Nelson Mandela's Prison Letters Published for the First Time

Nelson Mandela's letters can not be overstated. He wrote to his family and kept in touch with it – they were the only way to raise his children and share their childhood. As a lawyer, Mandela has always defended his rights and those of his fellow prisoners. And letters were also a way of preserving one's dignity and campaigning for one's own rights.

Mandela's rights as a political prisoner were very limited: for example, he was allowed to receive a visit only every six months, to write a letter and to receive it, which changed with the weather. The content of Mandela's letters was scrutinized, the letters were often incomplete, if at all – and Mandela protested violently. He always reminded his family to send letters by registered mail.

The letters make Nelson Mandela's icon more humane. Mandela always emphasizes that the letters give him courage and strength. He only gives in hindsight many depressing moments, for example in the 1980s he complains that there is hardly anyone left to write letters to – many friends are dead or have left the company. ;South Africa.

his family shows him in difficult situations, his mother dies in 1968 – Mandela is not allowed to attend his funeral. In 1969, his wife Winnie Mandela was abducted from her home and spent more than a year in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, both parents did not know how to take care of their children.

Mandela then receives the news that his eldest son died in a car accident. During this time, few visits to prison remained as a consolation – and the letters to be settled are important:

Although most of his letters do not mention Mandela's political views, concerns are the basic policy, especially the treatment of prisoners. Mandela herself is determined to finish her studies. When he graduated in the 1980s, he does not want to practice anymore. His complaints reach high office, he writes, for example, the Minister of Justice.

Later, Mandela is in regular contact with the government to prepare negotiations on the end of apartheid. He is also offered freedom on several occasions: for example, in the mid-1980s, when President Pieter Willem Botha suggested that all political prisoners be released when they renounced the use of force. A maneuver that went through Mandela: He saw that the government was trying at all costs to end the state of emergency and the violent protests against apartheid:

Mandela 's letters are very well prepared. There are notes or a short introductory text to each letter. These provisional texts fill the gaps and explain the context: for example, conditions of detention on Robben Island, hot summers and very cold winters, there were no beds in the first ten years, the prisoners were sleeping on a carpet, only ten years of cold water. In addition, there is an additional register in the book at the end. The collection is thus readable and understandable – an incredible diligence that cost the publisher ten years.

The book is recommended for those who want to revisit Mandela. Due to the many comments, the book is suitable as an introductory text, but also a complement to previous books. Mandela's letters bring answers to the questions that still occupy people today: how did he manage to preserve this attitude in the face of decades of imprisonment? "The prison letters" are certainly a standard work that will be taken next to Mandela's own biography – and where you approach him, as in almost no other book that appears now for the birthday.