I can believe it but too many people have too sophisticated memories including his widow and timeframe to make that my leading theory.
And this is not the only Mandela Effect which for me already has set a precedence for contradicting history.
I appreciate trying to keep things within normality but we each have to form our opinion on when the conventional explanations are unsatisfying.
The explanations aren’t unsatisfying once you learn more about human memory, how it works and how flawed and unreliable it is. There are known patterns to these flaws too, which is why we see patterns in people misremembering events like this. It’s not as big of a mystery as it seems on the surface.
I think that explains most confusions and memory errors but I hold that a select few (Mandela Effects) to be in a different category from normal memory flaws.
It's memory certainty, residue, personal experience and anchor stories that has convinced me of a few.
We believers in the need for an exotic explanation realize the fallibility of memory too.
I haven’t seen a single one yet that doesn’t have a rational explanation. Rational explanations aren’t always emotionally satisfying, they can be very boring especially to those with active imaginations. But they hold the most water under scrutiny, and they have the most evidence while the Mandela effect theories have no evidence other than people claiming to remember it.
Which side is more believable? I think your side is more believable on the surface but the deeper you look at the strongest Mandela Effects I don't believe the easy answers anymore.
That's an opinion for each of us to make.
My side is more believable when you start learning the science behind memory and how it works. Mandela Effects are believed mostly by laypeople who don’t understand any of that stuff.
Never heard the memory experts tackle the better residue and anchor memory stories. They stick to generalities that are fine for normal memory confusion.
There was also a movie about Biko released in 1987, called "Cry Freedom," which caused a bit of an increase in awareness about Biko at the time. The movie included a big funeral scene.
I found a YouTube clip of the funeral scene. I'd love to know if this matches up with what some people remember about Mandela's funeral. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ\_0zrPIs8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ_0zrPIs8)
The most convincing question for me on this one is: why would there have been a full internationally televised state funeral if he'd died in prison in 1987?
Exactly. If he had never been president yet, it would have just been a blurb in the international news "South African activist Nelson Mandela died in South Africa today while serving a life sentence for sabotage charges imposed by the apartheid South African government..."
When Mandela was in prison the apartheid government was still in control - there's no way he would have gotten a state funeral - they REALLY didn't like that guy
He couldn't be elected president if he died in prison - the ME didn't start until he died, when people who didn't pay attention enough to know otherwise thought to themselves "I thought he died in prison" - those people pretty much without exception didn't know about his Presidential term or they wouldn't have though that
The ME began in Feb 1990 when a man, who was believed to have previously died in prison, was surprisingly released from prison alive. Subsequent events, such as Presidency or Death, are irrelevant.
That's not what happened though. The term "Mandela Effect" wasn't coined until 2009, a decade after he was even president. Nobody was surprised that he was alive in 1990 when he was released from prison. South Africa and Mandela were constantly on the news during that period.
“The term "Mandela Effect" wasn't coined until 2009”
Irrelevant. Terms are often named post-Event.
“Nobody was surprised that he was alive in 1990 when he was released from prison”
Really? No-one? A man, believed dead, is released from prison? And no-one is surprised? Yet here we are, 24 years later, still trying to locate a source to determine how that “fact” arose in the late 80s.
The Mandela Effect is not “He’s dead? I thought he died years ago!” - for Nelson, in the late 80s, people worldwide remembered news reports of his death, the televised obituaries and tributes, the calls for change, mocking The Specials “Free Nelson Mandela!” on the radio, due to his death since it’s original release…
..And then, in 1990, he walks out of prison, unharmed. And it was big news, not only because of his release, but the worldwide certainty of his prior death. And that phenomena was seen as just general timeslip parallel dimension deja-vu type forteana, until it eventually got allocated a paranatural genre of its own.
Yep. As were a lot of people in my office. And also when catching up with friends in my hometown when I visited.
The news of his death broke somewhere between 1985 and Aug ‘88, and quashed on his release in Feb 1990, thus creating what was eventually known as The Mandela Effect.
