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Summary: Inspirational Person and Book
Review: This is the type of book I could not put down. I knew only of Mandela's name and elementary accomplishments going into reading the book. I found his telling of his life to be exciting, for good and ill. Although I may be somewhat biased in my praise of this book, due to my lack of knowledge of any other view other than Mandela's about Mandela, it is probably safe to day this is a book well worth reading.
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Summary: This Man Is My Hero.
Review: I read "Long Walk to Freedom" right after I graduated from college in 1996. This is the written life of one of the absolute greatest world leaders who ever lived. I had the pleasure to visiting Robben Island, where most of its tour guides were, like Mandela, political prisoners under apartheid. Words cannot describe what it felt like to actually stand inside of the jail cell that Mandela occuppied. What is even more incredible is that, looking back, the man was not the least bit bitter or angry about what he went through (and who could blame him if he were?); in fact, he invited his former jailers to his 1994 inauguration as South Africa's first black president. If after reading this book you do not come away with a greater sense of admiration and respect for this outstanding human being, then you are not human.
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Summary: Wow
Review: Well i was strtled to find that this book was not boring or long winded but rather exciting like a swahbuckler, Im telling you I couldnt put it down, the bit about the heard of spiders and the blue babboon hunting, aswell as the game shows and intrigue of the underworld where he made a deal with the lord of darkness to save his but, read this if you love fantsy and if you love real life read henry patter.
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Summary: A powerful story for all to read
Review: Using a rich gift for storytelling obviously influenced by a culture which values oral tradition, Mandela brilliantly and dramatically relates a life struggle that is still very much a work in progress. Inspired by the previous peacefull revolutions in India and The American South, Mandela sought to forge a brave new world built on justice tempered with grace and foregiveness. Mandela deftly avoids simply demonizing the brutal white doctrines that oppressed Blacks for years. He also lays plenty of responsibility on the doorstep of the years of tribal hatred and ethnic strife that has plagued his people for centuries. His brave effort to bridge years of hatred, war and oppression makes for mandatory reading for all people regardless of race or nationality as it is a fight we all find ourselves steeped. This is not to suggest that this book makes for a dry read. Quite the opposite. Mandela is a born leader and his rich use of language makes his journey all the more personal and, therefore all the more universal. A powerful story for all to read.
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Summary: Read this book to free your soul of wrong illusions
Review: Nelson Mandela is a born story teller. He tells us his life in details from his childhood to the historical vote of 1994. He is a real artist in his way to link his past experiences, even those of the time when he was a child, to his present consciousness, which enables us to link the past and the present in the most enriching and enlightening way. He hides nothing about his life and about his commitment to the freedom of South Africa, insisting on the fact that the freedom of the Blacks could only be achieved if the whole South African, if all the segments of the population could become free in South Africa itself. He insists on the fact that even the whites were not free before 1994, under apartheid, because they were the slaves of prejudices and misconceptions of what humanity and human values are and have to be. His inspiration is deeply christian, but also deeply rooted in African traditions, because he is an Africanist first, hence he assumes this fundamental value that all Africans share, when their traditions have not been warped by outside influences or actions, that all men and all women and all human beings are brothers and sisters, deeply equal, but in their variety, in their diversity, in their multiplicity. To negate this diversity is the first and most egotistical sin of any human being because this leads to the rejection of one particular type of human beings just because they are different, no matter what the difference might or may be. Hence his struggle meets the struggle of those who want to free humanity of social segregation and social unequality, among whom he met, and worked with, the Communists who he always refused to reject when he finally made up his mind that the only road to freedom was a road on which all freedom fighters, no matter who they may happen to be, have to walk, struggle and even fight together, and this struggle is far from being finished and completed today. This book is a book of hope that shows that a free mind, or a people aspiring for freedom, cannot be in any way destroyed by even more than twenty-seven years in prison, because even in prison this mind, this people will fight to improve the lot of everyone. The struggle for freedom never ends and freedom means understanding the others, even your oppressor, because in everyone, even in this oppressor, there is some desire to free themselves of what has to be called their alienation, and we are all alienated to something or some situation because our eyes are never wide open enough. Even the eyes that are widest open are somewhere, more or less, shut to something they should learn to see, they should learn to appreciate, even if they don't know what it is yet. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Perpignan University
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Summary: One of the Greatest Heroes.
