Oh this rating makes me feel bad. Three stars means 'I liked it!' I just don't think autobiographies are for me. Nelson Mandela was a great man, and I'm glad I know more about him, but this was not super engaging for me, even in audiobook.

The audiobook, by the way, is a good one. The narrator, Michael Boatman, is from South Africa, so he can do all the clicks and glottal stops that Mandela's native tongue of Xhosa requires. His voice is soothing and he reads the book clearly and with character.

It's just, I really think this from childhood to just before death autobiography thing is incredibly dull. I don't even know why I think that, but looking back to other autobiographies I've read, there are very few that I don't feel similarly about (Michelle Obama's being maybe the only exception I can think of). In general, even great men like Nelson Mandela, aren't super able to tell what exactly about their own life story is compelling, and there's either too much detail about things I don't care about, or not enough detail on any of it, and it's all just glossed over. I prefer memoirs where there is much more focus on several moments or areas of a person's life, or biographies, where an an objective author can curate what is worth learning about and what isn't.

I know that if I tried to write my autobiography, it would be a bust (not least because almost nothing of note has ever happened to me) because I would be like, I gotta include this! And this! And I said this super cute thing when I was three! And meanwhile, my audience is like, this is boring, you're not cute. Mandela's book doesn't have any of those moments, but I feel as if he did. If that makes any sense at all.

Anyway, I know I'm basically alone in this, and nearly everyone else loves this book, so please don't take my word for it. Go read the reviews of people who actually like autobiographies and take theirs instead. Or give it a try despite reviews. Who cares, you do you.

Read Harder Challenge 2021: Read a book by/about a non-Western world leader.

Nelson Mandela's "Long Walk to Freedom" is what an autobiography should look and feel like. This book took me into the personal life of Mandela, his struggles, his accomplishments, his joy, anger, pain but most of all, his resounding accomplishments.

I am in awe of this man's personal strength and how resolute he was in his fight for freedom. I experienced so many emotions while reading this book. Mandela is clearly the embodiment of what a hero looks like.

I loved every moment of this book. It is a marathon read, but once you finish this book you would have learned so much about Mandela and yourself.

A MUST READ.

I learned (as if I didn't already know) that I am one slack m*^&rf&*ker, and this is the perfect book to read if you need some motivation to get off your ass and/or get over yourself.

There are also a lot of fascinating things about his story that i didn't know -he grew up literally barefoot in the bush, bailed on being a tribal councilor and ran away from home, and a lot of interesting ins and outs of how african consciousness developed in SA the 60s and 70s, plus tips on how to keep yourself motivated and entertained if you ever end up in jail. Considering the current state of this country this could turn out to be very useful info if we all wind up in gitmo! :)

Overall I'd say enlightening, inspiring, interesting.

Inspiring!

inspiring, inspiring... and inspiring....plus he can write man! Now I am a true fan of education and power of literature, language!
The man who can think, talk, empower, and live his life dedicated to a one simple goal, what a life :)
The woman who can think, support, encourage, and share her life for a brighter future :)
The people who can think, listen, believe, and walk their way together :)

A leader is not a man with a vision but a man with heart and I am impressed by his friends, wife, and family. It was a great reminder good to think about how shameful it is that we forgot about all those people who supported, struggled, died fighting for the case and how much we tend to love just one single figure instead, the leader.

was a long read to finish :P but was utterly inspired :)

Not only was this a detailed retelling of Mandela's life, but the telling in such a literary way with cliffhangers and suspense made it truly enjoyable.

Mandela's biography shows the extreme cost and hardship cast upon the lives of the oppressed in their fight for their freedom.

The South African state is racist, vindictive and violent in its assault on the lives of black people in South Africa. Mandela and the African National Congress fight for a nonracial government where there is one person, one vote. The struggle's evolution through civil disobedience to armed struggle to negotiation is captivating and difficult to imagine how so many people refused to stand down against such terrifying odds.

There are two sides to every story but in this there are many competing sides with the African National Congress within the black population. The racist-apartheid government stokes division throughout the decades in their determination to hold on to power.

His inner thoughts about the difficulty of never being with his family and whether the price he paid was worth what he was doing are omnipresent throughout the story.

The walk to freedom was long and as he notes at the end, his walk is not over. All over the world his inspiring life ensure that oppressed people everywhere continue his walk to freedom in their own way.