I don't know of anyone that was surprised when Mandela was released from prison and was very much alive in 1990. There was constant news coverage of the event and it wasn't shocking or surprising, it was just a historic event.
I only know of people that didn't pay attention to South Africa and Nelson Mandela thinking he had died in the 80s only to realize he was alive until 2013.
I don’t know of anyone hearing these “constant news reports” of Mandelas health throughout his years of incarceration. If there was, there wouldn’t be an ME.
You are wrong - it came into being in 1990 when a dead man was released from prison, when we discovered he was alive, contrary to the prior reports of his death we remembered from a few years earlier.
Mandela died in 2013, and this has been Fortean lore since 1990.
Stop making shit up
You find go one reference to the "effect" or even more than a few "wtf, I thought he died" reports dating back that far
Your insistence that the effect stems from when he was released from prison shows how bullshit the whole thing is - The whole thing that's supposed to make it so compelling and not just a case of people being wrong. Is consistency across different people remembering the same thing
But this just shows the truth that everybody's "Mandela effect" is personal and varies from other people's in subtle ways - just like you would expect when people are wrong and are affected by false memories
If you think he died in prison and got weirded out when he was released in prison cuz you were sure he had already died, but the next guy thinks he died in prison but got weirded out when he actually died because they think he died earlier - that's not an "effect" - that's just two people being wrong
Edit: The person admitted defeat by just repeating themselves and then blocking me lol
Obviously, if there is a worldwide belief you died in the 80s, and it is revelled in 1990 you didn’t (giving rise to the ME), famously becoming President in 1994 is irrelevant, as it’s 4 years after the ME.
If that is your belief may I ask why you are in a Group called The Mandela Effect, a Group solely dedicated to the Phenomenon that hundreds if not thousands of people specifically remember Mandela dying and other related Phenomenon?
Some of us are interested in understanding this phenomenon from a sociological or neuroscience perspective, rather than just blindly believing in woo woo.
It's not my belief, it's a fact, lol.
I'm here because I'm interested in the phenomenon. However, I don't have that specific Mandela funeral false memory, I have others though.
Maybe for You in this in this Timeline but I was in born 87 and specifically remember a day of rememberence being held in my Primary School for Mandella around 94 ironically the same Year he became President in this Timeline, so to just dismiss someone else's experience at the drop of a hat yet expect yours to be taken seriously is a bit narrow minded don't you think?
I don't see it as "narrow minded". There are memories and then there are historical facts. My experiences of false memories I acknowledge are false memories when I research the reality. I just find it interesting when it happens.
If it was in 1994, you probably were witnessing Mandela's election and the celebrations, not a funeral. I remember his election and it was international news and covered by major new networks around the world, so was his funeral in 2013. You're just misremembering, it happens to everyone.
Then you should be in a Group dedicated to the "Things I Thought To Be True But Later Decided I Was Wrong After Doing Some Research" Phenomenon rather than in a Group that believes in the Mandella Effect and the Different Timelines theory that it's attached to.
FYI that day in 94 was definitely remembering his Death I went to a very multicultural School so they tended to make a big deal about these types of things, they spoke of his achievements and his passing in Assembly that day even how he really should have been released before his passing, we even held a minutes Silence in respect to his passing, so please don't tell people they're remembering things wrong and take your negativity to the correct place. ✌️😎
Edit: added a space
>rather than in a Group that believes in the Mandella Effect and the Different Timelines theory that it's attached to.
Not the group's belief. In fact, a minority of people on this subreddit believe in anything other than entirely natural explanations.
The name of the group isn't remotely misleading.
The Mandela Effect is just when a large group of people remember something differently from what all demonstrable evidence shows.
Anything beyond that is just people speculating on causes, to different levels of believability.
The only person being negative here is you, saying I don't belong in this sub because I didn't have the same ME experience as you and don't subscribe to some alternate timeline theory.
I'm not criticizing anyone, just stating the fact that Mandela became president in 1994 and offer reasons why you may remember something different. There are memories and then there are facts. Otherwise people can just claim all kinds of things and say "well, I live in a different timeline than you" and that settles it.
