Why it’s essential
’s interviews take us beyond ’s carefully curated public image. We learn what really made Mandela who he is.
Featured in .
What is Mandela: The Lost Tapes about?
The tapes contain never-before-heard conversations between Nelson Mandela and Richard Stengel. In Mandela’s words, we learn about his beginnings as a young lawyer and his determination to free his people from apartheid’s oppression. We get an inside peek on how he lived on Robben’s Island, where not only did he survive—he thrived. As we listen, we hear a very special, endearing friendship develop between the two men. Stengel’s narration lends great poignancy to the podcast.
Editor’s review
Yvonne Durant enjoys reading about writers, because she loves writing, and she’s nosy. She also loves a good mystery or thriller, "They keep my on my toes and wake up my inner Nancy Drew." She edits the Audible mysteries and thrillers newsletter Crime & Astonishment. to receive it.
I was living in Milan when Mandela took his first steps to freedom. Pronounced with an Italian accent, his name came out as "Man-day-la." It warmed my heart every time a friend asked, “Hai sentito? Man-day-la è, libero.” (Have you heard? Mandela is free.) Not that I thought Italians didn’t care, Mandela’s plight just wasn’t a typical topic of conversation. One friend, a South African woman who had been living in Italy for years, worried that he would be assassinated within days of his release. I am so happy that never happened.
Nearly 30 years before, he saved himself in a split-second decision. He was cornered by police, he had a gun in his hand—there was no way he would get out of this alive. He chose to live believing that he would get a lawyer and be exonerated. Mandela believed that the legal system would understand that he was a good man with honorable intentions as he raised his voice against the oppressive government of apartheid. Instead, there would be no lawyers, just 27 years of prison on Robben Island. That the bed Mandela had to sleep in was too short for his six-foot frame was nothing compared with the daily hardships of prison. But he prevailed. He found a way to get his 500-page autobiography decreased to 50 pages and spirited it out of prison. He even became friends with some of his jailers who were poor South Afrikaans and had their struggles too. This was a cunning move on his part in that he became a symbol of hope for those whites not born into privilege who felt oppressed. He knew he would need their support on his road to the leadership of South Africa.
