The Nelson Mandela Digital Archive project might still a work-in-progress, but the multimedia archive has gone live today, and it seeks to document the life and times of the former South African president and anti-apartheid activist.
The project is the work of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, which you may remember received a $1.25m (ZAR 8.6m) grant from the Google Cultural Institute to get the initiative off the ground.
The archive constitutes a plethora of documents, photographs and videos about the great man, who turns 94 this summer.
It includes Mandela’s correspondence with family and friends, as well as diaries written during his 27-year-long incarceration on Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town.
The archive also features the earliest-known photo of Mandela and drafts of manuscripts for the sequel to his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
“We’ve worked closely with the NMCM to create an interactive online experience which we hope will inspire you as much as us,” says Mark Yoshitake, Product Manager, Google’s Cultural Institute. “You can search and browse the archives to explore different parts of Mandela’s life and work in depth: Early Life, Prison Years, Presidential Years, Retirement, Books for Mandela, Young People and My Moments with a Legend.”
Check out the archive for yourself now.
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