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    Mandela: An Audio History
    Mandela: An Audio History
    Mandela: An Audio History
    Audiobook1 hour

    Mandela: An Audio History

    Written by Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela

    Narrated by Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Recognized as one of the most comprehensive oral histories of apartheid ever broadcast (NPR, BBC, CBC, SABC), Mandela: An Audio History tells the story of the struggle against apartheid through rare sound recordings. The series weaves together more than 50 first-person interviews with an unprecedented collection of archival sound: a rare recording of the 1964 trial that resulted in Mandela's life sentence; a visit between Mandela and his family secretly taped by a prison guard; marching songs of guerilla soldiers; government propaganda films; and pirate radio broadcasts from the African National Congress (ANC). Once thought lost forever, Radio Diaries producer Joe Richman unearthed a treasure trove of these historic recordings in the basement archive of the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Ultimately, over 50 hours of archival recordings and many more hours of contemporary interviews with the living witnesses to South Africa's turbulent history have gone into the creation of one of the most moving audio documentaries ever produced.Includes a commemorative 32-page booklet featuring historic photos and a complete transcript of the audio program.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateFeb 19, 2014
    ISBN9781622314348
    Mandela: An Audio History
    Author

    Desmond Tutu

    Desmond Mpilo Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. In 1986 he was elected archbishop of Cape Town, the highest position in the Anglican Church in South Africa. In 1994, after the end of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela, Tutu was appointed as chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate apartheid-era crimes. His policy of forgiveness and reconciliation has become an international example of conflict resolution and a trusted method of postconflict reconstruction. He is currently the chair of The Elders, where he gives vocal defense of human rights and campaigns for the oppressed.

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    Reviews for Mandela

    4.5/5

    65 ratings31 reviews

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    • 5/5
      It took me a few weeks to get into this book, but I persisted and by about page 100 or so was well and truely hooked. Captivating and inspiring and at times made me furious with the current political situation in South Africa. Its about standing your ground no matter how difficult it is and what barriers are thrown your way. And to come out of it all with such a balanced outlook and no inbuilt embitterment or hostily is truly staggering. Inparticular, the last few chapters, negiotiating with the enemy for the better of the country was truly remarkable and resulted in a changed South Africa. One of the most enthralling books I've read.
    • 5/5
      Mr. Mandela's autobiography is extremely well written. Don't let the length intimidate you because it's highly readable. Don't worry that 27 years in prison might not give the author much to say about that period because it is one of the most interesting parts of the book. A wonderful book about standing your ground, and a tribute: to patience, to loyalty to your supporters, your organization and your estanged spouse; to faith that things could and would change for the better.Even knowing little detail about Mr. Mandela's life, I have admired him. After reading this book, he's become one of my heroes (and I don't have many of those). The way he managed to maintain such a balanced outlook, untainted by bitterness is truly inspirational. Also inspiring is his belief in true reconciliation, uniting the oppressed and the oppressors against a flawed system. Something we in Canada could learn from as we attempt to reconcile with our Aboriginal peoples.
    • 5/5
      This is one of those books that everyone should read. Mandela has such a beautiful voice that sucks you in from page 1 and won't let you go...even after you turn the last page.
    • 5/5
      First read this book when I was 19 years old. The spirit of this man was inspirational. He has definitely left his mark in this world.
    • 3/5
      Just finished reading Long Walk to Freedom in preparation to a holiday in South-Africa.

      How to review an epic work like this one?

      After finishing reading about Mandela's struggle which was his life, I can only humbly assess what I think of this book as a medium to tell his story, for his life's story as such is to be rated by everyone with 6 stars out of 5 -- simply amazing.

      The book however, was a bit too long for my liking and from time to time a bit too factual. Less a biography than a history textbook, if you know what I mean.

      On the other hand, there were many passages which kept me glued to the pages too, but there could have been more.