Regardless of one's political views toward Mandela, I believe that the Long Walk to Freedom paints as objective a picture as possible about the man, his cause, and his opinions. Recognize that I readily acknowledge that this is a memoir. Mandela is writing about himself, so one can understand that much of what he writes is colored through the lens of personal subjectivity. However, Mandela wrote about his changing opinion toward passive resistance, terrorism, and aggressive action. He was of two minds about the morality of aggressive terroristic actions.

The memoir begins with Mandela as a boy, detailing observations that informed his worldview toward his country and continent, specifically, but then the world at large. Mandela communicates specific aspects of his education, the people he met, and the family he initiated with his wife. He documents his regrets for having chosen the family of African nations over his own blood, divorcing two wives and fathering four from those wives.

He tells how he was incensed at how the strategy of passive resistance seemed to fail to such an extent that he considered the ideas of aggression as possibly a more effective strategy. Regardless, he was in jail a long time for both things he did and for things he allowed others to accuse him of doing. Of course, we will never know if those terrorist acts were really something he actively engaged in or simply allowed the assigned blame.

Whatever the case, the memoir is compelling, with plenty of opportunities to react emotionally, and some interesting footnotes regarding African history. I came away impressed at the life led, at the tireless drive to do more, and breathe free. Great read. In addition, this year, I have decided to add twelve stories to my "black voices, black stories" shelf. Long Walk to Freedom is the sixth of those twelve books.

Isn't it funny how death has a cleansing power that can turn hypocrites to heroes, conspirators of murder and terrorism into Nobel Peace Prize laureates?

I see all these 5-star reviews lauding him as an exemplary human being. And I have to wonder if I read the same book as everyone else, because the book I read had Mandela speaking numerous times about the validity of terrorism. It also had a section where Mandela talked about founding Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), a paramilitary group known for taking violent action against their political enemies, actions such as: planting bombs in public areas, murder, executing prisoners without due process, and burying landmines in rural areas frequented by black laborers.

Many of these executions were by necklacing: the practice of execution and torture carried out by forcing a rubber tire, filled with petrol, around a victim's chest and arms, and setting it on fire. The victim may take up to twenty minutes to die. Sometimes the victim is lucky, and their head burns off before they suffer too much.

I'm tempted to post a picture. Look it up yourself if you want nightmares.

Most people will say Mandela didn't support these levels of violence; he only advocated the "nice" kind of terrorism, the kind that makes heroic speeches. All the while claiming to be nonviolent, does anyone really need to say this guy is completely full of shit?

"By any means necessary." Malcolm X

"The ends are preexistent in the means." Martin Luther King

As a bonus, I'm including a picture of another man who bombs civilians and was subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In my best Marlon Brando voice: The irony...the irony...

‘Long Walk to Freedom’ by Nelson Mandela is not only an excellent autobiography, it is a historical document of how the governance of South Africa was returned to all of its people. Although economic benefits remain mostly in White hands, Black and Coloured people have been able to move into areas of governance and education and financial opportunities once forbidden to anyone of color. Economic disparities appear to be more about corruption and tribal rivalries rather than racial divisions today, in my humble opinion. However, my opinion is formed by reading, so if you, gentle reader, are from South Africa, please comment and correct me.

I have copied the cover blurb because it is accurate:

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country.

Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in a Jewish firm in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s.

He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He recounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account.


I am old enough to have been alive during the period of time when Mandela was released from prison in 1990. Although I followed the news about the dismantling of the awful policy of apartheid in South Africa in American media with much interest, I did not know anything about Mandela or much about his long fight for the rights of Black South Africans. This autobiography helped a great deal in enlightening me.

My reaction in finishing his autobiography? WOW! Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years! Most of those years were in terrible prisons. Some of the guards and prison administrators were determined to harm their Black prisoners as much as they could get away with. Yet he retained his reason and his political belief in inclusive policies.

Readers may not agree with some of his choices and policies as he describes in the book, but all must surely admire him for his tenacity and fortitude. Besides doing everything he could to hang on to his dignity and sense of self-worth despite the most terrible degradations and lack of control over his surroundings and physical treatment, he never lost his overall sense of being fair and just in all things.