Review: This book deserves a 10 star rating. Nelson Mandela is not only a hero of mine, he also symbolizes human rights and the struggle for equality. Long Walk to Freedom is a remarkable story of a hero's journey. I am a white man who grew up in a sheltered, white, middle class neighborhood. I have been enlightened after reading this book. In the past, I heard minor stories of Apartheid (from the white perspective), but I never knew about the horrifying human rights violations that were an everyday occurance for black and other non-white South Africans. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding Mandela's heroic life and the great antiapartheid movement. I would also recommend that this story be read by all future generations in all learning institutions. This is the story of a hero, one of the greatest heroes of all time.
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Summary: Freedom to Be Free
Review: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM by Nelson Rolihlahla MANDELA (b. 1918) is one of the most fascinating and inspiring books that I have read. This book is an autobiography of a recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace, presidentent of the African National Congress, and head of the antiapartheid movement in the nation of South Africa. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964. After 27 years at Robbens Island, a maximum security prison, he was released and then, played a leading role in developing a constitution for South Africa. His greatest triumph occurred in 1994 when South Africa held its first-ever multiracial eletions. LONG WALK TO FREEDOM spans nearly an entire century. Mr Mandela starts with his birth on the eighteenth of July, 1918, at Mvezo, a tiny village on the banks of the Mbashe River in the district of Umtata, the capital of the Transkei, itself eight hundred miles east of Cape Town and five hundred fity miles south of Johannesburg. He chronicles his political awakening, his role in the ANC, three decades of prison and his triumphant release with the climatic elections of 1994. With all the history that is covered in this book, it may be a long walk, even so, it is at a very brisk pace. LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is more than a history of South Africa. It is the story which is the life of a man. Mr Mandela writes about the friends and foes of his life. Nothing brings home the price that he paid more than the pain he endured at not being able to be with his family and loved ones. Mr Mandela wrote, "To be the father of a nation is a great honour, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy. But it was a joy I had far too little of." Mr Mandela's resiliency during his prison life is one of the most compelling aspects of this book for me. He was able to meet the challenge presented to every prioner, particularly for every political prisoner, to survive prison intact; to emerge from prison undiminshed, to conserve and even replenish one's beliefs. He was able to look back on his three decades at Robbens Island and contemplate the changes that occurred in his country, "I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity,..for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never extinguished." If you are interested in the history of South Africa or in the life of one of its greatest leaders, this book will be interesting to you.
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Summary: O YES, O YES, IT'S A STEAL AT ANY PRICE!
Review: The autobiography of the South African sage, Nelson Mandela, is one of the most captivating and intriguing book anyone can read.
With the first page, it handcuffs you. You will gladly remain under arrest until you're through with the last page. Very few books generate such electromagnetic induction.
Emotive, exuberant, and exhilarating, "Long Walk To Freedom" is a story of victory: triumph over hardship; over fear; and over man-inhumanity-to-man. It is a mirror through which a generation viewed their world.
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Summary: Complete Devotion to One's Country and People
Review: I am in awe at the personal sacrifice and selflessness of this truly amazing man. This book shows us what it truly means to be committed to a belief and to have the strength to endure in the face of adversity that thankfully, many of us will never have to endure. Madiba shows us in amazing detail the history of South Africa and the fight that he and so many others endured for basic civil rights and equality. I have to say I am ashamed at my lack of previous knowledge to what was going on in South Africa all those years. It is overwhelming how much of that information never was taught to me as a youth growing up in the Pacific Northwest. This book is not only a great history lesson, but an amazing story of survival and perserverance. Madiba tells his story, the story of his people and his country with such detail and such emotion that you can't help but truly admire this pillar of a man. I highly recommend everyone read this book.
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Summary: A journey from childhood to president
Review: For many of us here in the United States, we heard of Nelson Mandela just before he was released from prison in South Africa. We cheered as he became the president, for we knew this was a step towards racial equality in South Africa. But, most of us do not know why he was imprisoned, how he became a leader, and what the conditions were like in his country before he was elected. This book goes through all this. Mandela grew up in the village of Qunu in the Transkei region of South Africa where he enjoyed a rural life without many of the amenities we take for granted today. We follow Mandela has he attends school and college while he begins to understand more about the world around him and the plight of Africans in South Africa. This provides a contrast to his living in presidential quarters which helps illustrate how long the proverbial walk was. The bulk of the book deals with his time in the ANC and in prison (where he was a political prisoner being punished for his beliefs in freedom). Mandela seems to downplay his individual role in all of this, but illustrates that he was one part of something much larger. He mentions names of many colleagues and organizations which had a part in fighting apartheid. At times, I struggled with the names because I am not familiar with the pronunciation. With time, these will not slow you down, and you will appreciate how great this struggle for freedom was. I recommend reading this book.
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