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So it is perhaps fitting that an exhibition
opening in London on Friday about his life and legacy features
his watch, which was always kept on South African time wherever
he traveled in the world as the country's first black president.
The interactive exhibition takes a journey though Mandela's life
including his upbringing in rural Eastern Cape as the son of a
chief, his 27-year incarceration and the end of apartheid when
he became president in 1994. Mandela died in 2013 aged 95.
It features previously unseen footage alongside more than 150
artefacts such as clothes, campaign posters and travel documents
on loan from the family of the Nobel Peace Prize winner and
museums and archives worldwide.
"My grandfather, during his presidential years, he wore a watch,
a Philippe Patek watch, and I've made that watch available
because he gave me that watch and I think because he was such a
committed person and always on time," grandson Mandla Mandela
told Reuters.
"Even when he traveled abroad his watch remained on South
African time which we found hilarious as a family, but that
watch is also here on display."
London is the first city to host the touring show "Mandela: The
Official Exhibition" before it is permanently mounted in
Mandela's birthplace Mvezo.
"It's our generation's responsibility to ensure that we record
history for generations to come to understand the character and
to understand the glorious human achievement of Nelson Mandela,"
Zelda La Grange, his personal presidential aide and the
exhibition's guest curator, said.
(Reporting by Soraya Ali; Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by
Marie-Louise Gumuchian)
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