The letter N stands for "Negotiator," a skill that went far toward freeing Mandela from what had been a lifelong sentence to Robben Island. He became indispensable as his homeland erupted into violence when the people's requests went unheeded. This most excellent of all the entries (in my opinion) recounts crucial history.
ANC fellows, who believed that no problem lacked a solution, became a "nation of negotiators" when the Apartheid government had had its fill of unstoppable violence from the huge minority they could not quell. The "negotiated revolution," was led by the formerly "fierce" and "Socratic" law student whom twenty-seven and a half years of prison had refined into this man of so many names and qualities (another passage lists the many names he answered to, pp. 203-4). One of the few photographs in the book, of Mandela giving "his first speech as a freed man in Cape Town, February 11, 1990," is placed within these center pages of the text.
In the heart of the book, then, occurs the key to the country's peace and well being: Negotiating, domestic diplomacy. Only the "Zuid-Afrika to .za" chapter occupies more pages. When all else failed, those on the other side of the bars had to reach in for salvation. In this context, see also "Diplomat."
R stands for "Recognition," which Mandela, one of "the most recognized names and faces in the world," desires only in the form of "the changed circumstances of people, in improved lives, in freedom and the ability of people everywhere to enjoy the freedom they have gained." But U is for "Unknown"--"the more that is known about Nelson Mandela, the harder it is to identify the real person behind the different roles and personas," there are so many.
Many are the essays that obviously encompass parts of Madiba's life story, including "Youth," "Jailed, "Love and Loss," "Militant," and "Onward." Others involve some of the character traits that defined the man ("Forgiveness") and what he was up against ("Kafkaesque"). Twenty-six essays comprise a succinct and at the same time momentous dossier, compressed even more in the back matter as "Chronology" and "Postscript for "Learners.'" There is also a list of recommended readings. In the Postscript ("learners" is the word South Africans use for "students"), among the "Six Lessons from Nelson Mandela" and further to the essay "Diplomat," occurs lesson number four, that one must understand one's enemy in the process of attempting to defeat them: "[Mandela] had to learn to speak Afrikaans, and win over people who feared him."
We are privileged to have, paired, Madiba A to Z with Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (which I saw at a sneak preview on Wednesday and very highly recommend) at a time when this last surviving twentieth-century protagonist still shares space with this world (I group Mandiba with Einstein, Gandhi, and MLK).
Beyond that there are three more words: "Thank you, Danny."
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