SALM TEAM 
S
The Nelson Mandela Foundation invites members of the media to attend the 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, which will be delivered in Johannesburg by Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah on Saturday 28 September 2024.
Gurnah, who won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents”, will address the theme “Realising Our Shared Humanity”.
This theme reflects the notion that human beings are all one family and that there should be a deep sense of caring and concern for each other that transcends differences such as race, religion and nationality.
The 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture will be held at 3pm on Saturday 28 September 2024, at the University of the Witwatersrand’s (Wits’) Linder Auditorium. The Nelson Mandela Foundation is honoured that Gurnah will deliver this year’s lecture.
It is fitting that the 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture will be held at Wits, which has hosted a number of the lectures over the years and which is where Mandela studied during the 1940s as the only Black student in the School of Law at the time.
At Wits, Nelson Mandela formed life-changing friendships with activists who fought alongside him against apartheid, defended him in court, and sacrificed their lives for the freedoms that we enjoy today. While Mandela did not complete his law degree at Wits, in 1990 the university awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2004, the Mandela Institute was established in the Wits School of Law in his honour.
“We are delighted to partner again with an institution which had a long association with Madiba,” says Verne Harris, the Foundation’s acting chief executive.
Gurnah is a former professor of English at the University of Kent. Born in Tanzania, the British novelist is a world-renowned figure in literature and academia. In 2021 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature – becoming the first Black writer to receive the prize since 1993, when Toni Morrison won it, and the first writer from Africa since 2003, when South Africa’s JM Coetzee was the recipient.
He is the author of several books, including Paradise, By the Sea, Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way and Afterlives. His work has been nominated for the Booker Prize, the Whitbread Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
Gurnah is known for creating work that questions simple narratives and structures. He also explores the aftermath of colonialism and war, as well as reckoning with a past deliberately eclipsed and erased by colonialism.
The Foundation believes that having a sense of shared humanity means being committed to championing justice even if it goes against the interests of the rich or powerful, or even our own. In an international context, our sense of shared humanity should guide our understanding of justice and inspire us to pursue it beyond the borders of our respective communities and countries.
Global politics will continue to be a major issue in our lives as we grow ever more connected to each other. Not only does what happens beyond the borders of our respective countries affect us in economic, social and even emotional ways, but international dynamics are also evolving as the global order is being reimagined and reorganised.
As the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s acting chief executive, Verne Harris, said: “We believe that Abdulrazak Gurnah is ideally positioned to speak to the theme for the Lecture. In his work he demonstrates very powerfully how the making of shared liberatory futures must, of necessity, reckon with ever-present pasts.”
The newly appointed Foundation CEO, Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi, will take over from Harris on 1 October 2024. Dr Buthelezi will take the stage during the lecture as a moderator and discussant.
Dr Buthelezi said: “I am well acquainted with Professor Gurnah’s works and have been deeply inspired by his exploration of what happens when we ignore our shared humanity. I look forward to engaging him further on this issue at the 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture.”
Please visit https://www.nelsonmandela.org/ for more information and updates.
● Event: 22nd Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture
● Venue: Linder Auditorium, Wits Parktown Education Campus, 27 St Andrew’s Road, Parktown, Johannesburg
● Time: 3pm, Saturday 28 September 2024
About Author
