‘We were standing outside the post office when the local magistrate, a white man in his sixties, approached Paul and asked him to go inside to buy him some postage stamps. Similarly, the oppression of the Africans by the Whites, who are just 8.9% of the total South African population, seems audacious! From one of Mr. The woes of the harsh prison life – insanity inducing solitary confinements, unhygienic living conditions, police brutality have been vividly explained. The speech he gives while advocating his principles in the court during the trial is a remarkable one and is a must read for everyone. You can easily see the transition of an innocent child to an educated nonchalant young man to an obedient non-violent, peace loving lawyer who after repeated attempts learns that violent protest is the only way to win Independence. Mandela’s life – his childhood at Qunu, his stay as a ward with the regent – Chief Jongintaba Dalindyebo at Mqhekezweni, his education at Clarkebury, Healdtown, Fort Hare and Witwatersrand, his early involvement with the African National Congress, his failed marriage to Evelyn Mase, his practice as a lawyer, his increasing involvement in the fight for freedom, the Treason Trial, his life after he went underground, his re-arrest and conviction that led to 18 years in prison, his release and his latter efforts and labor that led to liberation of South Africa. The book has been appropriately structured to recount the various stages of Mr. Named ‘Rolihlahla’ which means ‘troublemaker’, you see the rebel in him since his childhood. Mandela describing his family’s relationship with the Thembu royal family, his father’s occupation and his happy childhood in his village.
I am truly grateful to have read this book because it not only told me his life story but also enlightened me on my rather poor knowledge of the South African freedom struggle. And so I picked this after hearing about his demise. But I have always wanted to read about a few great people and Mr. I am not usually interested in autobiographies as I find them uninteresting or too long. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
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