I am flabbergasted by the many twists and turns of Nelson Mandela’s career. Of course he lost his temper and made mistakes. Of course he sometimes wanted vengeance more than making peace. Of course he changed some of his thinking about racism and politics over six decades of activism. Of course, this book probably leaves out the worst things he and others did. He was a politician and he wanted to leave a record of what happened that readers could take strength from and be heartened. But even his enemies must look at the results of his leadership overall and acknowledge in the end he miraculously led South Africa into scrapping apartheid as an official policy. However, the country still has many many problems and still yet has a lot of leftover grief and injustice. But those issues are for another writer to explore. This book is how a Black man helped move an African country away from its full-frontal racist policies by being someone everyone could accept as a trusted negotiator - a huge accomplishment for a country with at least 26 different political groups who wanted a piece of South Africa for themselves.

Quoted from the book:

"When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning."

I finished reading this book as our plane settled on the tarmac in Capetown. Later we visited Mandela's cell on Robbin Island. It was a very emotional connection to a great man.

Long Walk to Freedom

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter, I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.

Nelson Mandela

This remarkable autobiography was penned in 1994 several years after apartheid ended and Mandela was elected South Africa’s President. This is much more of a history book than a typical autobiography. And it is a notably humble portrayal. I can’t think of any world figures who’ve had a greater influence on the world in my lifetime — and there are few events in recent times as important as the end of apartheid.

This is a long review and has some spoilers for those who do not know much of Mandela’s history.


In 1918 Rolilhalha “Nelson” Mandela was born in the small rural village of Mbezo along the Mbashe River in South Africa. He was given his Christian name - Nelson - at the age of seven after his mother sent him away to the Methodist school. After what he called a ‘mischievous’ childhood, Mandela would eventually go on to law school and begin a career as a lawyer and political activist for the African National Congress.

For all but last the few years of the 20th century, South Africa was a minority rule British colony. Black Africans could not officially even own property. As landowners the Dutch descended Afrikaners also wielded power, even though they had lost the Second Boer War to the British at the turn of the century.

Much of the wealth in the country came from the gold and diamond mines. The most dangerous jobs in the mines were filled by Black Africans. Mandela himself even worked in the mines briefly. The political situation for Black Africans became even more dire following WW II when the feared Afrikaners filled the ruling class vacuum after Great Britain retreated from many of her colonies including South Africa.

As a ringleader of revolts and with some communist party affiliations the ANC slowly began to diverge from the pacifist ways of Ghandi. Mandela was convicted of various treasonous crimes around organizing and advocating civil rights— today these crimes would barely warrant a few nights in jail. Instead Mandela would spend a total of twenty-seven years in prison, most of his years were on Robben Island and in Johannesburg Prison — where Gandhi had been jailed some three decades earlier for the same crime of organizing protesters and revolutionaries.

Upon his release in 1993, Mandela was elected as South Africa’s first African president, capturing 63% of the vote and served until 1999, bringing South Africa through a very difficult period. Mandela died in Johannesburg in 2013 - one of the 20th century’s most important figures.

The content is broken into eleven parts.

Part One - A Country Childhood - 4.5 stars

In this section, that Mandela wrote while in prison, we see more focus on the natural surroundings than in any other chapter. We learn of the hills and streams in the veld that he wandered through as a child and the village of huts where everyone slept on the ground. He spent many years in Qunu where he stated he spent the ‘happiest years of my boyhood’. His father was a local chief but when he refused to show deference to a British magistrate he lost his land. Eventually, after his father dies penniless, young Nelson is raised by a more prominent chief and Nelson is educated at the Methodist school. Very few people in his village were literate, so this education gives him a real advantage even in divided South Africa. He then attends college at Fort Hare, the only institution of higher learning for Black Africans in South Africa. It is here that he learns about the African National Congress which will shape much of his life trajectory.

Part Two - Johannesburg - 3.5 stars

Mandela studies law at the University of Witwatersrand and learns even more about class distinction and discrimination. This is during the second world war. He makes many friends including Indian students, who are also heavily discriminated against. They are fighting for many of the same rights that Gandhi had fought for in South Africa some thirty years earlier. Very short section. I thought it could have been contained with the next section.

Part Three - Birth of a Freedom Fighter - 4 stars

Mandela begins his law practice and becomes a key figure in the ANC. When the Dutch Afrikaners win the election after World War II, apartheid begins and Mandela and his friends become very concerned about the future of the country.

Part Four - The Struggle is My Life - 4.5 stars

Mandela fights for liberation and delivers many speeches. He and the ANC are affiliating with the Communist party and the Indian Congress. He organizes national boycotts. The ANC and Mandela become enemy number one and the Afrikaner government passes numerous anti-sedition laws. Riots and government massacres become more commonplace.

