SOUTH AFRICA: US PRESIDENT CLINTON VISITS MANDELA PRISON CELL

(27 Mar 1998) English/Nat
U-S President Bill Clinton joined South African President Nelson Mandela in a visit to the prison cell where the anti-apartheid leader spent 18 years in jail.
Mandela gave his guest a personal tour of the prison on Robben Island where he spent most of his 27 years in jail as a political prisoner.
They flew to the island from Cape Town after holding a joint news conference with Clinton, who is on a 12-day African tour.
The day was not all about providing picture opportunities - Mandela found time to appoint a three-member judicial commission to investigate a possible coup plot against him uncovered by military intelligence.
Robben Island lies just off the coast of South Africa from Cape Town.
But the small island is as important to the country and its history as the years of apartheid and strife which occurred on the mainland itself.
U-S President Bill Clinton continued his visit with South African President Nelson Mandela on Friday with an excursion to Robben Island.
The two leaders flew separately from Cape Town following their joint news conference there.
Mandela, accompanied by his partner Gracia Machel, greeted the president and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on the island where he spent 18 years in isolation from his countrymen.
The South African leader brought his high profile guest to visit the prison where he was held as a political prisoner for those 18 long years during apartheid.
Clinton, the first U-S president ever to visit South Africa, made the important stopoff to recognise Mandela's years of courageous struggle against racial injustice in South Africa.
The two leaders walked through the vast expanse of the prison's courtyard.
They then walked arm in arm inside to cell number five where Mandela became a national hero.
The two world leaders shared a somber moment walking the bleak hallway where the leading activists against South Africa's white rule were kept.
Mandela looked up and down the hall with Clinton before finding the door to the cell that was his home for nearly two decades.
Clinton stood in the tiny cell with Mandela as he heard about how the South African prisoner-turned-president passed his days in custody.
Mandela told about his lonely and difficult days as a prisoner as the two men peered through the bars of the tiny cell window.
The South African leader first came to the prison in 1964 after being sentenced to life in jail for planning the takeover of the then-apartheid regime.
His early years at the prison were spent doing hard labour in a limestone quarry - work that left Mandela with permanent physical reminders of his time there.
Mandela was later transferred to a mainland prison near Cape Town where he served the last of his 27 years before his release.
Robben Island was a working prison until 1996, two years after the country's first open elections and Mandela's rise to president.
It now stands as a museum for South Africans to remember their own troubled history and remarkable transition to democracy.
The Robben Island visit was an important symbolic gesture by Clinton, who is the first U-S President to ever visit the country.
Clinton and Mandela were treated to a song by a group of children in the prison's courtyard for their visit.
Mandela thanked President Clinton for making the trip to the landmark so important to his and the country's political rebirth.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Coming to Robben Island is to add something more important to that achievement of coming to South Africa and we appreciate that very much."
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[@apostleaegle1385]

This is the exactly the place l visited today and this was inspiring

[@carlomikhailreid4365]

Greatest man that ever lived

[@lisajohnson9124]

😂😂than you don’t know what he rhruth

[@thatomofolo452]

Agree 💯😊

[@tursabeltaquotes7615]

Special for Nelson Mandela.. pray for him

[@margarettami2877]

Our inspiration tata madiba we miss you continue resting in peace

[@jacobzaranyika9334]

Thank you 🙏

[@rambauolugaho]

😢l have never seen a man like this😢😢

[@MayurPanghaal]

Men of steel.

[@ahmedelmakoudi824]

En dédommagement,aux héros on ne dédie que monuments et discours. Repose en paix adiba, tous les africains se souviendront de toi.

[@joanie3452]

Omg Nelso holding on to Bill Clinton priceless.

[@tonyrocco1648]

You think they went to a different island after this?

[@felixogutu8146]

I wonder still hear black man mourning for Elizabeth I can't mourn for coloniser

[@timcamer4702]

Lot of white supremacist commenting here . Rip to Madiba and Kathadra , thank you for all the sacrifices you have done for us .

[@ravindertalwar553]

Great excitement

[@Lone.Wolf1976]

Hillary should spend 27 years there.

