10/21/92

CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558

South African black leader Mandela to speak at Stanford

STANFORD -- Nelson Mandela, a leader against apartheid and for black-majority rights in South Africa, is scheduled to speak at Stanford University on Monday, Nov. 9.

His speech, at 4 p.m. in Maples Pavilion, is sponsored by Stanford Law School and is expected to concern plans for a new South African constitution that Mandela's African National Congress is negotiating with that nation's white-dominated government.

The address will be the first appearance by Mandela on a short trip to the United States, with an appearance before the United Nations Security Council in New York to follow.

Because of space constraints, the Stanford speech is open only to Stanford faculty, staff and students. A limited number of tickets will be distributed to them on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 7 a.m. Monday, Nov. 2, at the ticket office in Tresidder Union. Until the tickets are gone, each individual with a valid Stanford I.D. can obtain a single ticket. (Individuals may not use more than one I.D. to obtain additional tickets.)

The speech will be televised live on the university's campus SUNet cable system (channel 11 in the residence halls, channel 48 in academic buildings) and by Cable Coop (channel 51), which serves Stanford, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton and parts of San Mateo County.

The Stanford Law School will present Mandela with its Jackson H. Ralston Prize in International Law, which recognizes original and distinguished contributions to the development of the role of law and the establishment of peace and justice.

Now 74, Mandela has spent his life in the struggle of South Africa's black majority to abolish apartheid and other forms of political and economic discrimination. He was released from South African prison in February 1990 by the reformist government of F.W. De Klerk after more than 27 years of imprisonment for "sedition."

The son of a Xhosa chief, Mandela studied at University College, Fort Hare, and earned a law degree from the University of Witwatersrand.

In 1944, he helped form the Youth League of the then-outlawed African National Congress, South Africa's leading black-rights organization.

With Oliver Tambo, also a later president of the ANC, Mandela formed the nation's first black law partnership in 1952.

In 1956, Mandela and 155 other leading members of opposition groups were indicted for treason but found not guilty after a trial lasting five years. In 1962 he was rearrested and ultimately, in the Rivonia trial of 1963 and 1964, sentenced to life imprisonment, much of it at hard labor.

Mandela's long incarceration became an international embarrassment to the white government, which sought to have him recant some of his stands as a possible condition of release. His refusal to do so helped make him a symbol of the struggle for freedom and justice in South Africa.

In 1990, the year of his release from prison, the African National Congress was legalized and Mandela named its deputy president. In 1991, he became president of the organization.

Mandela has been honored by universities and organizations throughout the world. His awards - many received while he was still a prisoner - include the Jawaharlal Nehru Award (1979), the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights (1981), UNESCO's Simon Bolivar International Prize (1983), the Sakharov Prize (1988), and the UNESCO Houphouet-Boigny Prize (1991).

Mandela's published works include the books No Easy Walk to Freedom (1965), The Struggle Is My Life (1978) and I Am Prepared to Die (1979).

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