A NON-FUNGIBLE token (NFT) created from South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela’s original arrest warrant, issued in 1961, raised 1.9 million rand ($130,000) in an auction to help fund a heritage site that documents the country’s struggle for democracy.
Mandela, while spearheading South Africa’s fight for independence, was arrested on several occasions and stood trial four times. He spent over 27 years in prison.
He however emerged from the lengthy incarceration to become the country’s first black president in 1994.
Proceeds from the sale of the NFT will go toward the Liliesleaf Museum Heritage Site, which received the original document in 2004 as a donation, said Ahren Posthumus, chief executive officer of Momint, the marketplace for NFTs that sold the Mandela item.
This helps the ‘museum sites stay afloat,’ Posthumus said in an interview. ‘They have been badly affected by the lack of tourism due to Covid-19. So this is a way to revitalise their flow and keep history alive.’
The buyer of the NFT will have exclusive access to the original arrest warrant at Liliesleaf Museum, Posthumus said. ‘The ink is visible through the paper’ of the high-definition scan, he said.
Mandela died in December 2013 at the age of 95.
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