- Title: South Africa launches notes and coins for 100th anniversary of Mandela's birth
- Date: 13th July 2018
- Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (JULY 10, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NYONI WORKING ON A DESIGN OF MANDELA COIN VARIOUS OF NYONI HOLDING THE COIN AGAINST MANDELA PORTRAIT
- Embargoed: 27th July 2018 15:34
- Keywords: nelson mandela coins notes currency centenary birthday apartheid commemoration
- Location: JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
- City: JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: Human Interest / Brights / Odd News,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA0048OL0MS7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:South Africa on Friday (July 13) launched a set of limited edition bank notes and gold coins to mark what would have been former president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday.
The South African Reserve Bank said the new notes captured Mandela's historical journey, from his upbringing in rural Eastern Cape as the son of a chief, to his activism in Soweto against the continent's last racist regime, through to his 27-year incarceration on Robben Island and the period of democracy thereafter.
"What could be more fitting than to commemorate his life through an instrument that we all use every day. Money touches all of us young and old. 'Utata' (grandfather) represents the best version of ourselves as South Africans and there is no more appropriate an occasion than his birthday centenary to honor all that he represents with this commemorative bank notes and the five rand circulation coin," central bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago said.
The coin was designed by Zimbabwe-born Sindiso Nyoni, whose works includes stinging rebukes of recently deposed Robert Mugabe.
He hopes the design would inspire the same feeling of hope in Zimbabwe that flooded South Africa on Mandela's release in 1990.
"We were not fortunate enough to experience the sort of democracy that South Africa has currently been experiencing for the past 24 years. So I am hoping that almost like that euphoria that was captured when Mandela got released and the first elected president. I am hoping that it will pour over to Zimbabwe that has known a dictatorship for pretty much more than 35 years," said Nyoni.
The 34-ear-old left Harare in the early 2000s at the height of political violence. He lives in Johannesburg.
He used a graphic novel-style etching on the 1-ounce pure gold 5 rand coin of a smiling middle-aged Mandela with his hair parted down the middle.
Nyoni said seeing his work placed firmly in history was any artist's dream.
"For me it's more like, a legacy type of thing in a sense that it's something that's going to be around for quite some time and I think as an artist or a graphic designer we always sort out, or I particularly always sought to be able to have a place in history," said Nyoni.
The artist says his work has always been influenced by activism and liberation history and is a result of extensive research of various cultures he has encountered in his travels.
When he was commissioned by South Africa's Reserve Bank to look at the passage of Mandela's life to mark what would have been his 100th birth year, he says he felt fortunate.
"He planted that seed... you know, generations and generations can learn from his philosophies and his outlook on life and how he approached, you know this atrocity that was apartheid you know. I think for me I can take that from his way of life and his philosophy and the way he saw things," said Nyoni.
The United Nations designated July 18 as Nelson Mandela International Day in 2009.
The tribute notes and coins form part of month long events across the world, culminating locally in a lecture by former United States president Barack Obama next week. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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