Nelson Mandela, the late champion of human rights whose influence has been felt around the world, will be honoured with a permanent tribute in downtown Ottawa.
In his recent State of the City address, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson announced plans to name an area outside the Heritage Building near city hall, Nelson Mandela Square.
“I just thought it was a small way for us, as city council, to recognize an individual who has been to our city,” says Watson, “who’s helped make society, and all parts of the planet more humane and kinder.”
The square will include the lawn space between city hall and the adjacent Heritage Building near Elgin and Lisgar streets. It was here that Mandela visited the Human Rights Monument in 1998.
Watson says he hopes to have the proposal fully prepared and submitted to a council committee by next month. If council approves the plan, there will be a formal ceremony sometime in July, the month Mandela was born..
Mandela visited Ottawa three times. On his last visit in 2001, he was named an honourary citizen of Canada.
Watson had the opportunity to meet Mandela during his first trip to the capital in 1990, just months after he had been released from prison.
Mandela led the fight against Apartheid in South Africa. In 1962 he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the government and spent 27 years in prison.
After his release, Mandela continued to promote racial equality and became the first democratically elected black president of South Africa.
He died in December at the age of 95.
The original Nelson Mandela Square is located in Johannesburg, where the former president lived.
Juanita Botha, creator of the Facebook group, South Africans in Ottawa, had the opportunity to visit the square just days after Mandela’s death.
“The feeling was very vibrant and it was very colorful. People were sad but at the same time they were so happy to celebrate somebody so powerful,” says Botha. “At the same time it felt peaceful and quiet even though it’s in the middle of the city; it was like a place of serenity that people could go and visit.”
There will be a description of Nelson Mandela’s place in history on a plaque in the square, says Watson.
“When people walk by and they’re not sure who he is, they’ll be able to read about him and his tremendous contributions to peace and human dignity around the world.”