The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

metal colossus” in Mandela’s image at the harbour entrance. The statue was planned to be
65 metres high, one‐and‐a‐half times the size of the Statue of Liberty, and in its original
design, proposed the enlarged Mandela with a clenched‐fist salute, holding a copy of his
book, Long Walk to Freedom. With “discomfort in some quarters”, this plan was shelved in
favour of one with an open hand, with a figure of a young girl bearing a bowl added.
Called the “Statue of Freedom”, the giant statue was intended as “a symbol of humanity’s
struggle for freedom”. It would be fronted by a 600 metre “long walk to freedom”, and its
45‐metre plinth would house “a museum of freedom” celebrating national liberation
struggles around the world. Because he had worried about “being built up into a
tremendous cult figure”, and about being depicted as “the lone leader”, Mandela had
indicated his discomfort with the idea of this statue, but at the same time admitted his
awareness of the “commercial interest behind it” and of its potential as “tourist
attraction”. 272
It is not certain what the response of the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) was to the
idea of an outsize Mandela statue, since they had taken on responsibility for management
of the Mandela brand. Established in 1999 as “the primary vehicle” to “lead and direct the
development of a living legacy that captures the vision and values” of Mandela’s life and
work, the NMF became the administrative infrastructure mediating his ongoing
involvement in public life. The NMF also sought to regulate the reproduction and sale of
Mandela’s image and the use of his name in commercial or public settings. It invoked the
old 1941 Merchandise Marks Act that protects national symbols to prevent artists from the
unauthorised “quoting” of Mandela’s image. Yiul Damaso, an artist who had depicted
and sold paintings of Mandela as Rastafarian and boxer, among other guises, and who
had sold his works from a Sandton Square restaurant during the 2002 World Summit on
Sustainable Development, was ordered by the NMF to stop painting Mandela images.
NMF lawyer, Ishmael Ayob, also instructed an “unemployed, self‐taught” KwaZulu‐Natal
272 ‘Freedom Statue to rival Statue of Liberty – Survey: Nelson Mandela Metopole’, Sunday Times
Surveys, 19 August 2001 (author’s possession); Rowan Philp, ‘Giant Mandela statue planned’, Sunday
Times, 20 October 2002; ‘Mandela – the tourist industry’, Mail and Guardian Online (www.mg.co.za), 8
December 2002, accessed on 10 December 2002; Rory Carroll, ‘The colossus of King’s Beach’, Mail and
Guardian, 25‐31 October, 2002.
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