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In this image of October 6, 2007, former South African President Nelson Mandela reacts after a meeting at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg. (Peter Dejong / AP)
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, most of them being isolated on Robben Island, off Cape Town, South Africa. His encounters with visitors from the outside world were brief and strictly controlled; He spent much of his time alone, uncertain of his emergence.
But a new collection of Mandela's prison letters shows how the freedom fighter who was to become South Africa's first black president stood on the outside world, even as leaders of apartheid were trying to silence him. " Nelson Mandela's Prison Letters," published by South African journalist Sahm Venter, was published this month and features 255 letters from Mandela – half of which have never been seen publicly before.
a decade in review of Mandela's letters, said in an email to The Washington Post that Mandela's wisdom in his letters was "particularly relevant in today's world, which is experiencing the rise of racism, sexism and xenophobia".
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reveals the personal side of the most famous man in South Africa – a side that Mandela was reluctant to share publicly after his imprisonment and before the publication of his memoir, "Long Walk to Freedom." In prison, Mandela failed to raise his children and buried both his mother and his eldest son, Thembi, who was killed in a car accident in 1969. His correspondence highlights the efforts he has made. deployed to humanize special permission to attend family funerals – applications denied. They also offer a perspective on the pain felt by Mandela when he remained isolated while he was crying his loved ones.
"The feeling of anxiety and depression that had hit me so violently when I received the horrible news of his death came back and began to," he wrote to his wife, Winnie, after a visit from Thoko Mandela, the young widow of his son Thembi, shortly after the death of this 24-year-old man.
Letters to his children also reveal how Mandela tried to be an active father From prison – often coming short While his daughters were young when he was arrested, Mandela approached his family's difficulties head on and did not hesitate to explain where he was and what his incarceration meant. His letters to various family friends expressed concern about how the children were coping, especially after the arrest of Winnie in 1969.
That year, Mandela wrote to his daughters and acknowledged that They would no longer have the comforts of their mothers. "[F] or long, you can live like orphans, "he writes. The letter also revealed his deep agony about Winnie's arrest and his willingness to share this pain with his young children. police cell away from home, perhaps alone and without anyone to talk to, and with nothing to read, "he wrote.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation published a photo of the young Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie (Eli Wienberg / Nelson Mandela Foundation / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock)
In a letter to Winnie herself, he described how, on hearing that she had been imprisoned, her "faculties seemed" to know that She was free, he told her, was part of how he was able to maintain a sense of freedom and joy. "
" One day we will have privacy that will allow us to share tender thoughts that we kept buried in our hearts for eight years, "he wrote, it was June 1969, Winnie Mandela would spend another 15 months in solitary confinement, and Mandela himself would not released before 1990.
The words that Mandela sent to his family reveal a patience and Venter said one of his most unexpected discoveries was "detailed letters to the prison authorities in which he complained about conditions of detention."
In 1970, Mandela asked the commander to reconsider his refusal. honey every month, which Mandela claimed needed for medical purposes. In another, he asked Pond's Cold Cream for his dry skin, complaining of receiving Vaseline. Many of his letters to prison officials included requests for new study documents – he was pursuing a law degree from his cell. A long letter from 1976 describes how he "slept naked on a cement floor that gets wet and cold during the rainy season" for 13 years and needs urgent pajamas, noting that white prisoners have always been pajamas and only black prisoners.
"He was not allowed to write about the conditions of detention or other prisoners in his letters to family and friends," Venter said. "It is through these letters that we can today learn exactly what it was for him and his prison mates."
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