Autobiography of
Nelson Mandela. A
book that will induce a mindfuck.
It spans several decades of South Africa's moral growth and one really had to marvel at the tenacity and stubborness that drives Mr. Mandela.
Born in Transkei on July 18, 1918, Mandela was given the Xhosa name of Rolihlahla. He describes his childhood in the countryside of South Africa, tracing his ancestry with the Thembu tribe.
From the local school, to The Clarkebury Institute, to The University College of Fort Hare, Mandela felt the stirrings of the idea of freedom and equality and the identity of being South African, regardless of tribe or race. He says that being politicised was a gradual inevitability, and not something he woke up to one day.
When he graduate from Law School, he was already heavily involved with the ANC (African National Congress). He was out-spoken, a little brash at first, and filled with idealism. His marriage to his first wife Evelyn did not up survive his commitment to the freedom movement for Africans.
A few more chapters later...
It fascinates me that the ANC had a policy of non-violence to protest against
apartheid. Not on moral or religious principles... but as a tactic. But is was the basis for which Mandela and co. won their treason trial 1958-1959. But non-violence as a tactic was not working any more, so Mandela was given the task of forming an army called the
MK (Umkhonto we Siwze). Using sabotage, querrilla warfare, terrorism and open revolution, they hoped that they could bring apartheid down...
Still to come: his trial, lengthy prison term on Robbem Island and finally freedom. I am still re - reading the book.