandela was also honored with another statue in Cape Town, South Africa, earlier this year. The statue was raised on the city hall’s balcony where he gave his speech on February 11, 1990 after being freed from a 27-year imprisonment. According to one South African official, the statue symbolizes Mandela’s contribution in uniting all South Africans.