      Nevertheless, a recommended read if you're looking for exemplary inspiration on perseverance or on an interesting view on the recent history of South-Africa.
    • 4/5
      I have long admired Nelson Mandela - as a matter of fact, he is a part of the reason I started my charity - Building a Bookshelf. I have wanted to study more about his life for a long time, and finally got around to it. Although this book is by no means an easy read, it was consistently interesting and kept me turning the pages to find out what happened next. I learned a lot about both Mandela and the struggle in South Africa. This is history at its best.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant, love this gut and his never say die attitude, a fantastic read and also educational at times if you are not up to speed with Apartheid anf what it meant
    • 5/5
      Such a eye opening beautiful historical account. Well done. Highly recommend everyone listen to this for a interesting piece of our historical changes in Africa and with diversity.
    • 5/5
      Moving summary of a remarkable man and his love for his country. I felt like I was there, it captured the spirit of South Africa beautifully. Definitely one to listen to over and over again.
    • 3/5
      This was a worthy read of the life of a great man, the times he lived in and the men and women he strove beside to overturn the evil of apartheid.
      It showed that even in his decades of life in prison, he still accomplished much, while trying to hold onto his dignity and fight against many of the petty indignities and tyrannies that were exercised against helpless prisoners.
      The struggles and compromises continued when freed from prison and Mandela offered the first tentative gestures of cooperation before he'd even been released, which I hadn't realised.
    • 5/5
      It is really great to listen the audio! I can feel the love of African to their great leader Nelson Mendala.
    • 5/5
      Großartiger Mensch, großartiges Buch !
    • 3/5
      Bit of a slog in places but this man had an amazing life
    • 5/5
      I finished Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, a very inspiring book. I especially liked the prison sections of the book, and loved how he took the experience of a 27 year imprisonment, and made it work for him instead of for his oppressors.This is a good book for activists. Lots of details, and helps show why Mandela was such an amazing leader. Also, plenty of information about the price he paid in his personal life for his devotion to the ANC.
    • 4/5
      At over 700 pages, Nelson Mandela’s autobiography might look like a serious commitment. Actually though, it doesn’t feel like a heavy book at all. Like the thinking which informs it, the writing is clear, measured and straightforward, albeit scattered with bits of Harvard English that are presumably down to Mandela’s (uncredited) American ghostwriter, Richard Stengel.I sped through it in under a week, thanks mainly to a couple of long train journeys. I’m left with a much more nuanced view of Mandela and what he stood for, and a much clearer idea of the man behind the symbol.What I found particularly valuable were the insights into how deeply apartheid ingrained racism not just on to the white minority, but on to the attitudes and assumptions throughout the whole of South African society. Mandela at one point mentions being struck by the sight of a young beggar-girl by the side of the road in a township, and reacting completely differently because she was white:While I did not normally give to African beggars, I felt the urge to give this woman money. In that moment I realized the tricks that apartheid plays on one, for the everyday travails that afflict Africans are accepted as a matter of course, while my heart immediately went out to this bedraggled white woman. In South Africa, to be poor and black was normal, to be poor and white was a tragedy.A few years and several hundred pages later, he has the corollary experience while taking a clandestine flight in Ethiopia.As I was boarding the plane I saw that the pilot was black. I had never seen a black pilot before, and the instant I did I had to quell my panic. How could a black man fly a plane? But a moment later I caught myself: I had fallen into the apartheid mind-set, thinking Africans were inferior and that flying was a white man’s job.If the leaders of the resistance movement can react like this – How could a black man fly a plane? – the reactions of less committed or thoughtful South Africans can readily be imagined, and you begin to get a sense of the sheer scale of the problem which faced the ANC and other activsts. A problem which has not entirely gone away.These are the well-chosen memories of someone interested in their own thoughts and responses, and who had the time – so much of it – to examine his life and sift out the experiences that counted. Everywhere in the book, there is this sense of a man who has thought long and hard about the choices he made, and can explain them simply and directly.Not all of them are necessarily easy to sympathise with, or at least they perhaps shouldn’t be. Let’s be clear: Mandela is not Ghandi. We should remember (and he is admirably open about it) that Amnesty International always declined to work on Mandela’s behalf because he refused to renounce violence as a valid tool in the fight against apartheid. He was the first head of the ANC’s militant wing, the MK, and involved in paramilitary training; he drew up plans for action that ran from sabotage to guerrilla warfare. At one point, he describes his 1950s self as ‘a young man who attempted to make up for his ignorance with militancy’ – but actually, that militancy never goes away, it just becomes more grounded in political and moral justifications. Mandela’s ethical sensibility is always there; but ethics are not paramount.For me, non-violence was not a moral principle but a strategy; there is no moral goodness in using an ineffective weapon.Effective weapons were considered to include explosives, as demonstrated for example in the Church Street bombing of 1983 which killed 19 people and wounded over 200, including many civilians. Mandela mentions it in passing, and has the following to say.The killing of civilians was a tragic accident, and I felt a profound horror at the death toll. But disturbed as I was by these casualties, I knew that such accidents were the inevitable consequence of the decision to embark on a military struggle. Human fallibility is always a part of war, and the price of it is always high. It was precisely because we knew that such incidents