Part Five - Treason - 5 stars

On December 5, 1956 Mandela is arrested at his home outside of Johannesburg in front of his children. The charge is high treason. One hundred and fifty six Africans are arrested. Mandela is transferred to the Johannesburg Prison and eventually released on bail. It takes the government three years to try the case. Meanwhile many protests, conflicts and massacres shake the country.

In 1959, the Sharpeville massacre kills sixty-nine Africans and wounded 400. The police panicked when protestors surrounded the station and fired over 700 bullets. The government is on edge.

Eventually the court rules that the prosecution had failed to prove that the ANC had acquired or adopted a policy to overthrow the state by violence. Mandela and others are acquitted but not vindicated.

Part Six - The Black Pimpernel - 4.5 stars

Mandela goes underground as he expects the government to charge him with different crimes. He travels to other African countries, learns about their progress toward independence. He also accepts money for the South Africa branch of the ANC. He learns about guerrilla warfare. Although he does not participate in any of these revolutions, he learns and writes about the organizational aspects of revolutions. This is what lands him in hot water — again.

Part Seven - Rivonia 4 stars

In August 1962 Mandela is taken into custody when he returns to South Africa. He is again charged with treason and this time the government has evidence. His private papers indicate the ANC is plotting a revolution. He admits to some of the charges around sabotage not treason. It is not a lengthy trial and although the death penalty is in play, the world’s eyes are on the case. In November Nelson and his compatriots are convicted and Judge Quartus de Wet, concerned about the negative attention, spares Nelson’s and the others lives with a sentence of life in prison. The prisoners are relieved as they know there is a chance that they will eventually be freed. They had no idea of how long they would end up waiting.

Part Eight - Robben Island: The Dark Years - 5 stars.

Now sentenced as a man in his forties, Mandela is assigned to serve his time at Robben Island near Capetown. This prison becomes a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. Despite the harsh conditions and forced labor in the rock quarry, Mandela makes many friends amongst his fellow inmates. He also uses his fame to avoid some of the worst abuses and debasement from the prison guards. Despite his age these are formative years for Mandela and his resolve only hardens.

Part Nine - Robben Island: Beginning to Hope 4.5 stars.

Over time some of the harshest measures at Robben Island are removed but prisoners are still banned from reading any newspapers. Instead the rumors of the unrest in South Africa and anti-apartheid views around the world filter into the prison through visitors and even guards. This gives the prisoners hope. In 1982 Mandela and several of his compatriots are told they are being moved to Pollsmoor Prison outside of Cape Town.


Part Ten - Talking with the Enemy 5 stars.

Pollsmoor Prison is more modern than Robben Island, but it lacks the beauty of Robben Island. Mandela had just spent the previous nineteen years of his life there and leaving is difficult for him. At Pollsmoor the prisoners are connected to outside events and are allowed to read newspapers. A lot of civil unrest is happening in South Africa including bombings connected to a more radical group called MK and in turn radical right wing groups affiliated with the ruling party are sending mail bombs to anti-apartheid activists. By the late eighties, the prison captain and warden take Mandela for drives out into the countryside and treat him somewhat respectfully, as if to assess his mental state and prepare him for release into society. Of course the first time this happens, Mandela does not know if they mean to kill him or trick him into escaping as he was still a prisoner. In 1987 Mandela is diagnosed with tuberculosis that he picks up in prison and the prison officials became very concerned. They bring in medical professionals from the government and transfer him to Cape Town where he was quickly operated on him and receives the best medical care. When de Klerk takes over in 1990, Mandela is brought into private discussions with the government around apartheid.

Part Eleven - Freedom 5 stars

This was a chapter where Mandela shows a great deal of restraint and humility. This chapter is a little rushed — the later events happen just months before the book is published. Mandela by this time has millions of followers in South Africa and around the world so the pressures are great on the government to release the political prisoners. In January 1990 President Botha, an avowed racist and adversary of majority rule government, resigns due to illness but the speculation is that he recognizes which way the country is headed. By the next month February 2 1990, the new President de Klerk signs an agreement officially ending apartheid in South Africa which had been in place since 1948. Nine days later de Klerk releases Mandela from prison and wipes his record clean. Mandela does not want to be released from prison until he can make arrangements to say goodbye to everyone. De Klerk refuses but does remove the ban on the ANC and other political groups and allows Mandela to return to Cape Town City Hall and the Grand Parade. Mandela addresses a crowd in excess of 100,000 people. Many including Mandela’s driver are overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. Mandela tells him not to panic as they weave through the raucous crowds to City Hall where he gives his famous speech on freedom and unity.

