Mandela Reflects, Conversations with Myself

Mandela Reflects, Conversations with Myself

What has been described as Mandela's last and definitive biography before he goes whereever he goes was made public on October 12.Conversations with Myself, a book written by Verne Harris, an archivist at the Mandela Foundation with the help of a team of archivists, editors and collaborators with materials such as notes, letters, recorded materials, amongst others. Mandela, the 92 year old South African former president’s new book throws up the psychological conflicts in humans just like in James Joyce’s Portrait of a Youngman as an Artist.
Conversation with Myself reveals the human frailties and the pains of sacrifice of Anthi-Aparthed Hero. The Book is a huge deviation from the brave and saintly tone in Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela's 1995 autobiography. Long Walk to Freedom was reported to have been used to elevate Anti-Aparthied Activists to new roles as South-African leaders and to unite the white South-Africans with the Black ones. Conversations with Myself, seem contrary with the 1995 autobiography as Mandela reavels "My installation as the first democratically elected President of the Republic of South Africa was imposed on me much against my own advice," saying he would have wanted a younger person to be the first president of the Country.
In Conversations with Myself, Mandela reveals his frustration of not spending time with his children due to the several imprisonments at the behest of the Anti-Apartheid Struggle."I find it difficult to believe that I will never see thembi again. On February 23 this year he turned 24. I had seen him towards the end of July 1962 a few days after I had returned from a trip
abroad. Then he was a lusty lad of 17 that I could never associate with death...I was deeply touched for the emotional factors underlying his action were too obvious. For days thereafter my mind and feelings were agitated to realize the psychological strains and stresses my absence from home had imposed on the children." This was an excerpt from the book, originally a letter written to his then-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, after he was informed of the death of his eldest son, thembi, in a car accident in 1969.
There is no doubt that Mandela did not only lose his youthful gait but also his relationship with children, for his activism. Mandela says in his new book that "I never was one, even on the basis of an earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying." He also talks about his many divorces, first with Evelyn Ntoko Mase was troublous as she never supported his activism while his marriage and was reportedly froth with scences of violence. His second marriage to Winnie Madikizela came crashing in 1992, two years after he came of 27 years in prison for sabotage and attempted coup plot against the Aparthied government.
All of Mandela’s life is not full of sadness, as one may be wont to think. Conversations with Myself also recalls the humour that has not left Madiba. He also reveals that he was offered up to 1 million rand ($145,500) for a picture of himself by a magazine shortly before his release,"So I refused, and poor, you know to be poor is a terrible thing," Mandela said. The romantic yearnings of Mandela towards Winne are also sources of inspiration for lovers, "my sleeping without you next to me and my waking up without you close to me, the passing of the day without my having seen you".
Barrack Obama, sums it all in the forward he wrote in Conversations with Myself, "By offering us this full portrait, Nelson Mandela reminds us that he has not been a perfect man. Like all of us, he has his flaws. But it is precisely those imperfections that should inspire each and every one of us,". Obama says in the foreword tha his full portraiture makes him gain a high respect for Madiba.