would occur that our decision to take up arms had been so grave and reluctant. But as Oliver said at the time of the bombing, the armed struggle was imposed upon us by the violence of the apartheid regime.We are on dangerous ground here. Can we put a number on how many civilian deaths are considered a reasonable price to pay for ending apartheid? At the same time, though, who on earth am I to question his decisions and moral code – I who have never experienced a fraction of the abuse and discrimination which was his daily life, and who am never likely to have to make the impossible choices that were so common under apartheid?All I can say is Mandela doesn’t shy away from it. I may not always be comfortable about it, but I felt a deep respect for his willingness to stand behind his actions and explain them as best he can.Ultimately, Mandela was saved from being a truly ambiguous figure by the simple fact that he was arrested and imprisoned before he could be directly involved in any violence himself; for him, it’s all theoretical, and, locked away behind bars, he could be viewed more simply as an innocent martyr to a just cause. And indeed, it’s in his response to the years of incarceration that the greatness of Mandela’s character comes through. Twenty-seven years in jail would be enough to make any man bitter; but he is the opposite of bitter. Time and again he shows himself willing to listen to and work with those who might easily be called his enemies – from dissenting black activists, through ambivalent prison warders, up to the president of South Africa.It’s his astonishing ability to do without bitterness – essentially, his capacity for forgiveness – which really makes Mandela an inspiration. Perhaps it’s my naïveté, but I can’t help concluding that, when international pressure got too much for South Africa’s government, it was Mandela’s openness in negotiations which forged the breakthrough and not the MK’s sporadic attempts to meet violence with violence. That’s certainly what I’ll take away from this excellent and fascinating memoir: that, and a delight in his unshakable belief that no matter how degrading the conditions, or how long the imprisonment, no one had the power to damage who he was on the inside:Prison and the authorities conspire to rob each man of his dignity. In and of itself, that assured that I would survive, for any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose because I will not part with it at any price or under any pressure.
    • 5/5
      Though Nelson Mandela wrote these words about his colleague Oliver Tambo, they are fitting to him as well: 'He too epitomized Chief Luthuli's precept: 'Let your courage rise with danger.''Nelson Mandela's autobiography is simply a must read. Mandela's writing captures your attention and dares you to disbelieve that he is not in the room telling you these things himself. Though a thumper of a book at over 600 pages, it was impossible for me to read less than 50-75 at a time. I highly recommend it to everyone. He wrote the first draft while in prison on Robben Island, and it eloquently and deftly tells his story: his noble birth and legal training, the rise of his political consciousness and activism, his struggles against the apartheid regime, his trials for treason and his decades of political imprisonment on Robben Island. No matter the challenge, Mandela's courage rises to meet it: going underground, representing fellow prisoners for grievances for color-blind food rations and clothing, and being separated from his wife and family with visitations separated by years. Mandela recounts numerous anecdotes to point out lessons learned, disparities impossible to ignore, changing perceptions of the political and social world (both inside and outside prison), and what is required of a leader. “Like the gardener, a leader must take responsibility for what he cultivates; he must mind his work, try to repel enemies, preserve what can be preserved, and eliminate what cannot succeed.” His cognizance and candor about what his re/actions represent and symbolize to others amazes me. As a person who possesses the inner strength, self-control, and follow-through, Mandela fits the billing of a real-life superhero, on the scale of Gandhi and Moses.
    • 5/5
      Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela is an intriguing autobiography of one of the world’s foremost civil rights leaders. Born in 1918 in the Thembu tribe of the Xhosa people the book described Mandela’s upbringing as a child and adolescence. His education was at a Thembu College, and the University of Fort Hare. Later he earned a law degree while in prison. By the 1950’s Mandela had joined the African National Congress (ANC). During that time Daniel Francois Malan implemented the apartheid policies in South Africa. Mandela played a major role in the formation of ANC’s Youth League, and its policies shifted from peaceful civil disobedience to armed conflict.The 1960’s saw ANC being forced underground as it grappled with the concept of armed struggle. In 1961 Mandela was convicted for inciting people to strike, and leaving the country without a passport. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment. Three years later in 1964 Mandela was arrested again and sentenced to life imprisonment for incitement of sabotage, treason, and an involvement in violent conspiracy. Mandela was to spend 27 years in prison on Robben Island. His experience in prison was harsh, a microcosm of South Africa’s apartheid world, and years in solitary confinement with hard labor. While in prison he was able to receive glimmerings of news about the apartheid struggles, received redacted letters from family members, and an occasional media report about the world.It was in 1990 Mandela initiated, and was able to meet with South African president Frederik Willem de Klerk, who eventually freed him from prison. In 1993 he and de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize. Multi-racial elections that followed in April 1994 and the ANC under Mandela’s leadership came to power. Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president.
    • 5/5
      An excellent work by the world's greatest elder statesman, giving a great deal of interesting detail and background about South Africa's liberation struggle.I was quite surprised to read that in the 1960s Mandela and the ANC were open to compromise. He relates that they told the apartheid regime that they knew it would be politically impossible to give them majority rule at that time, but they asked for just a few seats in parliament, to be reviewed and increased gradually every few years. How different the history of southern Africa might have been if the white regime had had the common sense to accept that remarkable offer then!