[@anuruddhamarasingha1112]

agreed 100%www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/10/hillary-clinton-emailgate-stupid

[@africanandproud6792]

You mistake her for Trump. We'd love to host Trump here.

[@motingoemoffat5628]

Mandela was loved by whites .Black love Robert Sobukwe

[@africanandproud6792]

@@motingoemoffat5628No offense brother, I'm black and I'm South African but you don't speak for the majority of us. No one will ever be loved half as much as Mandela was by black South Africans. We waited for his return and we saw it and were filled with gladness.

[@motingoemoffat5628]

@@africanandproud6792 Sorry my bra if i offended thats only my opinion because my role model is Robert Sobukwe.I made a mistake to compare and i gain to have reckless racial input

[@user-kw9hx7ez6m]

That little boy slipped something into Bills hand - check it out at the end of video.

[@luisjaimejaime6978]

Fiquei feliz por ver mamã Graça

[@vincentayunga1264]

A True a frican Hero. RIP

[@thatomofolo452]

Ooooh 😲😲😲

[@lossenimeite7998]

great man

[@stonedassassin187]

Now we know who owns the ANC

[@ATTERBOYSA]

I miss Mandela.

[@unakoontei5556]

Its Tatas Birthday Month😁🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌❤❤❤❤❤💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫

[@jusng988]

Champion

[@bluebugaboo3344]

Hillary should have been sentenced to that prison not him

[@josesugapapirivera1632]

And RatpubliKKKans too...they supported Aparthied!!!

[@josesugapapirivera1632]

@@jake5476 yes they did....Ask Mandela...and the government was an all white ( Like most RatpubliKKKans) ultra right-wing supported by Dikkk Chaney.

[@user-yh1tq2bk9s]

😢

[@rosangelafontesmaia6320]

PORQUÊ VOCÊ FOI VISITAR O MEU VOVOZINHO NA PRISÃO. DENTRO DO SOFRIMENTO DESSES OS FILHOS DE DEUS NÃO QUEREM RECEBER NINGUÉM. VOCÊ FOI LÁ SÓ PARA HUMILHAR O MEU AVÔ. 👼👼👼👼👼ZANZA.

[@crisgraump3800]

Todo politicos son muy inteligentes, y los que no, no poseen el poder. Los que mandan, estan en la sombra. En mi punto de vista, Mandela poseia un gran poder, ideal,. Su pueblo y la libertad. Creo que optó,con completo libre albedrio, una actitud humilde ante la provocación racista. Con ello consiguió, a pesar de 20 años ( toda una vida para el y todo un futuro para su pueblo. Seria un gran triunfo atreverse a escoger tus ideas y tu destino para,a pesar de tan grán sacrificio, rechazando la violencia, conseguir liberar su pueblo (auctoctonos) y convivir con los foraneos convivir, .Paso a paso.

[@TheKeithvidz]

bill's laws contributed to america having the highest prison population - many black.

[@epa2349]

Those laws were necessary to bring the extreme gang violence of 80s & early 90s down. & down it did. All statistics showed crimes in America started falling from mid 90s. It was a necessary to stop to rein in on gang violence & banning assault weapons off the streets regardless of race.

[@TheKeithvidz]

@@epa2349 delusional, faceless man.

[@yelassinacoulibaly819]

🌈❤️❤️❤️💐💐💐🙏🙏🙏🌈

[@amaraoriudu4169]

🌹🌹🙌🙌🌹💯💯💯💯❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️

[@taqbaylitkan5192]

Klinton is deed betwin .

[@user-dn8iq1br1r]

👋☺👑👑🙇

[@user-dn8iq1br1r]

誕生日花、マリーゴールド💛 変わらぬ愛、悲しみ🇿🇦👑💓

[@timothymckey9633]

(TM) (R) own

[@obzaobs3906]

This is fake Nelson Mandela 😒 😑 😤 😐 🙄 😕 😒 😑 😤

[@lihlenjabulo2591]

Who is jackson muganda

[@spamwithrice]

unworthy