MACON – Mercer University's African Students Association and Africana Studies Program will present “Nelson Mandela and His Legacy” – a symposium in honor of former South African President Nelson Mandela, Feb. 4, 7 p.m., in the Medical School Auditorium on the Macon campus.
“Former South African President Nelson Mandela was a seminal world figure who is recognized as the father of the contemporary South African nation. Through the sacrifice of his 27-year imprisonment and efforts at racial reconciliation and power sharing, he saved his people from a race war that would have destroyed lives and disrupted the fabric of South African society and culture,” said Dr. Chester Fontenot, director of the Africana Studies Program. “This symposium will focus on President Mandela's life and his importance to contemporary Africa and the world.”
The symposium will open with a keynote address by Dr. Aran MacKinnon, chair of the Department of History and Geography at Georgia College in Milledgeville and an expert on South Africa.
A panel discussion by students in the African Students Association will follow Dr. MacKinnon's address.
The symposium is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Fontenot at
fontenot_cj@mercer.edu or (478) 301-2345.
This is one of a number of events, forums, readings and symposia throughout the 2013-14 academic year organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of integration at Mercer under the theme “Looking Back & Moving Forward: Celebrating a Half-Century of Integration at Mercer University.” For more information, visit http://50th.mercer.edu.