    • 5/5
      There are some people who inspire such awe that it is difficult to conceive that they are only flesh and blood: Nelson Mandela is one of them. After 27 years in prison, for nothing more than believing a black man to be an equal to a white, how does one treat one's captors with dignity?This book, not only gives an insight as to how Mr. Mandela so did, but also tells of a modest man who brought his country into the twenty-first century with the minimum of bloodshed.My favourite story, is the tale of his eventual release when President de Klerk told Mandela that he was to be released with immediate effect and Nelson declines; he wants a week to make arrangements! Typical of the man, he accedes to de Klerk's request when he learns that the World press are expecting his release and anything else will start rumours of a breakdown in negotiations towards a free South Africa.The 600 pages of this book fly by: an excellent read.
    • 4/5
      This book was recommended by a colleague at work. He said he could not put it down. I did not find the book that riveting and was often skimming through the sections that were overly political. I finished the book because I was determined to learn more about how a man becomes a legend. From his early beginnings, Mandela seemed destined to play a role in the life of the people of South Africa. The sacrifices he made, at the expense of those he loved most, gained him the reverence of not only his country, but much of the world. Were the sacrifices worth it?This book is a good read to learn about one of the most important men of the 20th century. It is good to learn about survival and perseverance. In the end, I am glad to have read it.
    • 4/5
      This is a detailed history of Nelson Mandela's struggle to help South Africa overcome apartheid. Strangely, there is not as much about himself as I expected. It is more of a recitation of who did what, and when, rather than how he felt about anything. It's very long. Twenty years after the end of events portrayed in this book, I wonder what people think has been the result.
    • 5/5
      A stunning work, recounting the amazing life of an extraordinary man.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed listening to this documentary. The bulk of it is audio that was captured either on radio or television and it is tied together and explained or elaborated on by the narrators. I found it highly educational and interesting. A great listen.
    • 5/5
      This book puts front and center the magnificence of Nelson Mandela. Yes, it is true -- this book is long. For some reason, the beginning of the book is slow, even though it was interesting to learn about Mandela's youth. If you only want a biography of Mandela, this may not be the book for you, but if you are also interested in learning more of the history of South Africa, this book is very good. It describes how the more conservative National Party came to power after WWII and changed the laws to increase the power of apartheid in South Africa. I was amazed to learn more of the details of apartheid -- how even in prison, people of different skin color had different clothing and food. Watching South Africa turn into a police state -- for example, the banning of people from being in the company of more than 1 other person because of their political ideology. The restrictions on travel. Incredible.After reading about 25% of the book, I became more involved in Mandela's personal story. One of the really interesting aspects of this book is that you learn how Mandela's thinking developed over more than 50 years of struggle against apartheid. He talked about his movement from pure pacifism to civil disobedience and his rationale for armed struggle after the government outlawed nonviolent protest. He also describes about how the government linked the ANC with the Communist Party, because the ANC reached out to many organizations with differing agendas, as long as they shared the goal of eradicating apartheid. Reading about Mandela's attempt to bring dignity to his 27-year incarceration was incredible. The strength and intelligence of this man is so humbling. All in all, a great book. And the ending? A dream come true.
    • 4/5
      I always intended to get around to Nelson Mandela’s autobiography after living n South Africa for several years. I was not disappointed. Although it is long, it certainly rounds out what I know of the anti-apartheid struggle, and provides insight into the man who was at the heart of the movement, if not always there it lead it. It is not nearly as exciting as some celebrity memoirs, and skirts a few of the issues (i.e., the guilt of Winnie Mandela), but it is inspiring – especially the beautiful words of the last two chapters. They certainly bring home what it means to have the franchise when you have spent a lifetime struggling to obtain it.
    • 5/5
      Amazing audiobook. Very touching with real life experience from people who lived in that period. I loved the emotional side of it and the genuinely recorded voices
    • 5/5
      Whenever I see an interview when they ask the person who is the one person they would most like to meet, Nelson Mandela is the name that always comes to me. To read the story of what he has gone through and been able to go on to lead his country is amazing to me. I found this book to me fascinating and moving.
    • 4/5
      A long awaited read for me- I enjoyed it very much. I found quite a few of the details about Mandela's imprisonment surprising - due to the fact that I thought I had known his story through media coverage. At the time of Mandela's death, I watched several documentaries but found this book more illuminating. A very strong, brave man.
    • 5/5
      "How could anything interesting happen in prison?" I thought. And yet, it does. What Mandela thought and did during those years in prison had a lasting influence on South Africa. His patience and estute perceptions about people and how to bring them together made him uniquely qualified to bring the country together after apartheid. I am not usually a fan of long biographies because they usually just end up doing a lot of name dropping and factoid listing. Not so, here. Every event, every person mentioned is there for a reason. A fascinating read.
    • 5/5
      A brilliant book that captures the Madiba Magic. It originated in the prison cells of Robben Island and is a riviting read for anyone interested in history, psychology or African culture.