Nelson Mandela celebrates 88 th birthday

Former South African president Nelson Mandela's 88th birthday celebrations have kicked off with a new round of honours for this anti-apartheid icon, including a photo exhibit and the release of a book on the Meaning of Mandela the previous week. The event was meant to be part of a series of three, which the Nelson Mandela Foundation will be conducting to celebrate Madiba's birthday, according to Jakes Gerwel, chairman of the foundation's board. The photo exhibition by South African veterans Alf Khumalo and Jurgen Schadeberg capture Mandela's years as a young lawyer and the emergence of Black resistance before he was jailed for 27 years in 1964 and include photographs of his family. Some show a youthful Mandela in his law practice and outside the courthouse where he stood trial in 1952 for defying the government's segregation policies. Also launched on Wednesday in celebration of his birthday was a book containing a series of lectures on the Meaning of Mandela by three of the world's prominent Black thinkers. The contributions look at the legacy of Mandela, presently the world's best-known statesman, and pays tribute to the tolerance and pacifism he embodies as both an individual and politician. Events to celebrate the birthday of the ageing statesman this year also include a ceremony to present him and fellow graduates of Fort Hare University with honorary rings, as well as the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, to be delivered by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Mandela is planning to spend his birthday quietly with his family and is not scheduled to make any public appearance, his spokeswoman Zelda le Grange said.