Freedom Speech

Nelson Mandela passes away today. In the video below, "Madiba's" full February 11, 1990 "freedom speech" from the steps of the Capetown City Hall.  This is where he traveled after being officially released that day from 27 years in prison.  He addresses crowds jammed into the Grand Parade or town square and "a stone's throw" from the Castle, the oldest existing colonial building in South Africa. 



In an interesting "media tale" twist to the youtube above, CTNews01 writes,

I was a editor in the UK when I was asked if I would like to return to SA and cover the release of Nelson Mandela. This was 6 months before the announcement was made to the rest of the world. The day before Nelson Mandela's release I think CBS and BBC formed a coalition to cover the release from Victor Verster prison with what they call "pool cameras" and then sell the material to all the other news agencies worldwide. Basically all the independents where thrown off the prison location so I decided to set up a crane with crew on the Grand Parade which actually worked out with me being the only one who got virtually the entire speech.

I have held this material in stock for years and suddenly it dawned on me that the material needs to be archived correctly in case of loss or damage. I approached the SA government for assistance as I have lots of historically material that needs to be archived correctly and was basically decline any assistance. Well the next best thing was to finance it myself and put it on YouTube so at least there is a archive where it cannot get lost as it is a very significant historical document. This material is not even archived in the foundation or any other historical archives in South Africa!.

This is the raw footage captured on the day of his release and the only enhancement has been to improve the audio track. This material needs to be professionally archived when I can raise the funding.

 More coverage on Nelson Mandela's life here and here.