The Media Beat with David Tereshchuk
Oct 16, 2026 · 10 min · 5 segments
Glasgow, Scotland honors Nelson Mandela this month, recalling his historic, even rollicking visit there. THE MEDIA BEAT’s public radio podcast remembers determined efforts to record the legendary…
Attention must be paid to Glasgow because of a brand new and notable change in the city's landscape.
There's a strong tie between Scotland and the fight to free South Africa from its long-lasting oppression under white supremacist rule, the vicious policy of apartheid.
At the statue's unveiling, a speech was made by South Africa's current ambassador, Kingsley Mamabolo, and technically, for historical reasons, his position is known as his country's High Commissioner to Britain.
He said it was, quote, a profound honour and deeply moving privilege to be present.
For decades, he said, Scotland stood as the very epitome of the British people's solidarity and fierce struggle against the brutal apartheid system.
Cast in bronze, this tribute stands as a bridge between Glasgow solidarity and the generational sacrifices that have built our freedom.
Standing on this very ground, we are reminded of the bold, creative and defiant steps taken by this great city.
Glasgow has indeed had a long tradition of progressive politics, stretching back as far as and beyond 1787, when 6,000 cotton weavers and other workers bravely protested against a massive wage cut that had been driven by cheap foreign imports.
Infamously, the British Army turned its guns on the demonstrators, killing six in the Glasgow crowd.
Mandela's life-size likeness joins that of Mary Barbour in the city's Govan district, home to its renowned shipbuilding yards.
Barbour was the trailblazing early 20th century organiser of rent strikes, who, as well as decent housing, championed gender equality and social welfare, notably health provision for children.
And on the city's major thoroughfare, the Brumelow, the La Pasionaria memorial commemorates the thousands of Scottish volunteers who gave their lives fighting against 1930s fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
In later times, many Scots came to see South Africa's white rulers as another form of fascism.
The new statue, in fact, refers back to a specific day exactly 33 years ago when Mandela himself visited Glasgow.
While he had been incarcerated in an apartheid prison for 27 years, nine British cities granted him in his absence the freedom of the city.
Glasgow had been the very first among them back in 1981, and in 1993 he travelled there to accept the honour in person.
As well as his own rousing speech of thanks, there was also music and singing from South Africa's own hugely popular recording artist, Mara Lau.
The future president of a free South Africa then did something that he was becoming rather noted for doing.
To quote the next morning's edition of Glasgow's own newspaper, The Herald, it was a wonderful display of genuine humanity and unabashed fun, qualities which are all too rare in the austere ranks of the world's great statesmen.
a left-wing press in Glasgow afterwards published, to considerable commercial success, a slim, colourfully illustrated book for children that used the occasion to explain the history of South Africa's long struggle.
Attention must be paid to Glasgow because of a brand new and notable change in the city's landscape.
There's a strong tie between Scotland and the fight to free South Africa from its long-lasting oppression under white supremacist rule, the vicious policy of apartheid.
At the statue's unveiling, a speech was made by South Africa's current ambassador, Kingsley Mamabolo, and technically, for historical reasons, his position is known as his country's High Commissioner to Britain.
He said it was, quote, a profound honour and deeply moving privilege to be present.
For decades, he said, Scotland stood as the very epitome of the British people's solidarity and fierce struggle against the brutal apartheid system.
Cast in bronze, this tribute stands as a bridge between Glasgow solidarity and the generational sacrifices that have built our freedom.
Standing on this very ground, we are reminded of the bold, creative and defiant steps taken by this great city.
Glasgow has indeed had a long tradition of progressive politics, stretching back as far as and beyond 1787, when 6,000 cotton weavers and other workers bravely protested against a massive wage cut that had been driven by cheap foreign imports.
Infamously, the British Army turned its guns on the demonstrators, killing six in the Glasgow crowd.
Mandela's life-size likeness joins that of Mary Barbour in the city's Govan district, home to its renowned shipbuilding yards.
Barbour was the trailblazing early 20th century organiser of rent strikes, who, as well as decent housing, championed gender equality and social welfare, notably health provision for children.
And on the city's major thoroughfare, the Brumelow, the La Pasionaria memorial commemorates the thousands of Scottish volunteers who gave their lives fighting against 1930s fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
In later times, many Scots came to see South Africa's white rulers as another form of fascism.
The new statue, in fact, refers back to a specific day exactly 33 years ago when Mandela himself visited Glasgow.
While he had been incarcerated in an apartheid prison for 27 years, nine British cities granted him in his absence the freedom of the city.
Glasgow had been the very first among them back in 1981, and in 1993 he travelled there to accept the honour in person.
As well as his own rousing speech of thanks, there was also music and singing from South Africa's own hugely popular recording artist, Mara Lau.
The future president of a free South Africa then did something that he was becoming rather noted for doing.
To quote the next morning's edition of Glasgow's own newspaper, The Herald, it was a wonderful display of genuine humanity and unabashed fun, qualities which are all too rare in the austere ranks of the world's great statesmen.
a left-wing press in Glasgow afterwards published, to considerable commercial success, a slim, colourfully illustrated book for children that used the occasion to explain the history of South Africa's long struggle.
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