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Nelson Mandela’s posthumous memoir reveals truths about his presidency

Archivist Verne Harris (R) says Nelson Mandela was more than just a symbolic leader.

Archivist Verne Harris (R) says Nelson Mandela was more than just a symbolic leader. Photo: Nelson Mandela Foundation

“I have taken a moment to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back at the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

With these words, Nelson Mandela ended his inspirational and phenomenally successful autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

After serving 27 years in jail, the anti-apartheid hero was, in 1994, on the cusp of becoming South Africa’s first black president and knew he had little time to waste in building a true multi-racial democracy.

The cover of the new book.

Now, 23 years later and four years after Mandela’s death, we’re taken inside those tumultuous years of power with the publication of Long Walk to Freedom‘s keenly anticipated sequel, appropriately titled: Dare Not Linger.

A labour of love

“In 1998 he sat down to write this memoir and he wanted it to be a reflection on both the accomplishments of that first administration but also on the mistakes they made,” says Verne Harris, the director of archives at the Johannesburg-based Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Reflections that were all put down in longhand.

“It was quite a painful process actually because his personal assistant would then type it up and give it to people for comments,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

“Then he would sit down with a clean piece of paper and start from scratch and this is one of the key reasons he ran out of steam and never finished.”

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela in later life. Photo: Getty

Mandela completed 10 chapters of the book before age and ill health caught up with him.

As his widow, Graça Machel, notes in the prologue: “The demands the world placed upon him, distractions of many kinds and his advancing years complicated the project.

“He lost momentum and eventually the manuscript lay dormant, through the last years of his life he talked about it often — worried about work started but not finished.”

The rest of the 359-page tome was finished by prominent South African author Mandla Langa.

Mandela writes candidly about his sometimes-fraught relationship with the man he was to replace as president, FW de Klerk, and his equally strained dealings with his successor, Thabo Mbeki, whose AIDS denialism cost hundreds of thousands of lives, according to a Harvard University study.

‘Pick a younger president’

The book also gives us Mandela’s thoughts as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission examined apartheid-era crimes and covers his attempts to re-establish South Africa as a respected member of the international community.

In his typical self-deprecating style, Mandela writes about how he came to the presidency with some reluctance.

“My installation as the first democratically elected president of the Republic of South Africa was imposed on me against my advice.”

“I advised against the decision on the grounds that I would turn 76 that year, that it would be wise to get a far younger person, male or female, who had been out of prison, and met heads of state and government.”

Nelson Mandela lifts the World Cup trophy in Zurich

Nelson Mandela with FIFA’s World Cup trophy. Photo: Getty

Mandela’s compromise was to make it clear, shortly after his election, that he would serve only one term in the job — a promise he duly kept.

Verne Harris, who in his role of archivist had many encounters with Mandela, said the new book made it very clear the new president was more than a figurehead with a dazzling smile.

“The myth is that he was a symbolic leader, that he focused on reconciliation, but actually he was a chief executive and he could be very hands-on in particular areas of governance,” Mr Harris said.

“He could micromanage and drive his colleagues nuts actually.”
Prone to dark moods

Harris is also keen to remind us one of the most towering political figures of the 20th century was all too human and could actually be quite moody.

Nelson Mandela stood head and shoulders above every leader of his generation, writes his biographer, John Carlin.

“For me, he was someone who was deeply reflective. He had a great calm about him. He enjoyed teasing,” he said.

“If he was in a bad space, if he was angry with someone, or his day was cluttered with visitors then I wouldn’t get to see him.

“But I was given space when he was able to engage and was in a good space, a good mood and so on, so I was lucky.

“It wasn’t a great experience when he was angry. He would get very silent and you got frozen out.”

The warts-and-all account of Mandela’s presidency may not scale the publishing heights of Long Walk to Freedom, and there may not be another screen turn by Idris Elba or Morgan Freeman, but it nonetheless gives us all a fascinating insight into the intense pressures faced by a man who made it all seem so effortless.

-ABC 

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