A work revealing “a great deal of humour but also poignancy and pain” is how PEN SA’s Khanya Mncwabe described the collection of letters written by Nelson Mandela during his 27 years of imprisonment. Pen SA (a writers’ organisation) joined forces with Random House SA and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation for the South African launch of The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela on 25 July.
I attended the launch of this landmark work, which was published upon the centenary of his birth and which is the only authorised and authenticated collection of correspondences between the late president and his loved ones. Held at The Fugard Theatre in Cape Town‘s historical District Six area, the reading and ensuing discussion revealed a more intimate side of an icon – the man, husband and father who was ever longing for home.
Photo credit: Penguin Random House South Africa
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela is a revealing portrait of a human being who had to play an extraordinary role in history at great personal sacrifice. Edited by noted journalist Sahm Venter with the foreword by Madiba’s granddaughter, Zamaswazi Dlamini-Mandela, it contains letters to then-wife Winnie Madikizela Mandela, his children, fellow compatriots and relatives, often revealing great tenderness and constant worry about their well-being.
During the reading, those in attendance learned of Madiba’s yearnings for his wife’s food, particularly amasi (fermented milk) and his attempts to reconnect with those he left outside – “did you receive my letter February 4th”, “did you receive my letter April 9th”, “you haven’t written to me in a long time”. Also apparent was his enduring hope and belief that the period of separation was not only in vain but necessary – “a new world will be won not by those who stand at a distance with their arms folded, but by those who are in the arena, whose garments are torn by storms and whose bodies are maimed in the course of the contest.”
Photo credit: Jurgen Schadeberg / Getty Images
Award-winning South African writer Nadia Davis addressed the audience and dubbed the book “one of the most important archival writings in our country,” which allows the reader to “understand the depth and breadth of his vision for our country.”
One of the evening’s two discussants Professor Njabulo Ndebele, who is chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation, said the book made him long for the bygone era of letter-writing; “modernity is wonderful but alienating. When you write a letter by hand you get the sense that you have done something with your body… the history of letter writing has gone away.” He also touched on the heartbreak revealed in the letters. “I think one of the things that touched me about Madiba’s writing is this longed for moment of intimacy with Winnie, his dreams of intimate moments they would never have. After 27 years, they were totally different people… existentially, it is impossible to be who you were in mind and body 27 years ago.”
The second discussant Justice Albie Sachs, an activist and former South African Constitutional Court judge, said the book was not only a study of an African man with a “strong sense of family” but a freedom fighter who, even while incarcerated, used the pen to fight back via coded messages embedded in many of the letters that foiled prison censors.
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela is published by Penguin Random House SA and is now available worldwide.
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