|
The
Long Walk to Freedom—Nelson
Mandela—Abacus—10p
I
am ashamed to say that the specter of apartheid
completely passed me by in ,my youth. I was too
busy explaining to my friends how much of a
betrayal to Optimus Prime watching Gobots was.
I still wasn’t tempted into the realm of
foreign politics/human rights on Mandela's
release from the prison term that kept him
incarcerated for nearly three decades. But as
the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of
invention.”, which is how I came to own the
book.
Whilst
filling out one of those ever present book club
forms found in most Sunday `papers, I found
myself with a blank option, and seemingly
nothing to put in it. Being the only author left
in the choices that I recognized I gave him the
benefit of the doubt. In fact I needed him to
fill the quota, and it turned out to be more
than worth it. Thanks to the offer the club was
promoting ( I forget the name of the club) I
bought the book for only 10p. So it turns out to
be the best buy I ever had.
Mandela takes you from his early years, when he
was trained as counsel to the chief of he Xosha
people, right through to his detention for
terrorism, up to his inauguration as South
African President.
What
struck me as I finished this harrowing tale, was
how little page space is taken talking about
himself. Due to my lack of knowledge about the
man and the myth, I was expecting a spectacle of
self indulgent trumpet blowing. This
expectation’s by no means a reflection of my
(non existent) attitudes of Nelson Mandela.
Instead it was reflection of my attitudes
towards the scumbags that call themselves
politicians in this country.
Instead,
Mandela takes great pains to mention nearly all
,the ANC and affiliates, members that helped in
the struggle. At times it is as though he is
going to mention every martyr ( of which there
were far too many.) to the cause. Though this
isn’t done in a way that could be considered
monotonous. He simply gives the credit to the
others that equally deserve it, through their
own suffering and brave determination.
Clearly
well educated Mandela paints a picture of a
beautiful, though very poor South Africa. He
even confirms his own ignorance of his countries
natural treasures during a comical discussion
with some fellow political prisoners at the
abhorrent Rodden Island Prison, between them
they can’t decide whether Africa has any
tigers.
The
main message to be learnt, both from The Long to
Freedom as a book and from Mandela during his
struggle, is one of forgiveness. He recognised
maturly that the majority of the whites that
received the benefits of apartheid were also the
victims of the system that imposed it. Even when
the military minded MK was brought into
existence to fight the white only power, it was
to strike out at the system, not those caught up
in it.
I
cannot recommend this book highly enough. Not
only did I find it interesting, disturbing,
exciting, funny and depressing, but it was also
extremely inspirational.
I
think the best place for this book, would be in
every school, in every land. Maybe if everyone
could see what it is possible to achieve against
the odds, they would also realize how much they
could achieve when the odds are stacked as much
in our favor, as they so blatantly are.
|
