Google expands online access to the archives of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu

Google grants for Mandela, Tutu archives

Internet search giant Google has announced grants of US$1.25-million (R8.6-million) each to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre to help digitise the archives of the two Nobel peace laureates and make them available to a global audience.

The grant to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, housed at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, will help to preserve and give unprecedented digital access to thousands of archival documents, photographs and audio-visual material about the life and times of Nelson Mandela.

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory is committed to documenting records about the life of one of the world’s greatest statesmen. Its objective is to use his legacy to foster meaningful dialogue and debate to promote social justice.

Google’s grant will assist in expanding the online Mandela archive and making it available to scholars and researchers in the future.

In addition to significant audio-visual materials, the online multimedia archive will include Mandela’s letters and correspondence with family, comrades and friends; his prison diaries; and notes he made while leading the negotiations that led to the end of apartheid in South Africa.

“We are delighted that Google has come on board to help ensure that our Mandela Portal becomes a world-class source of accurate and reliable information about Madiba,” Verne Harris, head of the Centre of Memory, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The grant to the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town will go towards the documentation and digitisation of Tutu’s archives, and an interactive digital learning centre.

“Google wants to help bring the world’s historical heritage online, and the internet offers new ways to preserve and share this information,” said Luke Mckend, country manager for Google South Africa.

The two grants “will facilitate new digital archives for South Africa’s past, giving the global public an unprecedented opportunity to engage with the history of some of the most extraordinary leaders of our time”.

Source: South Africa.info website

Statement from the Nelson Mandela Foundation: the Google Grant to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory

Earlier this week the Google Foundation announced a significant grant to further the work of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.  This marks the beginning of a collaboration that will:

1. Provide much needed resources to help the Centre expand global access to the life and times of Nelson Mandela, through the Centre’s “Mandela Portal”.  The grant has no conditions attached other than requiring us to adhere to established financial management requirements.

2. Enable the Centre to pursue a key strategy: the systematic digitising of archival materials, including film, paper-based records, sound recordings and photographs.  The first priority of digitisation is of course to secure and preserve the archive by creating digital version back-ups to all original materials.  The second objective is to provide web-based access to digital content to audiences throughout the world. As part of its public information work, the Centre does not intend to charge subscription fees or other forms of payment. 

Finally, this grant does not in ANY WAY involve the transfer of rights to any outside party of archival material held by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.  It is also worth noting that neither the Google Foundation nor the Google company ever requested such rights.  We are proud to welcome Google as a partner. Their wealth of knowledge and experience will be of immense help in this age of the digital archive.

Achmat Dangor
Chief Executive
Nelson Mandela Foundation

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