- Title: [SW News](PANA) Africans Say Mandela Is Africa's Century Man
- From:[]
- Date :[]22 Jan 2000
Africans Say Mandela Is Africa's Century Man
January 22, 2000 - Jerome Hule - PANA Correspondent
NEW YORK, United States (PANA) - Africans resident in the US have voted
former South African president Nelson Mandela as Africa's man of the 20th
century.
A telephone poll of 597 Africans across the US conducted by a New York-based
newspaper, African Sun Times, found that 542 or 91.4 percent of the
respondents chose Mandela as their man of the century.
A statement by the publisher of the newspaper, Chika Onyeani, said
respondents were asked to list three Africans in order of priority who
influenced them most in the just ended century.
The result showed that following Mandela were the late Kwame Nkrumah of
Ghana who got 26 votes, the late Nnamdi Azikiwe, first Nigerian president,
with 19 votes, the late Julius Nyerere, first Tanzanian president, who got
four votes and the late Abdel Nasser of Egypt who had two votes.
Other African personalities mentioned, even though they did not make the
first choice of any of the respondents, were Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta, Guinea's
Sekou Toure, Democratic Republic of Congo's Patrice Lumumba, Ethiopia's
Haile Selassie, Libya's Moammar Kadhafi, Nigeria's Adbulsalami Abubakar and
Olusegun Obasanjo.
Poll organisers said what impressed respondents most about Mandela is the
example he has set for clean and incorruptible government.
While many of the respondents had reservations about Mandela's decision to
divorce his wife, Winnie Madikizela- Mandela, they felt that that act was
not enough to negate his impact on Africa and the world.
[ News] |
