A MAJOR exhibition celebrating the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth and his close connection to Glasgow will be launched this week.

The touring exhibition, which was previously on show at London’s Southbank Centre, will arrive at the Lighthouse, Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture, this Friday.

It will include special features reflecting Mandela’s links with Glasgow.

The former South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionist, who died in December 2013, was awarded the Freedom of the City in 1981.

The move was spearheaded by Glasgow’s sitting Lord Provost, Michael Kelly, who later in ‘81 started a global Lord Mayors’ petition, arguing for Mandela’s release. The South African was arrested in 1962 for conspiring to overthrow the state, and was consequently handed life imprisonment.

The petition was signed by thousands of mayors around the world, which helped facilitate Mandela’s release from prison in February 1990, at the age of 71.

In 1994, he became the country’s first democratically elected president.

His magnanimous personality, resilience and charm that enabled Mandela to lead South Africa through a volatile transition.

He transformed the political landscape at home and around the world, becoming one of the most influential and iconic individuals of the 20th century.

After his death, flags and flowers were laid at Nelson Mandela Place, while the flag above City Chambers remained at half mast until after Mandela’s funeral in South Africa.

Planning permission has now been granted by the council for a statue in the street that bears his name.

Mandela famously said of his and others’ struggle against apartheid: ‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.’

The exhibition will run at Gallery One of the Lighthouse until March 2.h 2.