Nelson Mandela's prison mate, confidante, parliamentary counselor and friend, Ahmed Kathrada, is the subject of a new nationally touring exhibition developed by the Michigan State University Museum.
"Ahmed 'Kathy' Kathrada: A South African Activist for Non-Racialism and Democracy" is on exhibit through May 31 at University of Kentucky's Lafferty Hall at the Lexington campus. The exhibit tells the story of the renowned advocate for freedom, as well as the anti-apartheid movement itself through the life and work of South Africa's beloved "Kathy."
"The exhibit traces Kathrada's roots, and his role in revolutionary struggle and social transformation," said C. Kurt Dewhurst, MSU Museum curator of folklife and cultural heritage and one of the exhibit's organizers. "One of the more moving and dramatic elements of the exhibit is a replica of Kathy's jail cell, from the Robben Island prison. Visitors are able to experience the tiny cell and see the few personal items Kathy was allowed for more than 20 years of imprisonment."
A similar exhibit was developed in South Africa and is now based at the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto. Meanwhile, plans are also under way to construct a new Ahmed Kathrada Center Museum in his honor in Lenasia (in Johannesburg), South Africa in 2014.
Leading in these efforts is Dewhurst, who is also director of arts and cultural initiatives for University Outreach an Engagement. As a consulting advisor, Dewhurst has been working with the board of directors of the Kathrada Foundation to develop research, collections, exhibition and operational plans in support of its mission of "deepening non-racialism and democracy in society."
Both Dewhurst and MSU Museum Curator of Folk Arts Marsha MacDowell have curated the U.S. touring version of the exhibition providing additional curatorial, writing, and editing for the original South African version of this exhibition. Funding for the planning and fabrication of the exhibition was provided by the MSU Museum and the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, where Kathy recently launched a book tour. Support for the upcoming U.S. national tour is being provided by the MSU Office of the President and the MSU Museum plans to host the exhibit at a future date.
Michigan State University Press published one of Kathy's works, "Letters from Robben Island: A Selection of Ahmed Kathrada's Prison Correspondence" in 1999, and he received an honorary degree from MSU in 2005. In addition, the MSU Museum worked with MATRIX, the Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online, to develop web-based educational resources related to Ahmed Kathrada in the project Overcoming Apartheid.
For more information on this exhibition or to rent it, contact MSU Museum Traveling Exhibition Services at (517) 432-3800 or_tes@museum.msu.edu.
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