Nelson Mandela videos: From his first interview to speech as President

Nelson Mandela, the South African leader who fought against apartheid and was the country’s first black President, passed away today at the age of 95. Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against white minority rule, Mandela emerged determined to use his prestige and charisma to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war. “The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come,” Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa’s first black president in 1994. “We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation.” [caption id=“attachment_1270961” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Nelson Mandela is all smiles as he is greeted by tens of thousands of people in Harlem, New York’s famous black district, in this 1990 file photo. Reuters[/caption] In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He shared the prize with FW de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who freed him from prison three years earlier and negotiated the end of apartheid. Mandela went on to play a prominent role on the world stage as an advocate of human dignity in the face of challenges ranging from political repression to AIDS. Here are some videos from key moments in Mandela’s life. The first is a television interview that Mandela gave in 1961 ITN reporter Brian Widlake. Despite being an ANC activist Mandela was on the run from police, Widlake arranged to secretly meet him in his hideout. When the reporter asked Mandela where Africans could progress without the white majority, he said,“We have made it very clear in our policy, that Africa is a nation of many races and that there is room for all races.” He also said that where education is concerned, it was important but that didn’t mean that African people should be denied fundamental rights. Watch video below:

The second video is when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after having been in jail for 27 years. The video shows Mandela leaving the prison hand-in-hand with his wife Winnie. Nearly 500,000 people waited to meet their leader.

The next video is of Mandela’s speech after he became the President of South Africa in 1994. He says in the video, “The time to build is upon us. We have at last, achieved our political emancipation…We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace.”

In Mandela’s speech at the United Stations in 1993,  he said, “It will forever remain an indelible blight on human history that the apartheid crime ever occurred. It will forever remain an accusation and a challenge to all men and women of conscience.”

And finally here’s a video of Muhammad Ali and Mandela boxing with other.

With inputs from Reuters