Sincerely, Nelson
Mandela’s letters from prison, which have been published as a book, give insight into his heart,
THE tall, larger-thanlife political leader and freedom fighter Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is quoted around the world.
From his captivating words during the Rivonia trial in Pretoria in 1963/4, to his first speech as a free man at the Grand Parade in 1990, Mandela’s every word, just like his every move, is well documented.
His autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and many other biographies, authorised and unauthorised, have all given a glimpse into the life of the world-renowned leader.
But it is the letters he wrote to those outside his prison cell that give a vivid view of the man he was. His sense of humour, his ability to convey his feelings on paper and his yearning to be with the people he loved, show just how he was, first, a human being.
The letters have been compiled in a new book, The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela, which was launched this week in commemoration of the centenary of his birth.
The book is edited by former journalist Sahm Venter, with a foreword by one of Mandela’s granddaughters, Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela.
The letters were written while he was held in the Pretoria Local Prison, Robben Island, Pollsmoor and Victor Verster prisons over 27 years.
In some, he appeals to prison authorities for help and expresses frustration at the disregard his correspondence meets; in others he comforts and encourages family members and comrades.
As a law student at the University of London while imprisoned on Robben Island, Mandela often needed books which sometimes never reached him. In a letter dated February 27, 1967, he expresses frustration at the prison commanding officer for delays in the delivery of his study materials when he had an examination to prepare for.
In another letter, on November 30, 1964, he asks for an examination entry form and a sum of R16 to be sent to the British Embassy by the closing date. Mandela asks for permission to borrow money from fellow prisoner Ahmed Kathrada, which was declined by prison authorities.
His tenacity and determination not to despair when faced with opposition come through in his writing.
As a father, husband and brother, he expressed his feelings freely.
To his first wife, and mother of four of his children, Evelyn Mase, Mandela wrote comforting words when their son, Thembekile, was killed in a car crash.
Mase, a nurse, and Mandela were married in 1944.
In the letter, dated July 16, 1969, Mandela says he was informed of Thembi’s death by a commanding officer at Robben Island who received a telegram informing him of the news. He expresses condolences to Mase and Thembi’s siblings, Makgatho and Makaziwe.
Thembi was the second child Mase had lost; Mandela wrote speaking of the first daughter the couple had, Makaziwe, who died as a child.
Their second daughter was also named Makaziwe. She is the only surviving child of the couple after Makgatho died of Aids-related illnesses in 2005.
Mandela speaks fondly of his son and how proud of him he is. He also reveals his understanding of how difficult it must have been for Mase to lose a second child.
Mandela writes that before the accident, he had looked forward to seeing his son again.
“In 1967, I wrote him a long letter drawing his attention to some matters which I thought it was in his interest to attend to without delay,” Mandela writes, adding: “I looked forward to his response and to meeting him and his family when I returned.”
“The blow has been equally grievous to me in addition to the fact that I had not seen him for at least sixty months. I was neither privileged to give him a wedding ceremony nor to lay him to rest…
“I last saw him five years ago during the Rivonia Trial and I always looked forward to his accounts for they were the main channel through which I was able to hear something of him,” the letter reads.
“All these expectations have now been completely shattered for he has been taken away at the early age of 24 and we will never again see him. We should all be consoled and comforted by the fact that he had many good friends,” he wrote to his former wife.
His letters to his second wife, Winnie Madikizela, with whom he had two daughters, Zenani and Zindziswa, seem to have ended not at a loss for words but at the end of paper.
The salutation in these letters noticeably varies from “Darling” to “Dade wethu” (sister) with a tone of a loving husband and a comrade at the same time.
“I write to warn you in time of what lies ahead, to enable you to prepare yourself both physically and spiritually to take the full force of the merciless blows that I feel certain will be directed systematically at you from the beginning to the end of the trial,” he writes in November 1969 before Winnie, a freedom fighter herself, was to appear in court for a charge of sabotage in December of the same year.
Mandela died in December 2013. He would have been 100 years old on Wednesday.
Lala ngoxolo, Madiba.