On May 28, 2013, Nelson Mandela was hospitalized and the whole world was at his bedside. That same day, I was about to valiantly climb Mount Royal. I had tightened my laces and adjusted my headphones, I was even a little intimidated at the idea of entering the privacy of this great man, my idol!
The show Ideas from CBC, which I was about to listen to, had the wonderful idea to present The Mandela Tapes, 50 minutes of interviews taken from the 50 hours of recording kept in Johannesburg, like a national treasure, by the archivists of the Nelson Mandela Center for Memory. Ideas is the first radio show in the world to have had full access to this exceptional testimony.
From 1992 and 1996, the journalist Rick Stengle followed Mandela with his small cassette machine to capture the comments that would be used to write Long Walk to Freedom, the autobiography of the founder of the new South Africa.
The context for these recordings was very tense. Mandela was coming out of 27 years in prison, he was at the head of an organization (the ANC) which had just been legalized. The men of the ANC were drafting the constitution and preparing for the elections which would sweep away the apartheid system. Mandela knew he was in danger of being murdered at any time …
Yet every morning, between 6 a.m. and 6.30 a.m., for two years, Mandela religiously lent himself to this exercise. He understood the importance of making his biography a legacy and a source of inspiration for younger generations all over the world.
In his own words, he tells us about his life as we have never heard it before:
“UMNTU”, he takes the time to pronounce well: “OUUUM TU”. A concept of empathy at the heart of Mandela’s thought, which means that a being is only human thanks to other humans. In South African culture, he explains, people only trust a leader if they feel they can share their feelings and their way of seeing things. “It’s spiritual and emotional; it is not just political. In short, it is a matter of constantly putting yourself in the shoes of others. We therefore understand why the ego did not have a big place in the life of the one we affectionately called Madiba!
Mandela recounts parts of his childhood, such as the anecdote of his circumcision, which will mark him forever. This immemorial nocturnal ceremony took place in the forest and had the function of teaching boys the art of mastering their fears and forging a warrior’s mind. After having undergone the ablation test, the circumcised had to ignore his pain and go and bury his foreskin, shouting: “I am a man!” ”
Fear, he will also get rid of it when he returns to prison.
He explains to his interviewer how the prison freed him from his oppressors. “Once you get rid of the fear of the torturer, he no longer has any hold on you. It is then easier to get used to forced labor, hunger, isolation and mistreatment … The human body has an unsuspected capacity for adaptation, especially when you are convinced that you are in the camp of justice and good. There is then an almost miraculous connection between your spiritual strength and your body! ”
His voice breaks when he talks about some particularly difficult ordeals: the death of his eldest son, announced by a simple fax, and the refusal of the authorities to allow him to attend his funeral. The unbearable feeling of helplessness in the face of the incessant police and administrative harassment of which Winnie, his young wife, was the victim. “There was nothing I could do to help her,” he lamented, years later…
Mandela disarms people by choosing not to be their enemy. Disconcertingly natural, he explains how he managed not to let himself be swallowed up by resentment and hatred.
The culmination of this political philosophy was reached when he received, in his cell, Pieter Willem Botha, Prime Minister of the abject apartheid system which then ruled South Africa. “That day,” said Mandela, “we hadn’t raised any serious questions and the meeting was very pleasant. ”
So the man, who represents 300 years of the most pernicious racist discrimination in the history of the “civilized” world, ends up having a cup of tea with the “world’s most popular prisoner” to begin the process. of peace and reconciliation in a prison cell.
Dead on December 5, Mandela was joined on December 26 by the other South African legend, his old friend Desmond Tutu, with whom he collaborated to create the “rainbow nation”. A sort of posthumous reunion between two great humanists who are, in my opinion, the best that humanity has produced.
May their wisdom and love of peace inspire today’s leaders and those of tomorrow!
PS That day, I did not feel any effort to climb Mount Royal; I was in South Africa with Nelson Mandela!