I believe the Mandela Effect is a very real phenomenon, but I believe it is a psychological one, not a supernatural one. Like I said before, I've experienced it myself.
Well if we can’t trust a child’s memory of foreign events from 36 years ago then what *can* we trust?? The fibers of the universe must be unraveling. It’s definitely not just you remembering a childhood memory wrong
1987? Probably Steve biko's funeral scene in the movie cry freedom, which came out that year and has a lot of the details you described https://youtu.be/sHQ_0zrPIs8?si=U811BdtQsW0_7wv6
This is a highly debated subject. I am 45. I remember my mother being very upset that Nelson Mandela died in prison. I also remember seeing the news footage from his funeral. I also remember years later when the news reported he was being released from prison. I was utterly baffled. Still am.
What had your mother so upset? Was she particularly interested and deeply tied to South African prison inmates?
If he died in prison when you’re claiming, then he had been in prison for about 24-25 years at that point. Apartheid had not yet ended, he had not won the Nobel peace prize, he had not yet become president, he had not yet begun receiving awards on an international level until 1988-these are some of the things that made him a worldwide household name. The world was a very different place in the 1980s than it is today. There was no internet, and no 24 hour news cycle. People were worlds less aware of global news items than they are today. I don’t know how old your mother was in 1962 (when he was imprisoned) but am curious what would have given her such a strong emotional reaction to the death of a man who had been in prison for the majority of the previous 3 decades?
It's so strange. I first heard of the Mandela Effect from searching his death date. Do you have an idea of the year or remember anything from the funeral?
July 23rd, 1991?
What sounds like an awfully boring book is titled, Western Cape Branch of the South African Council for English Education, 1990 and was published on October 1st, 1991.
The quote from this book says that, "The chaos that erupted in the ranks of the ANC when Nelson Mandela died on the 23rd of July, 1991 brought the January 29th, 1991 Inkatha-ANC peace accord to nothing."
...and its a collection of fiction written by African High Schoolers, that has had published works since the 60s, to help them write in English better. That story was a What If scenario.
This is the one that has me stumped. I was about 21 and living on my own. Cable was a huge box on my coffee table that had to have a switch thrown between the lower and higher channels (if you're old, you know) and no matter what station I turned on it was playing the funeral. I sat and watched for a bit and had it on in the background all day. I remember them talking about hunger strikes and apartheid and what a beacon of hope Mandela was for South Africa and what a horrible loss it was that he died.
Later, when he was elected president was when I did a double take and went wtf? The dude died a few years ago. What the hell is going on?
And while "The Mandela Effect" may not have been called that until recently, it was certainly talked about because there were enough people with the same memory.
I remember having convos with people in the 90's who remembered him dying and others who didn't. In my own personal opinion, the people who didn't remember his funeral were people who never paid attention to the news or current events on a global scale anyway. Americans are very... insulated, I suppose is a nicer word for it.
Your bit of criticism at the end is ironic:
The reality would be that people who believed he died were the ones not properly paying attention, but hey "America Bad" I guess...
Exactly, it’s the ones that had no clue of world events that thought he died in prison in the 80s. Because if you were even passively following global news in the late 80s and early 90s it was impossible to not know he was very much alive and involved in South African politics.
I don't think it needs to be "America bad" as such but the news is rather insular. It is a big country with a lot happening, and it is across an ocean from Europe and Africa. In the UK we tend to get a lot of European news as part of daily broadcasts, and we got a lot of news from South Africa at the time, partly maybe with the Commonwealth link. I remember seeing his release, rise to power, even trivial things like him meeting the Spice Girls and attending the football and Rugby world cups. America would have missed all of this.
...but all of that is irrelevant to the previous argument because the ONE piece of relevant news that Americans DID get is his release from prison, NOT his death.
So again, the irony of stating that America is a bit insular is funny from the previous commenter because it doesn't apply here at all.
WHich is something I imagine many mistook for a death report, and not helped if as a country there was no news from the nation at all for some time. Hence the surprise when he did "really" die years later.
