In February the Centre held a special screening of Nelson Mandela’s 1997 lecture “Renewal and Renaissance: Towards a New World Order” at the Grove auditorium, Magdalen College. The screening was introduced by the Centre’s Nelson Mandela Fellow, Dr Basil Mustafa. Lord MacDonald, Warden of Wadham College; Rt Hon Andrew Smith MP; and Mr Anthony Smith, President Emeritus of Magdalen College also spoke. The film of President Mandela’s 1997 lecture was then watched by an appreciative audience.

The lecture was also screened as part of the Oxford Literary Festival in March, in the Sheldonian Theatre (the venue of the 1997 lecture). The screening was introduced by the Director of the Centre and the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela were later discussed by Mr Ahmed Kathrada, a prominent anti-apartheid activist, who shared a prison cell with him for more than 20 years, and Mr Alec Russell, news editor of the Financial Times and author of the book After Mandela: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa. The screening was a popular feature of the Literary Festival, an annual event of growing importance in the Oxford calendar.