The Crochetting Revolution: "67 blankets for the Nelson Mandela Day". di Rebecca di Santo

Many blankets, a single blanket.

On the 21st April 2015, the gardens of the Union Buildings, the official office of the South African government in Pretoria, were wrapped in every color. Though it was already Spring here in Italy, in South Africa it was the middle of Autumn so  what covered the meadows in color were not flowers, 

but 21,000 blankets that, all together, created a huge one, enough to cover the vast garden.

the Union Buildings, Pretoria.

Thousands hands had been crocheting and knitting, to participate in this initiative: students from all kinds of different schools, religious groups, elderly in nursing homes, many prisoners, men and women and supporters of the Mandela Day from all over the world.

The blanket, occupying an area of ​​3,377 square meters, was large enough to win the Guinness World Records.

The idea was directly inspired by Nelson Mandela.

In 2011 Madiba wished to celebrate his 93rd birthday with a specific request. He expressed the desire tha the people close to him dedicate 67 minutes of their lives in the performance of 67 good deeds. The number 67 is not random, 67 are the years tha Mandela devoted, body and soul, to the struggle against apartheid, for social equality fo the South African people and for justice worldwive.

Carolyn Steyn with Man in Zondewater.

In 2014 Zelda La Grange, Mandela's personal assistant, made another request: to create 67 blankets by the 21st of April 2015. And this is where Carolyn Steyn, a radio speaker and tv actress, was involved. Carolyn sees the ambitiousness of the project, making handmade blankets takes time, and so she makes an attempt: she creates the Facebook group "67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day." The people whom accept this challenge begin to join it. Thus the objective changes,  no longer 67, but 21,000 blankets instead, to be made by the 21st April 2015.

This is a great and symbolic way to unify the world: the economic differences, diseases, gender differences, everything is held by very light colored threads. The work of the inmates’ hands of Zonderwater (this prison was the prison-camp for Italian soldiers between 1941 and 1947), of the older hands of men and women, of the people’s hands who have nothing, have contributed, with time and color, to create a peaceful uprising. Those blankets laid on the shoulders of those who needed them.

Blankets in Zonderwater.

Blankets in Car.

Hands in Zonderwater.

A man.

at school.

All this provoked a great emotion in me and I feel I need to learn, to know more and more about it and to narrate this story.

In Italy no one has been involved in this movement, neither to pass such information nor to develop it. But I think it’s really impressive to imagine us as united by fluffy balls of wool, a lightness that has in itself a great power.

The wonder is in the fact that after April 21st nothing has stopped. It was not enough to achieve the Guinness for having handmade the largest blanket in the world, or to distribute these blankets on a much larger scale. Hands continue to knit and to crochet. Hands have created, in this great movement, the soul’s aspiration: that is to be able to create and donate from where we are, may it be from wealth or  from poverty which we live in.

A book will be created from this project, and soon we will be able to listen to songs written by an 11 year old boy and two prisoners of Zonderwater. Because from this story, which goes back along a threaded line and returns to those hands which have worked the wool, start thousands of stories.

Rebecca di Santo

She is Aunty Martha, photographed by Terry Milne.