Identity area
Reference code
ZA COM NMPP 2009/57-55-1
Title
Goose Bay [NWbt4dccZmE]
Date(s)
- 1993-04-22 and 1993-04-23 (Creation)
Level of description
page
Extent and medium
1 audio clip
In-point: 49:56
Out-point: 49:53
In-point: 49:56
Out-point: 49:53
Context area
Name of creator
Name of creator
(1955-)
Biographical history
Editor and author. Collaborated with Mandela on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (published 1994). Co-producer of the documentary Mandela, 1996. Editor of TIME magazine.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Rick Stengel
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Nelson Mandela is renowned for his love of children and young people and often speaks of how important they are to the future of any country and the world as a whole. Here he relates an incident that occurred soon after his release from prison as he was en route from Canada to Ireland. In Canada’s Goose Bay he had a few minutes at the airport between flights and decided to go and talk to a group of young people. It turned out that they were members of Canada’s Inuit community and Mr Mandela is unashamed about his ignorance of their culture.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access by permission of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright held by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
STENGEL: So, yes so from Canada to Ireland to London.
MANDELA: Now,Yyes, but I’d like to mention that in Canada, at a place called Goose Bay we stopped there to refill before we crossed over to Dublin, and as I was walking to the airport building I saw some people just outside the fence of the airport and I asked from the official who was taking us to the airport building ‘now who are those?’ He says ‘Oh no those are Eskimos’. Now I had never seen an Eskimo and I had always thought of them as people who are catching bears and polar bears and seals. And I thought I should go and see these people. And, and I was grateful that I did that because these were young people in their teens, late teens, about 19, 18, 20. And as I chatted with to them I was amazed to find out that these were high school children. They knew, they had heard that we were going to land and refill and, and I was very happy to meet them and was tremendously impressed because they knew about the release, they watched the release and also they knew one or two meetings which I had addressed. And it was the most fascinating conversation precisely because it was shocking. I was rudely shocked, awakened to the fact that my knowledge of the Eskimo community was very backward because I never imagined that there were schools, they go to schools and they were just like ourselves. I never imagined that. Although I was in the struggle, the freedom struggle I should have been able to know that people anywhere, throughout the world, change from their less advanced positions. And I enjoyed that conversation very much. The result of course is that I caught, I had flu, not flu what is that – pneumonia.
MANDELA: Now,Yyes, but I’d like to mention that in Canada, at a place called Goose Bay we stopped there to refill before we crossed over to Dublin, and as I was walking to the airport building I saw some people just outside the fence of the airport and I asked from the official who was taking us to the airport building ‘now who are those?’ He says ‘Oh no those are Eskimos’. Now I had never seen an Eskimo and I had always thought of them as people who are catching bears and polar bears and seals. And I thought I should go and see these people. And, and I was grateful that I did that because these were young people in their teens, late teens, about 19, 18, 20. And as I chatted with to them I was amazed to find out that these were high school children. They knew, they had heard that we were going to land and refill and, and I was very happy to meet them and was tremendously impressed because they knew about the release, they watched the release and also they knew one or two meetings which I had addressed. And it was the most fascinating conversation precisely because it was shocking. I was rudely shocked, awakened to the fact that my knowledge of the Eskimo community was very backward because I never imagined that there were schools, they go to schools and they were just like ourselves. I never imagined that. Although I was in the struggle, the freedom struggle I should have been able to know that people anywhere, throughout the world, change from their less advanced positions. And I enjoyed that conversation very much. The result of course is that I caught, I had flu, not flu what is that – pneumonia.