Harvard students are eagerly awaiting President Nelson Mandela's visit and address as he receives an honorary doctorate.

Motivations for students planning to attend the ceremony in Tercentenary Theater vary from personal curiosity to see the Nobel Peace Prize-winner to poignant questions about the future of South Africa they hope to see Mandela address.

For those with personal ties to South Africa, Mandela's visit holds even greater significance.

South African native Marna Shutte '01, having never heard Mandela speak in person before, is excited about seeing him here for both personal and patriotic reasons.

"I'm very happy to have him visit here. It's good for our country's image," she said.

Noting the global attention given to the South African leader and the country's leadership position in Africa, Shutte expects Mandela to speak about foreign relations and more specifically, "the role that we, both the United States and South Africa, can play in helping the continent of Africa as a whole."

James I. Mwangi ]00, president of the Harvard African Association, expressed excitement about Mandela's visit.

"Having visited South Africa and spent time there, I feel that it's impossible not to be very excited," Mwangi said. "And as an African, myself, it's got to be one of the highlights of my time here to see him in person."

However, Mwangi criticized the general public's tendency to "terribly oversimplify what's going on in South Africa," to enthusiastically embrace an idealized Mandela rather than the real man.

Mwangi, a native of Nairobi which was the site of a recent terrorist attack on a U.S. embassy, hopes to hear Mandela address his concerns about international terrorism.

"Considering he was once labeled a terrorist himself, I'm curious to hear the other perspective of the issue," he said of the South African leader.

"Mandela's been criticized for interacting with people considered pariahs: Syria, Libya, etc., and I'm interested in hearing his views about past loyalties in conflict with current loyalties," Mwangi said.

With the approaching millennium and the chance to banish the shadow of colonialism from modern Africa, Mwangi is also interested in hearing Mandela's views on South Africa's possible leadership role for the entire continent.

"I'd like for him to speak on the future of Africa itself. Africa seems poised for a new direction in the millennium, and I'm interested in hearing his view on South Africa's role," said Mwangi.

Justin P. Steil '00 had the opportunity to hear Mandela at an African National Congress rally while studying in South Africa last semester.