Nelson Mandela's prison letters: "One day, I'll be back home"

Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013, would have been 100 on Wednesday. A new book came out to mark the occasion, Nelson Mandela's Prison Letters

These deeply personal letters, much to his wife, his children and his closest friends, did not never been published before. were compiled by Sahm Venter, lead researcher at the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Born in Johannesburg, Venter worked as a journalist for 20 years, reporting on South Africa and his struggles against apartheid. She and I worked together at the Associated Press in 1990 when Mandela was released from 27 years in prison.

Venter recently spoke to NPR about the book. These interview highlights were edited for length and clarity.

Nelson Mandela has never liked talking about personal matters. When you asked him these kinds of questions, he was still leading the conversation elsewhere. What did you learn from him with these letters?

There was so much going on in prison that was devastating to him. The separation of his children, the death of his mother, the death of his son. So, I do not think it could be kept.

What did he say after losing his mother, and then a year later, his eldest son?

He wrote to family members to bury them [his mother] to go to the funeral, to take care of all the things that he should have taken care of as the son.

His son Tembi was killed in a car accident in July 1969 and he said that he asked permission to go to his funeral. Not only was he denied, but [prison authorities] did not even write to tell him that it was denied.

People who were in jail with him said that he was very calm. He sat down in his cell and he wrapped a blanket extremely tightly around his shoulders, I guess almost like a missing hug, and sat quietly there as long as he could.

Mandela had two daughters with Winnie Mandela and they were just 3 and 1 years old when he went to jail. They did not even have the right to see him until the age of 16, so the only way he could really be a parent was through his letters.

He had to try to be a distant father, and I guess when [the girls] was really small, they would read small pieces. And then, when they were older, they were allowed to write letters and receive them.

Zindzi, his youngest daughter, visited him from the age of 16. Later, when they had a contact visit, she could not believe He was great because all the time she could visit him, he was sitting, and she did not realize how big he was.

I'd like you to read one of the letters that he wrote to his daughters, starting in 1969. So they were maybe 10 or 11 years old at the time .

"Zindzi says that his heart is painful because I'm not at home and I want to know when I'll come back." Dear children, when I come back, you will remember that in the letter that I wrote in 1966, I told you that the white judge said that I should stay in jail for the rest of my life Nobody knows when it will be, not even the judge who said I should be kept here but I'm sure that One day I will be back home to live in happiness with you until the end of my days. "

Sahm, you work at the Mandela Foundation so that you have access to its documents. But these very private letters were scattered everywhere. How did you track them down?

There are a large number of letters to the National Archives [of South Africa] that received them after the passage of apartheid. They kept boxes and boxes of all his prison records.

There were also letters from what we called the Donald Card Collection, named after a policeman who had them

In 1971, these three hardcover notebooks [Mandela] to write copies of his letters, suddenly disappeared from Mandela's cell at Robben Island [prison].

Nobody knew where they were until 2004, when this former police officer contacted the Nelson Mandela Foundation and said, "I have these books. He said that it had been given to them for care by someone at one point. But he then gave them to Nelson Mandela

What was your most surprising discovery in these letters?

There was a letter in one of the prison boxes. It was a beautiful letter written to his daughter Zindzi, probably for his 18th or 19th birthday, and his birthday is in December. And he was clearly never sent. There was a note from prison officials saying, "The prisoner is not allowed to send a letter with a Christmas card." So they just did not send it. I contacted Zindzi and told him about it. She had no idea about it. So, all these years later, she received her letter.

Several years after Mandela was released from prison, he returned to Robben Island where he was detained for so many years. You went with him. What did he tell you during this visit?

I was fascinated by the fact that every afternoon, at 3:30 pm, they locked the doors and the prisoners were in those cells until about 5:30 the next morning. So I asked him, "What did he do when he was locked up like that every day?" And he said, "I read and wrote letters."

So he devoted a lot of time and effort to these letters. They were beautifully written full of details and basically he poured out his heart.

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