Even though they are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly, Mandela doesn’t much care for de Klerk and in the later presidential debate in 1994 — de Klerk now his opponent — Mandela acknowledges the debt of gratitude he owes de Klerk and says they will get through this together. This is a brilliant strategic move and once more Mandela is seen as a unifier. A month later in May 1994, Mandela is elected President of South Africa with nearly 63% of the popular vote. De Klerk later serves as his deputy. All told this chapter could have been much longer, but the good news is that every sentence is a moment in history.

Overall the pacing in this book is quite even. The last four chapters including the prison years, were easily the most captivating for me. I was struck by how many words and photographs in the book were about Mandela’s friends from prison. There is a poignant picture of Mandela and his friend Walter Sisulu standing together as old men - they are smiling and giving the Afrika salute. They had spent over two decades in prison together fighting apartheid and Mandela never forgot this time.

5 stars. Highly recommended.

Reading this as a 27 yr old and knowing Mandela spent 27 years behind bars as a political prisoner, my perceptions of time (in particular, "a lifetime") seem utterly inadequate. Alas, this book ends in 1994, so Mandela's presidency and South Africa's national reconciliation process are not included here, so many questions that need to be answered elsewhere...

What a book,what a Man and what a legacy.

All the way from Qunu in the Transkei.I should say the narrative of Tata Madiba was engaging and very informative.

His commitment to the liberation struggle was so inspiring, from a peaceful approach to violence with the formation of 'uMkhonto we Sizwe.'

Resolving not to appeal whatever judgement was going to be passed after being charged with Treason for the sake of the struggle was mind-blowing.

One of his lowest point was after his biological mother came to visit at Robben Island and He got concerned that she looked so frail.
"My mother suddenly seemed very old." And for the first time He questioned himself about how life would have been for her,had he not committed his life to the struggle.After that visit He later learned of her passing.He tried to get permission from the prison authority so that he could attend the funeral but was denied.
"A mothers death causes a man to look back and evaluate his own life."
Later he was informed about the incarceration of his beloved wife.
"There was nothing I found so agonizing in prison as the thought that Winnie was in prison too."
As if all this misfortune was not enough the demise of his first born son Thembi left him gutted after receiving a telegram about his passing.Once again the prison authority could allow him to attend the funeral.

I always read books objectively and control of the emotions but I couldn't stop shedding a tear in sympathy to such experiences.

He was not a religious Man however his attitude towards keeping hope alive during the dark years at Robben Island was so inspiring.He kept improving himself with the pursuit of knowledge through studying and reading of both academia and novels.Not forgetting the small victories he won against prison authority to improve the conditions of his fellow prisoners.

Then came his transfer from Robben Island where he had spent 18years to Pollsmoor Prison.
"Compared to Robben Island,we were in a five star hotel."He was then later separated from his comrades.
"On the ride back,Brigadier Munro said to me in a casual way,as though he were simply making conversation,'Mandela we are not taking you back to your friends now."
"Upon my return to Pollsmoor I was taken to a new cell on the ground floor of the prison."

"Why had the state taken this step?"

In his conclusion it was a time to begin discussions with the government.
"The time had come when the struggle could best be pushed forward through negotiations."

At this point and for the first time I disagreed that Tata Madiba was going to embark on negotiations alone, against a panel of four individuals representing the apartheid regime.
Coetsee the Minister of Justice,Willemse the commissioner of prisons,Van der Merwe the Director general of prisons Department and last but not the least Dr Bernard, Director of SA Intelligence who was also a protege of B.W. Botha.
It was four against one individual He didn't reveal much of what was discussed in those clandestine meetings.
When He later had the opportunity to meet his comrades, they equally showed
concern as I did.
"I hope you know what you're doing" echoed Walter Sisulu.

It is from here where most people suggest that it was when Mandela "sold out" and the points are valid.
However we cannot take away the sacrifices and life long commitment he made towards the struggle.
This is a Man who had run his race and in closing said,

"The truth is that we are not yet free;we have merely archived the freedom to be free,the right not be oppressed.We have not taken the final step of our journey,but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road."