JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela's foundation is reaching out to the young, networked and socially conscious, bringing teens to a news conference Monday to announce it was launching a Twitter account.
Thando Sithebe, a 17-year-old Soweto high school
student, called Mandela a "father to everyone" and said he would use
his own Twitter and Facebook accounts — and MXit and The Grid as well — to urge
his friends to mark Mandela Day, an international day devoted to public service
that falls on Mandela's July 18 birthday. Mandela, who turns 93 this year, has
largely retired from public life.
The Nobel peace laureate spent 27 years in prison
for fighting apartheid in South Africa. He became South Africa's first black
president in 1994 and is celebrated for his efforts to overcome racial
divisions that have lingered since the end of white rule.
His foundation oversees development and aid work
and houses documents by and about Mandela. It is known on Twitter as
CentreOfMemory — spokesman Sello Hatang said names more directly associated
with Mandela had already been taken by other organizations.
The foundation also has a Facebook page under its
full name, the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Earlier this month, Google gave the
foundation $1.25 million it will use to scan more than 10,000 of Mandela's
personal records. The database will be accessible for free to any Internet
user.
While foundation officials have embraced the
Internet as a way to spread Mandela's message, they have reason to be wary of
social network platforms. Moments before going live on Twitter and Facebook
during Monday's news conference, organizers said they had to take down nude
photos posted by a prankster. And Hatang referred ruefully to false rumors of
Mandela's death spread on Twitter earlier this year.
"We hope that it will be used for good,"
Hatang said as he launched the foundation's Twitter account.
The young people gathered for the launch at the
foundation's Johannesburg offices appeared ready to take up the challenge
Mandela set out when he laid the foundation for Mandela Day on his 90th
birthday.
The theme of a London concert in his honor that
year was "it's in our hands." Achmat Dangor, chief executive of the Mandela
Foundation, recalled Mandela doing some editing when he made remarks that day.
"He said, 'It's in YOUR hands,'" Dangor
said Monday. "He then made a pointed call on the next generation of
leaders to take responsibility."
Sithebe, the 17-year-old who spoke at the Twitter
launch, offered a list of suggestions for marking Mandela Day, from spending
time with family to feeding the hungry.
Fellow 17-year-old Cassandra Collins said she was
determined to do something to make the world better every day.
"We as a nation need to start with ourselves
and change ourselves before we can change the world," she said.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
