Today in History: Madiba receives the Joliot Curie Gold Medal of Peace
it was the first of a number of awards uTata would receive during his 27 years of imprisonment.
Madiba received numerous awards for peace throughout his life, but was forced to receive some, including the Joliot Curie Medal, in absentia, due to his imprisonment.
The infamous eight-month-long Rivonia Trial resulted in Nelson Mandela, along with seven others, being sentenced to prison for their work against the white minority apartheid regime. The eight who were imprisoned were placed under arrest on 12 June 1964, a little over a month before Madiba’s 46th birthday.
Despite being imprisoned, Mandela was rewarded for his hard work by the World Peace Council (WPC) in 1964. The WPC awarded him the Joliot Curie Gold Medal of Peace, which is the highest honour one can receive from the WPC.
The announcement of the award was made by The Leader, a Welsh newspaper, a day before uTata’s birthday. It was the first of a number of awards he would receive in absentia while he was imprisoned. The award was presented by Houari Souyah, President of the Algerian Peace Committee in Algiers, to Dr Yussuf Dadoo, a former President of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and the leader of the anti-apartheid movement in Britain.
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