Washington — Nelson Mandela will arrive in New York City on Thursday (September 17) for what is expected to be his final North American visit as South Africa's sitting president.
During the trip, which will include stops in three U.S. cities and a state visit to Canada, Mandela will receive both a Congressional medal and an honorary degree from Harvard University. He also will address the United Nations General Assembly and the Canadian Parliament.
Mandela, co-recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, after his release in 1990 from 27 years of imprisonment for his fight against apartheid, will be accompanied by his new wife, Graca Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique. After serving a five-year term as South Africa's first democratically elected president, Mandela plans to retire from office following the country's national elections next May.
Mandela's six-day schedule in the United States begins Friday with a breakfast address to business leaders in New York and the visit to Harvard. Mr. Mandela and Mrs. Machel will return to the New York City for several engagements over the weekend, including participation in a memorial service on Sunday for the late anti-apartheid cleric, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, at St. John the Divine.
Following Mandela's UN address Monday morning (September 21), he and Mrs. Machel travel to Washington where they will spend the night at Blair House, the government guest house for high-level official visitors. On Tuesday, the two will be overnight guests of President and Mrs. Clinton at the White House.
Mandela will receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the country's highest civilian honor, at an internationally televised ceremony on Wednesday (September 23) in the Capitol Rotunda. "Nelson Mandela is a
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real hero at a time when the world could use a few more heroes," Rep. Amo Houghton (R-NY), sponsor of the legislation authorizing the award, said in a statement.
The legislation won broad bipartisan backing, and ceremony participants will include senior Republican and Democratic representatives and senators, along with President Clinton. Bronze reproductions of the $30,000 medal will be sold to the public by the U.S. Mint.
Announcing the Harvard's decision to award an honorary doctoral degree, Neil L. Rudenstine, the university's president, said of Mandela: "He embodies not only the example of courage and determination under the harshest conceivable conditions, but -- something even more rare -- the very spirit of reconciliation in his own nation, and throughout the world."
Harvard has previously conferred degrees only on George Washington and Winston Churchill at times other than the annual graduation exercises. The decision to award the degree during this visit follows several unsuccessful efforts to schedule the South African leader as the Commencement Day speaker, the university said.
