‘Miracle Rising’ on the Web

The screening on Sunday of the documentary recounting the untold stories of South Africa from 1990 to 1994, Miracle Rising: South Africa.Miracle Rising: South Africa, will coincide with the launch of a website that aims to keep the South African miracle alive.

The 90-minute documentary recounts untold stories of the four years from the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 to the elections in 1994. Dimension Data has created a websiite called Be Part of the Miracle (www.bepartofthemiracle.com)*,

Commencing 10 February, the documentary will be broadcast in 57 languages to over 300 million TV households in 150 countries.

Miracle Rising reveals to the world the crucial decisions, small conversations, tragic ironies and audacious leaps of faith that combined to make the almost impossible vision of South Africa’s first democratic elections a reality. Viewers will hear personal and intimate anecdotes on the subject from various world leaders, politicians, celebrities and journalists, including FW de Klerk, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, Cyril Ramaphosa, Charlize Theron, Sir Richard Branson, Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy Thompson, Christiane Amanpour and many more.

Andile Ngcaba, Dimension Data’s Middle East & Africa chairman, says: ‚”The aim of Be Part of the Miracle is to inspire and learn from one another, and to encourage civil society to ask themselves, each day what they can do to make a difference in the world and ‚’be part of the miracle’. We hope that with the participation of South Africans and our African counterparts, this very special website will become a resource centre that individuals especially the youth can visit to find out about the ‚’miracle’ that is South Africa.”

Jeremy Ord, chairman of Dimension Data Holdings plc, which sponsored Miracle Rising, adds: ‚””As South Africans, we are all part of the miracle. The philosophy behind the group’s commitment was then, and today still remains, nation-building.

‚””We wanted to remind the people of South Africa, and the world at large, how far South Africa has come since 1990. Creating this unique piece of social content is testimony to everything that South Africans have endured and achieved.‚””

The website is a forum for remembrance, celebration and documentation of transformation. In addition, because it’s a fully public digital platform, any and every individual living anywhere in the world can come to the site to socialise, share and keep the miracle of South Africa’s journey to democracy alive. The more people who contribute to the Miracle Tree, the more the tree grows or, in digital terms, ‚””buzzes‚””.

Based on South Africa’s constitutional principles of inclusivity and collaboration, bepartofthemiracle.com celebrates all that is good and beautiful about South Africa. Any person who has a Facebook, Twitter or Mxit account can logon and share their personal experiences and miracles. In addition, they can like, share, comment or post their own content to the site. By doing so, they become custodians of the site. Branches on the Miracle Tree comprise six themes:

¬∑ Jongilisa (orange flowers) celebrates South Africa’s legislation in the form of reconciliation, empowering and enabling, economics, as well as physical and ideological architecture.

· Hlanganisa (red flowers) celebrates South African initiatives, which range from entrepreneurial activity to sports, services and innovations. Initiatives are seen as things that are big enough to serve the community, or parts thereof.

¬∑ Kapilo (yellow flowers) celebrates South Africa’s generosity, which includes the random acts of kindness or the small things South Africans do for one another on an interpersonal or small group level.

¬∑ Siyaphanda (purple flowers) celebrates South Africa’s resourcefulness, which includes the country’s unique forms of language, infrastructure, entrepreneurial behaviour and cultural artefacts at a grass-roots level.

¬∑ Siyabonisana (blue flowers) celebrates how South Africans educate one another. This embraces the youth (referred to as ‚””born frees‚””), educating the right and correcting the wrong, the community educating one another, and national heritage that serves as a reminder and celebration. This branch also includes the education of sustainability in South Africa.

¬∑ Shukumani (green flowers) celebrates South Africa’s free will, which is defined as the respect and diversity experienced in the Rainbow Nation, as well as the acts and the artefacts that serve as a demonstration and communal reminder of the right to freedom.

A fun element on the site is the animated animals. The squirrel tells visitors how to use the site, while the owl provides information about the Manifesto. The little red bird in the tree loads @BPOTM’s Twitter timeline, which allows users to tweet from the Miracle Tree, and the swarm of bees allows users to add their own voices, and thereby keep the tree ‚””buzzing‚””.

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @GadgetZA

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