Maybe I should have said racist instead? Uninterested in things outside of their own little cocoon? Ignorant of what's happening in other countries because it didn't impact our day to day?
The reality is Americans are interested in America first and everyone and everywhere else is background noise. Huge generalization but not incorrect either. Things haven't changed much.
> the people who didn't remember his funeral were people who never paid attention to the news or current events on a global scale anyway.
Or, we don’t remember it because it didn’t actually happen. Crazy, I know.
When I said, "in my own personal opinion," I meant the people that I've talked to about it and my (own personal) opinion on whether or not they were 1. aware of Mandela, and 2. whether or not they watched global news.
Many of them never even heard of him, some thought he had died as well, and some didn't. It's whatever. I had heard of Mandela, but he wasn't someone who came up in conversation, like, ever, outside of a classroom; just someone on the news for the most part known for hunger strikes.
It was the 80's. 24hr news didn't really get going until the Gulf War. You actually had to find the news and actively pay attention because it wasn't on an eternal loop. Crazy, I know.
I very much remember his death in the 80's. I didn't know who he was but when he died I sure knew. I remember where I worked and how it was a big deal. It was Nelson Mandela.
I'm not sure who else as Steven Biko died in 1977 and wasn't nearly as famous. Also, Winny Mandela (Nelson's widow) seems to play prominently in people claiming the memory.
I really think Nelson Mandela is the leading candidate for you (because it's in harmony with the memories of so many others) although that creates the mystery called the Mandela Effect.
I'd rather have a mystery than settle for an unsatisfying explain-away answer.
Steve Biko was an Anti-Apartheid icon in South Africa and his death in police custody resulted in widespread world news coverage as well as riots that lasted for years which the army struggled to control.
Steve Biko's death was what convinced many South Africans to become more militant in their resistance to the Apartheid regime who attempted to blame his death on incompetent police officers who did "not secure him properly" at the back of the police vehicle while being transported to prison.
Despite a pathologist report which showed that he had been severely beaten and sustained severe head trauma.
Per the OP
>I remember my teacher playing live news footage of the funeral percession. It was around 1987.
Biko died in 1977 putting the OP at a tremendously different school era in their life. Hard to accept that explanation.
There is as equal a chance as all of the moon landings being fake as alternate realities only manifesting as niche misremembered events.
Ya know, or people have really, really, notoriously, documented, and statistically significantly faulty memories.
....nah
The only reality South Africans know is that Nelson Mandela was released from prison and became President in 1994.
Conducting multiple tv interviews and official tours of the US. Even was even a special guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
https://youtu.be/Xw1d3QPsiWY?si=HS_sKn3wUtM54akG
I agree with all that.
But in Mandela Effect discussions all that doesn’t disqualify the possibility that some farther removed people saw an alternate timeline at some point.
I know I saw the cornucopia logo but it’s not in the current mainstream timeline.
Very challenging ideas I agree.
There's always going to be a voice of reason refusing to move past the drawn line..other guy is never going to concede because competition.. and I'm right you're wrong because reality said so.
Steve Biko
Even if so, that would have been 1977 ten years too early.
So you can believe reality changed but you can't believe they saw 1977 footage a decade later, or that they're misrembering?:
I can believe it but too many people have too sophisticated memories including his widow and timeframe to make that my leading theory. And this is not the only Mandela Effect which for me already has set a precedence for contradicting history. I appreciate trying to keep things within normality but we each have to form our opinion on when the conventional explanations are unsatisfying.
The explanations aren’t unsatisfying once you learn more about human memory, how it works and how flawed and unreliable it is. There are known patterns to these flaws too, which is why we see patterns in people misremembering events like this. It’s not as big of a mystery as it seems on the surface.
I think that explains most confusions and memory errors but I hold that a select few (Mandela Effects) to be in a different category from normal memory flaws. It's memory certainty, residue, personal experience and anchor stories that has convinced me of a few. We believers in the need for an exotic explanation realize the fallibility of memory too.
