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Summary: Portrait of a Leader for All Times
Comment: If you read only one autobiography this year, I recommend this one.
Leadership breakthroughs are few and far between. They are even rarer in the political arena. Although I had closely followed the path to an integrated democracy in South Africa (and worked hard on the anti-apartheid sanctions and boycotts), much of Nelson Mandela's struggle was hidden to me at the time. Only after the reconciliation had gone on for a number of years did it become apart how remarkable this man's contribution has been.
Recently, I read Playing the Enemy which described some of the nuances in how Mandela conceived of creating a peaceful transition through an unauthorized sole negotiation from a prison cell. Those stories impressed me even more. Now, I had to read the autobiography. And I'm glad I did.
Let me warn you, however, that Nelson Mandela is so self-effacing that the real story of what he accomplished and how he did it doesn't fully come through in the autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. I recommend that you read Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation first.
What the autobiography will do is show the cultural and social backgrounds of the struggle and how critical it was that Mandela be a man of honor, principle, and loyalty. He was a leader for the whole nation even when many people didn't want him to be in the nation. It's a remarkable way to be, a way that few people can accomplish.
The apartheid system was as vile a way to treat citizens as anything that has come along since Germany in the 1930s. It's hard to imagine that it arose after World War II and was so difficult to break.
The treatment of the African National Congress's leaders will appall you. Their grace will delight you.
May every nation have a Nelson Mandela to lead it!
