Hundreds of South African prisoners have crocheted a 7,000sq m blanket in honour of late anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.
The enormous blanket, unveiled yesterday, depicts the face of South Africa’s former president and is made up of more than 3,000 smaller squares.
Revealed at the Zonderwater Prison outside South Africa’s capital Pretoria, the crocheted artwork is meant to mark the centenary of Mandela’s birth this year.
The project is spearheaded by 67 Blankets, a non-profit organisation that began crocheting blankets in honour of Nelson Mandela’s 67 years in service to improve the lives of South Africans.
Each year, South Africans mark Mandela’s birthday by dedicated 67 minutes of their time to a worthy cause.
“The idea of this day today is to show the whole world, that stitch by stitch we can put the world together into one for the ideals of Nelson Mandela,” said Caroline Steyn, founder of 67 Blankets.
April is the start of winter in South Africa, and it has been 24 years since the end of apartheid, said Steyn.
After the launch, the blankets will be reduced to nearly 4,000 smaller blankets and will be distributed to needy South Africans.
Since 2013, 67 Blankets has evolved into an initiative that not only supports prisoner rehabilitation through crocheting, but also receives crocheted blankets from around the world.
Some 850 inmates, schoolchildren, the elderly and other groups have all contributed the 1.6m by 1.6m squares to make the enormous blanket.
“If you’re in prison, it feels like being lost but supporting the idea of 67 Blankets is like a rescue for your soul,” inmate Muziwendoda Kunene said.
Mandela was perhaps one of the world’s most famous prisoners, held on Robben Island for fighting apartheid.
He died in December 2013 at the age of 95.
The largest blanket portrait of Nelson Mandela being displayed yesterday at the Zonderwater Maximum security Correctional Centre in Cullinan, to celebrate Nelson Mandela Day.