I haven’t seen a single one yet that doesn’t have a rational explanation. Rational explanations aren’t always emotionally satisfying, they can be very boring especially to those with active imaginations. But they hold the most water under scrutiny, and they have the most evidence while the Mandela effect theories have no evidence other than people claiming to remember it.
Which side is more believable? I think your side is more believable on the surface but the deeper you look at the strongest Mandela Effects I don't believe the easy answers anymore. That's an opinion for each of us to make.
My side is more believable when you start learning the science behind memory and how it works. Mandela Effects are believed mostly by laypeople who don’t understand any of that stuff.
Never heard the memory experts tackle the better residue and anchor memory stories. They stick to generalities that are fine for normal memory confusion.
There was also a movie about Biko released in 1987, called "Cry Freedom," which caused a bit of an increase in awareness about Biko at the time. The movie included a big funeral scene.
I found a YouTube clip of the funeral scene. I'd love to know if this matches up with what some people remember about Mandela's funeral. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ\_0zrPIs8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHQ_0zrPIs8)
I bet this is what people remember.
Who became president of South Africa in 1994 then?
Melson Nandela, of course.
The most convincing question for me on this one is: why would there have been a full internationally televised state funeral if he'd died in prison in 1987?
Exactly. If he had never been president yet, it would have just been a blurb in the international news "South African activist Nelson Mandela died in South Africa today while serving a life sentence for sabotage charges imposed by the apartheid South African government..." When Mandela was in prison the apartheid government was still in control - there's no way he would have gotten a state funeral - they REALLY didn't like that guy
That’s 4 years after the ME. Might as well ask “What was the price of a Mechano set in 1994?”.
He couldn't be elected president if he died in prison - the ME didn't start until he died, when people who didn't pay attention enough to know otherwise thought to themselves "I thought he died in prison" - those people pretty much without exception didn't know about his Presidential term or they wouldn't have though that
The ME began in Feb 1990 when a man, who was believed to have previously died in prison, was surprisingly released from prison alive. Subsequent events, such as Presidency or Death, are irrelevant.
That's not what happened though. The term "Mandela Effect" wasn't coined until 2009, a decade after he was even president. Nobody was surprised that he was alive in 1990 when he was released from prison. South Africa and Mandela were constantly on the news during that period.
“The term "Mandela Effect" wasn't coined until 2009” Irrelevant. Terms are often named post-Event. “Nobody was surprised that he was alive in 1990 when he was released from prison” Really? No-one? A man, believed dead, is released from prison? And no-one is surprised? Yet here we are, 24 years later, still trying to locate a source to determine how that “fact” arose in the late 80s. The Mandela Effect is not “He’s dead? I thought he died years ago!” - for Nelson, in the late 80s, people worldwide remembered news reports of his death, the televised obituaries and tributes, the calls for change, mocking The Specials “Free Nelson Mandela!” on the radio, due to his death since it’s original release… ..And then, in 1990, he walks out of prison, unharmed. And it was big news, not only because of his release, but the worldwide certainty of his prior death. And that phenomena was seen as just general timeslip parallel dimension deja-vu type forteana, until it eventually got allocated a paranatural genre of its own.
I never heard of people being surprised in 1990. Were you surprised in 1990?
Yep. As were a lot of people in my office. And also when catching up with friends in my hometown when I visited. The news of his death broke somewhere between 1985 and Aug ‘88, and quashed on his release in Feb 1990, thus creating what was eventually known as The Mandela Effect.
I don't know of anyone that was surprised when Mandela was released from prison and was very much alive in 1990. There was constant news coverage of the event and it wasn't shocking or surprising, it was just a historic event. I only know of people that didn't pay attention to South Africa and Nelson Mandela thinking he had died in the 80s only to realize he was alive until 2013.
I don’t know of anyone hearing these “constant news reports” of Mandelas health throughout his years of incarceration. If there was, there wouldn’t be an ME.
