800 pages. 80 years of the freedom struggle. A phenomenal read.
The book starts off with Mandela’s childhood days spent in his rural village and stretches all the way to his life as the first President of apartheid-free South Africa. After reaching the final pages and reflecting back on Mandela’s story I’m slightly gobsmacked. How is it possible that one man went through this much in one lifetime? It almost felt like I’d read the story of the lives of multiple men rather than one.
3 things I loved.
1 Young Mandela.
Reading about Mandela’s childhood and university years was fascinating. The fact that Mandela had no exposure and interest in the freedom struggle till after his University years was something I had no clue about. It’s fascinating to see how the figures who have made a mark in our history were, once upon a time, just ordinary people with ordinary dreams. That is until one, thought-to-be, ordinary conversation turns out to be their catalyst for the extraordinary.
2 The Reflections.
This book read almost like a journal than a story.
Mandela doesn’t just relate the incidents but we hear his thoughts and reflections. I love how candid he was with the mistakes he made and the regrets he had. It adds a level of depth to himself as we see him as living breathing human and not just as an infallible figure of history.
3 The detail.
Sometimes facts and figures can make book feel tedious, yet I particularly enjoyed the detail Mandela gave about the freedom struggle. It was intriguing to learn about the inner workings of how the ANC operated, the behind the scenes of setting up a military wing, the secret meetings held with international leaders, etc.
—
What made the whole reading experience more wholesome was sitting with my parents and hearing their perspective of the South African struggle based on their memories of the media coverage. The parallel nature of the negative media coverage ANC had in it’s intial phases to other freedom stuggles of today is indisputable.
With that, I can’t finish off this review without talking about Palestine. The similarities of the two struggles is undeniable. There were days where I was reading a certain chapter about a specific event Mandela and his people were facing, only to switch to my social media feed to find an identical situation playing live. If you are not convinced that what’s happening in Palestine is apartheid, I can’t recommend this book enough. History will carry on repeating itself until we learn from the lessons it carries.
—
Memoirs and autobiographies have always been a favorite genre for myself because I love being given the chance to dive into the minds and lives of these great figures that, whether alive or dead, we may never have a chance to sit along with. Only when you sit and converse for many long and deep hours do the gems of their stories and personalities come to light. And these books provide that avenue to us.
So, although the size of the book can seem overwhelming don’t let this put you off. Even as you read through the first few pages, you realise there’s this beautiful flow to Mandela’s writing that allows you to be immersed in the story. Before you know it, you’ll already be many chapters in.
