At nearly 800 pages this is LONG! It shows you everything Mandela went through from his childhood in the Thembu tribe to Robbin Island and beyond. It was interesting reading about the apartheid struggle from Mandela’s point of view and learning more than I ever remembered from the news.
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Fascinating. If it were physically possible, I'd've read it in one sitting. ( )

Nelson Madela was a lawyer, then involved for most of his life with the ANC (African National Congress), when he fought for the rights of black Africans and against apartheid when that was instituted in the 1950s. He went to prison in 1963 and spend almost three decades there as a political prisoner (alongside other members of the ANC and other similar political groups) before being freed in 1990. This is his autobiography up to when he became president of South Africa in 1994.

In the first half, I found his personal life more interesting than his work/political life. But the second half really picked up for me. I found his time as a prisoner the most interesting part of the book. He (and the other political prisoners) managed to continue to fight as much as they could from within the prison walls. He really was an amazing man, but sadly his family life suffered for everything he did for the people of South Africa. ( )

I listened to the audiobook version of this. Would really recommend that rather than simple reading the book. The biggest takeaway that I got from this was that it's a great insight into the spirit of a man and how he went with his gut / feelings/ desire to see his country freed from apartheid. In the beginning we learn about hos he was selected to marry a woman by the elders from 'The Regient' and in defiance Nelson ran away - this was especially remarkable because from a very young age you learn that he was not one to be pushed around & instead tried to fight to get what he wanted. That was wonderful. Most people like to explain fortune/struggles as people having 'good luck' - but this story shows that he CHOSE to run away, there wasn't "luck" involved! Faith wanted him to get married, but he chose NOT to. Reminded me of something Mathew McConaughey said ... "Knowing where you are NOT is as important as knowing where you are."

I tried to rewind the audiobooks to find out the exact situation or event that resulted in Nelson wanting to continue with his freedom struggle, but it actually was a gradual shift over time - from breaking up meetings to agitations to taking part in protests. Finally, his stay on Robben island was phenomenal. The descriptions of everything that went there & how he had to stay for 19 years and then went to the next prison for another 7-8 yrs was unbelievable!

Would definitely recommend! (though perhaps a bit too much of politics involved especially if you aren't from South Africa and don't understand the history) ( )

For a long time I didn’t know what I was going to say about this one, and even now, I can only delve into my own little garden, you know.

I forget exactly how this book came on my reading list—I can go years between downloading a sample and making a purchase, and obviously many or most of the books will never get that far. But I remember reading a new ager once, a spiritual psychologist, who on one of his vacations—instead of going to some golf club and stigmatizing the “rich people” at the golf club where he’s not the big salami, like many white people…. Although I won’t drop this decent individual’s name, and up the white race; he was just some decent individual—went to Robben Island in South Africa where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and worked at breaking rocks for all those years, (even though Mandela was a trained lawyer, you know, but he was also a Black, and that fact dominated his life), and the decent guy from…. Detroit, I knew it was the Midwest somewhere—he spent a day of his life breaking rocks a bit like Mandela did, and even without cursing guards, (even the Indian prisoners were treated better than Blacks at this prison, and actually all of Nelson’s white comrades got sent away to other places), it was seriously draining and psychically damaging; the Detroit counselor said he could feel the bad vibes still there after all those years.

Matthew (I have to mention someone’s name, even if it’s in my own way), said that he’s a radical Christian, a creation-y Christian, and not a new ager because new agers typically go so long on psychology and so short on sociology, politics. He did say that there’s an “old” (typical) new age and a “new” (atypical) new age, but I think those terms might not be helpful. There’s a weak new age/spiritual psychology, and a strong one. It’s not strong, or appropriate, to ignore the people on this planet who suffer the most. Even if they’re not trying to make more money to get into a nicer golf club or buy a horse or something—at least as an end in itself, which I’m sure it is, for some people, maybe even some ‘cool people’—sometimes with whatever form of psychology, healing the self, can get greedy: me and my healing, me and my time alone with my Creator—even me and my enlightenment, my transcendence, real or imagined.

One of the Course in Miracles teachers once said, When you think you’re in trouble, find a way to help others. THEN you’ll heal.

This unbearable whiteness of being is now over. For now…. Go to the light, the white light, lol. The white, light…. The white, light….

Anyway, in conclusion just, don’t call Mandela a terrorist unless you think that Churchill’s bombing of Dresden was a war crime, and if you think both of those things, well, I admire Gandhi, but pacifism seems like almost too hostile, too condemnatory, a thing for me.

And if bombing whole cities full of civilians is better than property damage, I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe get a little more abstract; don’t look history in the face, ha.

…. Of course, in one sense, Mandela was eventually freed because he had been in prison so long—a whole generation—that things had gone by and the world had changed; the same views that were radical in the early 60s (he wants Black rule! He wants to take our power away!) we’re starting to be more moderate by the late 80s (he doesn’t want to drive us into the sea! He won’t shoot us!). And, then also, in de Klerk, Mandiba says, South Africa got its Gorbachev.

And as for Mandela himself, he was Martin and Malcolm in one.

…. “I was asked as well about the fears of whites. I knew that people expected me to harbor anger towards whites. But I had none. In prison, my anger towards whites decreased, but my hatred for the system grew. I wanted South Africa to see that I loved even my enemies while I hated the system that turned us against one another.”

…. I guess if you wanted to make a case against de Klerk, you’d say that he tried to play Indian against Black and rural and urban Blacks against each other; certainly there were things that Black and especially African National Congress people went through then that I can’t imagine going through. But I guess as cynical as many Afrikaners were in their history, I really want to believe that there was a good Dutchman as well. So….

…. (I always end up writing about the white people in books like this.) On the one hand, de Klerk certainly wiggled and stalled and tried to slow-ball the transfer of power, I guess hoping that the sky would fall in on Mandiba. But, even today, many white Americans put in his place would say, you know—well the whites have always won the elections before; maybe we just need to build a wall, and keep all the money on our side of it…. And plenty of whites would claim to be Way to the left of de Klerk, as long as no one ever calls their bluff, right…. You mean I’m not the primary material beneficiary of this new change? But everything’s about me…. I’m enlightened; I’m white—I’m to the left of de Klerk, for God’s sake!

…. It’s a long walk to freedom.