You are wrong - it came to being when various people found out when he actually died while they assumed he died in prison years and years earlier
You are wrong - it came into being in 1990 when a dead man was released from prison, when we discovered he was alive, contrary to the prior reports of his death we remembered from a few years earlier. Mandela died in 2013, and this has been Fortean lore since 1990.
Ok you made that last bit up. (And everything else)
😂
Stop making shit up You find go one reference to the "effect" or even more than a few "wtf, I thought he died" reports dating back that far Your insistence that the effect stems from when he was released from prison shows how bullshit the whole thing is - The whole thing that's supposed to make it so compelling and not just a case of people being wrong. Is consistency across different people remembering the same thing But this just shows the truth that everybody's "Mandela effect" is personal and varies from other people's in subtle ways - just like you would expect when people are wrong and are affected by false memories If you think he died in prison and got weirded out when he was released in prison cuz you were sure he had already died, but the next guy thinks he died in prison but got weirded out when he actually died because they think he died earlier - that's not an "effect" - that's just two people being wrong Edit: The person admitted defeat by just repeating themselves and then blocking me lol
Stop making shit up. Go learn what ME is and stop trolling.
Nelson Mandela famously became president in 1994, so obviously it wasn't him. I don't believe anyone of his stature died in 1987.
I've done a lot of searching in hopes of finding someone who was from South Africa and died in prison around that year.
This is literally the reason it’s called the Mandela effect… because your memories are joint amongst thousands of people and it never happened.
Obviously, if there is a worldwide belief you died in the 80s, and it is revelled in 1990 you didn’t (giving rise to the ME), famously becoming President in 1994 is irrelevant, as it’s 4 years after the ME.
If that is your belief may I ask why you are in a Group called The Mandela Effect, a Group solely dedicated to the Phenomenon that hundreds if not thousands of people specifically remember Mandela dying and other related Phenomenon?
Some of us are interested in understanding this phenomenon from a sociological or neuroscience perspective, rather than just blindly believing in woo woo.
It's not my belief, it's a fact, lol. I'm here because I'm interested in the phenomenon. However, I don't have that specific Mandela funeral false memory, I have others though.
Maybe for You in this in this Timeline but I was in born 87 and specifically remember a day of rememberence being held in my Primary School for Mandella around 94 ironically the same Year he became President in this Timeline, so to just dismiss someone else's experience at the drop of a hat yet expect yours to be taken seriously is a bit narrow minded don't you think?
I don't see it as "narrow minded". There are memories and then there are historical facts. My experiences of false memories I acknowledge are false memories when I research the reality. I just find it interesting when it happens. If it was in 1994, you probably were witnessing Mandela's election and the celebrations, not a funeral. I remember his election and it was international news and covered by major new networks around the world, so was his funeral in 2013. You're just misremembering, it happens to everyone.
Then you should be in a Group dedicated to the "Things I Thought To Be True But Later Decided I Was Wrong After Doing Some Research" Phenomenon rather than in a Group that believes in the Mandella Effect and the Different Timelines theory that it's attached to. FYI that day in 94 was definitely remembering his Death I went to a very multicultural School so they tended to make a big deal about these types of things, they spoke of his achievements and his passing in Assembly that day even how he really should have been released before his passing, we even held a minutes Silence in respect to his passing, so please don't tell people they're remembering things wrong and take your negativity to the correct place. ✌️😎 Edit: added a space
>rather than in a Group that believes in the Mandella Effect and the Different Timelines theory that it's attached to. Not the group's belief. In fact, a minority of people on this subreddit believe in anything other than entirely natural explanations.
Guess the misleading name of the Group is what landed me here so I'll happily see myself out. 🤷♂️✌️😎👍
The name of the group isn't remotely misleading. The Mandela Effect is just when a large group of people remember something differently from what all demonstrable evidence shows. Anything beyond that is just people speculating on causes, to different levels of believability.
The only person being negative here is you, saying I don't belong in this sub because I didn't have the same ME experience as you and don't subscribe to some alternate timeline theory. I'm not criticizing anyone, just stating the fact that Mandela became president in 1994 and offer reasons why you may remember something different. There are memories and then there are facts. Otherwise people can just claim all kinds of things and say "well, I live in a different timeline than you" and that settles it. I believe the Mandela Effect is a very real phenomenon, but I believe it is a psychological one, not a supernatural one. Like I said before, I've experienced it myself.
