Speaking at the moving service, Tommy Campbell of UNITE and the ATUC, who was a member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement at the time, said that it was a correct and courageous decision that Aberdeen District Council in 1984 awarded the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen to both Nelson and Winnie Mandela.
The Freedom of the City of Aberdeen was awarded, "in recognition of the protracted persecution which he has endured and the example which he has set the whole world in his fight for freedom in opposing the evil of apartheid in his native land of South Africa".
Nelson Mandela was later able to attend a joint ceremony in the City Chambers, Glasgow on 09 October 1993, where he received a freedom casket and scroll from the people of Aberdeen.
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| Tommy Campbell speaking at the service |
"The ANC Women’s Section engaged in that heroic struggle and
it was the women I worked with in the Aberdeen Anti-Apartheid Group that also
used their excellent organisational skills and collective leadership to play
their part in promoting support for the South African people who were resisting
and fighting the racist Apartheid Government in South Africa.
"We must never forget that whilst we in Aberdeen extended our
hands of friendship and international solidarity across borders to
the women, men and children in South Africa, the Apartheid Government was
extending its murderous hands across borders too with a policy of
assassination of ANC activists and their attempt to destabilise the
International Boycott organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement
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| With thanks to Norman Adams, Aberdeen City Council for the photos |
"We must recognise the important part played by the
local Anti-Apartheid Group in Aberdeen that was supported by the Aberdeen
District Council and many politicians, most notably the Aberdeen Labour MP
Bob Hughes who was Chairperson of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the UK
"We pay our tribute and commemorate the life of Nelson
Mandela today and we also recognise the role of the women who played
their part in the ANC and the Anti-Apartheid Movement too.
"I clearly recall an excellent ANC women’s section poster
with a very striking photograph of a woman holding a child with her
left arm in a cuddle close to her chest and with her right arm stretched
out in a powerful clenched fist salute with the caption --- the hand that’s
rocks the cradle should also rock the boat.
"In conclusion I wish to read a poem that Nelson Mandela kept
in his prison cell and he shared with other prisoners to inspire them and
keep their spirit up --- Invictus by William Ernest Henley
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Tommy concluded, "Let us commit ourselves from this day onwards to
ensure we and others throughout the world are never conquered by oppression and
hatred and that we will continue with Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom for all people throughout the world so that one day
the entire human race is free from any form of Apartheid, inequality, poverty,
oppression and injustice.
AMANDLA !!!!!"