Stamford Endowed Schools were honoured to welcome Christo Brand, former prison warder to Nelson Mandela, to speak as part of their Stamford Lecture series, which has continued virtually throughout the pandemic.The lecture marked a first for the Schools, being broadcast live from South Africa in June 2021. Over 190 households registered to listen to Christo speak, with viewers welcomed from the Stamford community around the world, including as far as Brazil, Peru and Canada.At the age of 19 Christo Brand was given his first posting to Robben Island as a Prison Warder. It was here that he first met Mandela, aged 60 at the time, and during the difficult apartheid era that the pair formed a close friendship built on trust and mutual respect.Following Mandela’s release from prison, Brand worked with Mandela in the Constitutional Assembly. Once the Constitution was adopted, Robben Island had become a place of healing, reconciliation and freed of prisoners and Christo Brand returned to work in the island shop.Sentenced to life imprisonment, Nelson Mandela became a powerful symbol of resistance – and a key negotiator - for the anti-apartheid movement. In 1993, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Frederik Willem de Klerk for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.Christo shared his first hand experiences of these historic decades live to our virtual audience, and a recording of his lecture is available and can be viewed by contacting community@ses.lincs.sch.uk.
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