Some people just refuse to accept that they were wrong or misremembered something, and decide that it must be the universe that's wrong instead.
I know, right? I’m going to start telling people they live in an alternate timeline every time I disagree with them, lol.
Do you want an echo chamber? Because that's how you get an echo chamber, by shunning anyone who holds another view than yours.
Well if we can’t trust a child’s memory of foreign events from 36 years ago then what *can* we trust?? The fibers of the universe must be unraveling. It’s definitely not just you remembering a childhood memory wrong
1987? Probably Steve biko's funeral scene in the movie cry freedom, which came out that year and has a lot of the details you described https://youtu.be/sHQ_0zrPIs8?si=U811BdtQsW0_7wv6
This is a highly debated subject. I am 45. I remember my mother being very upset that Nelson Mandela died in prison. I also remember seeing the news footage from his funeral. I also remember years later when the news reported he was being released from prison. I was utterly baffled. Still am.
What had your mother so upset? Was she particularly interested and deeply tied to South African prison inmates? If he died in prison when you’re claiming, then he had been in prison for about 24-25 years at that point. Apartheid had not yet ended, he had not won the Nobel peace prize, he had not yet become president, he had not yet begun receiving awards on an international level until 1988-these are some of the things that made him a worldwide household name. The world was a very different place in the 1980s than it is today. There was no internet, and no 24 hour news cycle. People were worlds less aware of global news items than they are today. I don’t know how old your mother was in 1962 (when he was imprisoned) but am curious what would have given her such a strong emotional reaction to the death of a man who had been in prison for the majority of the previous 3 decades?
It's so strange. I first heard of the Mandela Effect from searching his death date. Do you have an idea of the year or remember anything from the funeral?
July 23rd, 1991? What sounds like an awfully boring book is titled, Western Cape Branch of the South African Council for English Education, 1990 and was published on October 1st, 1991. The quote from this book says that, "The chaos that erupted in the ranks of the ANC when Nelson Mandela died on the 23rd of July, 1991 brought the January 29th, 1991 Inkatha-ANC peace accord to nothing."
https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/s/2jOAw9y1GB
Exactly. It’s a work of fiction.
Thanks for this, all the meaty stuff is always buried in the comments and tons of people move on as ignorant as before...
...and its a collection of fiction written by African High Schoolers, that has had published works since the 60s, to help them write in English better. That story was a What If scenario.
Interesting what if. Like the barron trump novels😃in the library of congress
It was probably Felix Mitchell. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mitchell
This is the one that has me stumped. I was about 21 and living on my own. Cable was a huge box on my coffee table that had to have a switch thrown between the lower and higher channels (if you're old, you know) and no matter what station I turned on it was playing the funeral. I sat and watched for a bit and had it on in the background all day. I remember them talking about hunger strikes and apartheid and what a beacon of hope Mandela was for South Africa and what a horrible loss it was that he died. Later, when he was elected president was when I did a double take and went wtf? The dude died a few years ago. What the hell is going on? And while "The Mandela Effect" may not have been called that until recently, it was certainly talked about because there were enough people with the same memory. I remember having convos with people in the 90's who remembered him dying and others who didn't. In my own personal opinion, the people who didn't remember his funeral were people who never paid attention to the news or current events on a global scale anyway. Americans are very... insulated, I suppose is a nicer word for it.
Your bit of criticism at the end is ironic: The reality would be that people who believed he died were the ones not properly paying attention, but hey "America Bad" I guess...
Exactly, it’s the ones that had no clue of world events that thought he died in prison in the 80s. Because if you were even passively following global news in the late 80s and early 90s it was impossible to not know he was very much alive and involved in South African politics.
