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Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla
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Mandela notes during CODESA

  • ZA COM NMPP-2009/84
  • Series
  • 1992
Two notes by Mandela: one to Winnie on CODESA notebook page; one with notes on back of ‘while you were out’ slip.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

While you were out

A ‘while you were out’ slip which contains a message that Cde Tambo is on the line and a note on the back of the slip with contact details of Ntumbi Shope, a phone number, and ‘Kacel Mathale detained’.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Codesa_N_003.jpg

A ‘while you were out’ slip which contains a message that Cde Tambo is on the line.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Codesa_N_004.jpg

Note on the back of a pink ‘while you were out’ slip with contact details of Ntumbi Shope, a phone number, and ‘Kacel Mathale detained.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

First time on Robben Island [8efmxopW4i8]

Many people are unaware that Nelson Mandela was sent to prison on Robben Island twice. The first time was a brief period in 1963, about six months after he had been sentenced to five years in prison for leaving the country illegally and inciting a strike. Initially held at Pretoria Local Prison, Mr Mandela was sent to Robben Island in May 1963 and then, on 13 June 1963, he was inexplicably returned to Pretoria. After he had been there for about a month, his colleagues were arrested and they stood trial together for sabotage in the Rivonia Trial. Mr Mandela and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment on 12 June 1964. He remained on Robben Island until the end of March 1982 after which he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison on the mainland. Then, after a few months in hospitals, he was sent to Victor Verster Prison in December 1988 from where he was freed on 11 February 1990.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Threatening a warder [puKUgB5g-3Y]

One of Nelson Mandela’s greatest achievements is that he is a qualified attorney. In 1953 he established South Africa’s first black law partnership in Johannesburg with his friend and comrade Oliver Tambo. During his long imprisonment he used his knowledge of the law to full effect and advantage. His answer to brutality and bullying as well as harassment and abuses was to turn to the law, whether it was on his own behalf or to assist other prisoners: he would either threaten to take action or to institute legal action. As this story shows, it became an essential protection.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

How to act in prison [ohmtAJdhA90]

This story about Nelson Mandela’s first imprisonment on Robben Island strongly demonstrates his iron will and indelible sense of dignity that helped him to survive 27 years in prison. He shows, on the one hand, that from day one, the prison warders were determined to treat the prisoners as nothing more than cattle as they tried aggressively to bring them under their control. It was not to be. Mr Mandela immediately took charge and showed how one can turn the tables even in the more dire circumstances. It was this dignity and strength demonstrated by Mr Mandela and that of his colleagues later that marked their imprisonment and subsequent demeanour.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Not all warders are 'rogues' [y95HF4UAkoQ]

It would have been easy for Nelson Mandela to allow the world to believe that he was physically assaulted in prison. On the contrary, he has publicly said that it never happened to him. It happened to others but not to him. It would also have been easy for him to tar all the prison guards with the same brush – that they were brutes who would never give an inch. Here he paints a different picture; he talks about how they were not all ‘rogues’ – he makes a point of showing the human, and more humane, side of some of his jailers.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

War and Peace [_nTT3YpG1QI]

Nelson Mandela is a great reader. At school he read widely, and while in the anti-apartheid struggle, particularly as he was trying to establish a liberation army, he devoured whatever he could on armed struggles all over the world. In prison, he read whatever books he could get his hands on. He is also a great strategist, whether as a young boxer when he strategised about how to outwit his foes in the ring or as a chess player or a political activist, he would always think through his next move. He often spoke of non-violence as a strategy, rather than as a principle. Here he focuses on the strategy of the Russian army.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Grapes of Wrath [98y4-a8nD7M]

Robben Island prison had a library for each section of the prison. The libraries were staffed by prisoners and a fair amount of interesting literature escaped the censors who tried to ensure that subversive material did not get into the hands of the prisoners. One of Nelson Mandela’s close comrades, Ahmed Kathrada, was at one stage a librarian in B Section where he, Mr Mandela, and about two dozen other prisoners were held. If books arrived in the library they could be read. Books that just mentioned the name ‘Mandela’ for example did not make it. Here Mr Mandela talks about some of the books he read on Robben Island.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Raised by the King [cUcGmBuH1I0]

Nelson Rolihlahla was raised by a king. After the death of his father Nkosi (Chief) Mphakanyiswa Mandela who acted as counsellor to the Thembu King, the child was sent to the royal palace or Great Place at Mqhekezweni. There he was guided and cared for by Jongintaba Dalindyebo, the Regent for the infant King Sabata. Under his watchful eye the young Mandela received a privileged upbringing and received the best education at that time. Hovering around when the Regent held court and dealt with disputes, the future leader learned about dialogue as well as hearing all sides of an argument before venturing his own opinion. These skills stood him in great stead in the years ahead.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

John Vorster Biography [3vE_dMLCKfw]

One of the books Nelson Mandela read in prison was the biography of one of apartheid’s leaders, Prime Minister John Vorster. This story about the book also reveals another of Mr Mandela’s characteristics – that he always tries to “take something out” of a situation or an experience. Things and people are usually neither all bad nor all good. He detested what Vorster stood for as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978, but in this conversation he shows that he found something upon which to compliment him.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Visiting Poet [RiHp32yGK2U]

Nelson Mandela always enjoyed telling the story of how dramatically the Xhosa poet Mqhayi had burst into his young world, shattering myths and inspiring him to see beyond the barriers he had taken for granted. His telling and retelling of this story was based on Mqhayi’s visit to his Methodist boarding school Healdtown where he was sent to finish his high school education. His account draws the listener into the late 1930s institution ruled over by the colonial figure of Dr Arthur Wellington, whom virtually no one would question – until onto the stage strode Mqhayi who showed his rapt audience how they were the most important of all people. Mr Mandela ends by explaining that he later did, however, learn that it was backward to be tribalistic.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Rick Stengel Interviews with Nelson Mandela

  • ZA COM NMPP 2009/57
  • Series
  • 1993 - 1994
Audio recordings and transcripts of conversations that Rick Stengel had with Nelson Mandela for the research of Long Walk to Freedom, covering Nelson Mandela's life from 1918-1994.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

Soweto youth arrive in prison [EUeKxTbbqbE]

After the 1976 Soweto Uprising Robben Island and other prisons in South Africa swelled with new prisoners – young people who had taken part in this watershed period in the country’s history. The Soweto generation who had faced down the armed police of the apartheid regime had been killed, driven into exile or captured and jailed. These militant young people brought with them news that the opposition to apartheid that the regime had crushed since the Mandela generation had risen. Hope was at hand. Anti-apartheid forces were again on the march. The older prisoners were inspired.

Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla

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