Long Walk to Freedom
Long
Walk to Freedom is an autobiography written by South African President Nelson
Mandela, and first published in 1994 by
Little Brown & Co.[1] The book profiles his early life, coming of age, education
and 27 years in prison. Under the apartheid government, Mandela was regarded as a terrorist and jailed
on the infamous Robben Island
for his role as a leader of the then-outlawed ANC.
He later achieved international recognition for his leadership as president in rebuilding the country's once segregated society.[2] The last chapters of the book describe his political
ascension, and his belief that the struggle still continued against apartheid
in South Africa.
Mandela
dedicated his book to "my six children, Madiba and Makaziwe (my first
daughter) who are now deceased, and to Makgatho, Makaziwe, Zenani and Zindzi,
whose support and love I treasure; to my twenty-one grandchildren and three
great-grandchildren who give me great pleasure; and to all my comrades, friends
and fellow South Africans whom I serve and whose courage, determination and
patriotism remain my source of inspiration."
Overview
In
the first part of the autobiography, Mandela describes his upbringing as a
child and adolescent in South Africa, and being connected to the royal Thembu dynasty. His childhood name was Rolihlahla, which is
loosely translated as "pulling the branch of a tree", or a euphemism
for "troublemaker".
Mandela
describes his education at a Thembu college called Clarkebury, and later at the
strict Healdtown school, where students were rigorously put in routines. He
mentions his education at the University of Fort Hare, and his practice of law later on. He also then writes;
"Democracy meant all men to be heard, and decision was taken together as a
people. Majority rule
was a foreign notion. A minority was not to be clashed by a majority." (p. 29)
In
the second part of the book, Mandela introduces political and social aspects of
apartheid in South Africa, and the influences of politicians such as Daniel
François Malan who implemented the nadir of African
freedoms, as he officially commenced the apartheid policies. Mandela joined the
African National Congress in 1950 and describes his organisation of guerrilla tactics and underground organisations to battle against
apartheid.
In
1961, Mandela was convicted for inciting people to strike and leaving the
country without a passport and sentenced to five years' imprisonment. However,
Mandela was shortly thereafter sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage in what was known as the "Rivonia Trial",
by Justice Dr. Quartus de Wet,
instead of a possible death sentence. (p. 159)
Mandela
describes prison time on Robben
Island and Pollsmoor
Prison. His 28-year tenure in prison was
marked by the cruelty of Afrikaner guards, backbreaking labour, and sleeping in minuscule
cells which were nearly uninhabitable. Unlike his biographer Anthony
Sampson, Mandela does not accuse the warder
James Gregory
of fabricating a friendship with his prisoner. Gregory's book Goodbye
Bafana discussed Mandela's family life and
described Gregory as a close personal friend of Mandela. According to Mandela: The
Authorised Biography,
Gregory's position was to censor the letters delivered to the future president,
and he thereby discovered the details of Mandela's personal life, which he then
made money from by means of his book Goodbye Bafana. Mandela considered
suing Gregory for this breach of trust.[3] In Long Walk to Freedom Mandela remarks of Gregory
only that 'I had not known him terribly well, but he knew us, because he had
been responsible for reviewing our incoming and outgoing mail.'[4]
Later
on in his sentence, Mandela met South African president, Frederik
Willem de Klerk, and was released from prison in
1990. Unlike his friend Anthony Sampson's
account, Mandela's book does not discuss
the alleged complicity of de Klerk in the violence of the eighties and
nineties, or the role of his ex-wife Winnie Mandela in that bloodshed. Mandela became the President of South Africa in 1994.
Reception
The
book won the Alan Paton Award in 1995, and has been published in numerous languages, including
an Afrikaans translation by Antjie
Krog.
Film adaptation
Long
Walk to Freedom has been adapted into a film titled
Mandela: Long Walk
to Freedom directed by Justin
Chadwick, written by William Nicholson, and produced by Anant
Singh. Mandela personally awarded the
film rights to the book to Singh's company some years before 2009. Singh
believes that as the film is based on Mandela's own writing, it will be the
"definitive" biopic of him.[5] English actor Idris
Elba portrays Mandela in the film.[6] The film was limited
released on 29 November 2013 in the United
States. Full release happened on Christmas Day 2013 in the United States.[7] When the film was shown in London for Prince William and
his wife, Nelson Mandela's death was announced.
Ghost writer and second memoir
In
an obituary of Mandela, The Times
of London reported that the latter chapters of Long Walk to Freedom had
been "ghosted by a skilful US journalist", and that Mandela had later
started work on a second set of memoirs without a ghost writer.[8]
A
follow-up memoir was published in 2017, compiled by Mandla
Langa from Mandela's handwritten notes
and unfinished draft, together with archive material and with a prologue by Graça
Machel: entitled Dare
Not Linger: The Presidential Years, this volume took its title from the closing sentence of Long
Walk to Freedom: "But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom
comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not
ended."[9][10][11][12][13]
References
· Long walk to
freedom : the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Franklin Record
(first ed.). Philadelphia: Little, Brown. 7 February 1994. ISBN 978-0316545853. OCLC 31530423. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
· · Nelson Mandela: Long
Walk to Freedom, p. 614.
· · Staff (13 March
2009). "Mandela's
autobiography Long Walk to Freedom to be adapted into film". Xinhua News Agency. Archived from the
original on 16 March 2009. Retrieved 13
March 2009.
·
Jefferson, Lucette (22 February 2012). "Confirmed! Idris Elba set to play Nelson
Mandela in Biopic". Huffington Post. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
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