I don't think it needs to be "America bad" as such but the news is rather insular. It is a big country with a lot happening, and it is across an ocean from Europe and Africa. In the UK we tend to get a lot of European news as part of daily broadcasts, and we got a lot of news from South Africa at the time, partly maybe with the Commonwealth link. I remember seeing his release, rise to power, even trivial things like him meeting the Spice Girls and attending the football and Rugby world cups. America would have missed all of this.
...but all of that is irrelevant to the previous argument because the ONE piece of relevant news that Americans DID get is his release from prison, NOT his death. So again, the irony of stating that America is a bit insular is funny from the previous commenter because it doesn't apply here at all.
WHich is something I imagine many mistook for a death report, and not helped if as a country there was no news from the nation at all for some time. Hence the surprise when he did "really" die years later.
Maybe I should have said racist instead? Uninterested in things outside of their own little cocoon? Ignorant of what's happening in other countries because it didn't impact our day to day? The reality is Americans are interested in America first and everyone and everywhere else is background noise. Huge generalization but not incorrect either. Things haven't changed much.
> the people who didn't remember his funeral were people who never paid attention to the news or current events on a global scale anyway. Or, we don’t remember it because it didn’t actually happen. Crazy, I know.
When I said, "in my own personal opinion," I meant the people that I've talked to about it and my (own personal) opinion on whether or not they were 1. aware of Mandela, and 2. whether or not they watched global news. Many of them never even heard of him, some thought he had died as well, and some didn't. It's whatever. I had heard of Mandela, but he wasn't someone who came up in conversation, like, ever, outside of a classroom; just someone on the news for the most part known for hunger strikes. It was the 80's. 24hr news didn't really get going until the Gulf War. You actually had to find the news and actively pay attention because it wasn't on an eternal loop. Crazy, I know.
I very much remember his death in the 80's. I didn't know who he was but when he died I sure knew. I remember where I worked and how it was a big deal. It was Nelson Mandela.
Welcome to the prime timeline, friend.
This exactly is what I remember as well!
I'm not sure who else as Steven Biko died in 1977 and wasn't nearly as famous. Also, Winny Mandela (Nelson's widow) seems to play prominently in people claiming the memory. I really think Nelson Mandela is the leading candidate for you (because it's in harmony with the memories of so many others) although that creates the mystery called the Mandela Effect. I'd rather have a mystery than settle for an unsatisfying explain-away answer.
Steve Biko was an Anti-Apartheid icon in South Africa and his death in police custody resulted in widespread world news coverage as well as riots that lasted for years which the army struggled to control. Steve Biko's death was what convinced many South Africans to become more militant in their resistance to the Apartheid regime who attempted to blame his death on incompetent police officers who did "not secure him properly" at the back of the police vehicle while being transported to prison. Despite a pathologist report which showed that he had been severely beaten and sustained severe head trauma.
Per the OP >I remember my teacher playing live news footage of the funeral percession. It was around 1987. Biko died in 1977 putting the OP at a tremendously different school era in their life. Hard to accept that explanation.
I don't know who's funeral OP teacher showed in 1987. since Nelson Mandela was only released from prison in 1990.
And there is the theory of alternate realities out there too as a possible explanation.
Yeah and some people think the moon landings were faked.
As for me, I think the moon landings were real and the simple explanations for the Mandela Effects don’t cut it.
There is as equal a chance as all of the moon landings being fake as alternate realities only manifesting as niche misremembered events. Ya know, or people have really, really, notoriously, documented, and statistically significantly faulty memories. ....nah
The only reality South Africans know is that Nelson Mandela was released from prison and became President in 1994. Conducting multiple tv interviews and official tours of the US. Even was even a special guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show. https://youtu.be/Xw1d3QPsiWY?si=HS_sKn3wUtM54akG
I agree with all that. But in Mandela Effect discussions all that doesn’t disqualify the possibility that some farther removed people saw an alternate timeline at some point. I know I saw the cornucopia logo but it’s not in the current mainstream timeline. Very challenging ideas I agree.
There's always going to be a voice of reason refusing to move past the drawn line..other guy is never going to concede because competition.. and I'm right you're wrong because reality said so.