This year, let Glasgow reaffirm its commitment to Mandela's values

Nelson Mandela was born 107 years ago on July 18, 1918. As we mark his birthday, we should also remember what he stood for and seek to keep his ideas alive.

Until 1986, Nelson Mandela Place was known as St George’s Place. At the time, Mandela was still a political prisoner in apartheid South Africa. In 1981, Glasgow had granted prisoner number 466/64 the Freedom of the City, its highest honour. It was the first city in the world to make Mandela a freeman. Some 2,500 cities worldwide would go on to endorse him. In so doing they condemned apartheid and hastened its end.

Released in1990, after 27 years in jail, on October 9, 1993, Mandela came to Glasgow to say thank you to the city. “You declared us to be free,” he told the great crowd that had gathered to see one of the most famous people of the 20th century. The following year he became president of South Africa.

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It is 35 years ago this year since Nelson Mandela walked out from imprisonment to captivate the world with his dignity and warmth and his wish not to punish his captors but to reconcile enemies and build a fairer society.

Glasgow marks its 850th birthday this year. Championing Nelson Mandela and leading the world in exposing the inhumanity of apartheid must be among the city’s greatest acts.

Discrimination, bigotry and the powerful exercising dominion over others has not been unknown in Scottish life. The wrong religion at the wrong time could lead to the hangman’s noose. Entirely innocent women were burned as witches. The Highlands were cruelly cleared. Educational and job opportunities were denied to Irish immigrants. More recent arrivals have been racially abused. There is little room for Scottish moral superiority. But nothing in Scottish history compares to apartheid.

Apartheid built in South Africa a society that wove into every law and regulation the economic, social and cultural oppression of one group of people to the benefit of another group. The capital, property, land and natural resources of South Africa, including coal and gold, were owned almost exclusively by the white minority.

Apartheid was about the supremacy of white South Africa, a deliberate and highly structured exercise aimed at keeping black South Africans forever on the bottom rung of life.

Denied the right to vote or any say in the management of their own land, black South Africans were banned from white-only jobs, beaches, shops, hotels, restaurants, sports clubs, hospitals, schools, universities and vast areas of housing. A police pass was needed for black people to be in white areas. Lack of one frequently resulted in arrest and imprisonment. Strict laws governed relations between men and women. Sexual relations between races were illegal, as was marriage.

We like to think, we sons and daughters of this Dear Green Place, that we are distinctive, somehow special. Most cities think the same. But not every city led the civic charge that proclaimed the evil of apartheid. Glasgow can hold its head up in the world. Taking a stand for common humanity and decency, standing up against racism and oppression, was a great thing to do.

In its 850th year let’s ensure that the instincts that led Glasgow to recognise Nelson Mandela’s struggle are still alive and well.

The world today is a nervous, unstable, less predictable place. War, poverty and climate change sees millions displaced, seeking shelter, security and opportunity. Increasingly, these wretched of the Earth face great danger in their search for a better life. Too often they are viewed in more fortunate societies as detritus, as people not to be helped but to be shunned, abandoned and cast out.

In America, Donald Trump and his government have moved at speed to marginalise Afro-Americans, immigrants and LGBT people. White people protesting outside Tesla showrooms are called terrorists. Trump has threatened peaceful protestors with “very big force”. Journalists questioning the regime face insult and exclusion from government briefings.

America once produced one of the greatest documents ever written. In the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers wrote that “all men are created equal”. The Washington Post reported in April that 50% of people sacked from government boards following Trump’s return to the White House are black or Hispanic. It’s just 6% for white men, Among Trump’s first acts was to fire the black Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the most senior rank in the US military.

Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie, walk hand in hand after his release from Victor Prison, Cape Town, after 27 years in detention, on February 11, 1990 (Image: PA)

Speculation it may be, but it’s a fair bet that had Donald Trump been in the White House 35 years ago Nelson Mandela might never have seen freedom, nor the world witness the end of apartheid.

So, Glasgow, as part of the celebration of the city’s 850 years, let this generation of civic leaders, from across the parties, unanimously regenerate the spirit of Nelson Mandela. Let Glasgow reaffirm the city’s commitment to democracy, freedom and equality for all.

Or in Mandela’s own words: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Let’s celebrate Glasgow by telling the whole world that this city believes profoundly in common humanity, in fundamental human decency, in compassion, equality and hope.

“That man to man the world o’er shall brothers be for a’ that.”

Martin Roche had a career in international public relations and is a writer. He sits on the executive committee of the European Movement in Scotland.