A review by rosekk
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

5.0

I'm so glad I finally sat down to read this. Mandela strikes me as the kind of person who pays attention to everyone and everything around him, and as a result Long Walk to Freedom is, in addition to being a portrait of the man himself, a fascinating blend of history/politics/philosophy. Although I had some background knowledge before reading the book, everything was explained in enough detail that I think the book can speak to people with almost no prior knowledge at all. At the same time, it's never patronising or slow, and offers plenty of detail and insight for those better versed in the topics/events the book touches on. While I enjoyed reading every part of the book (and found something educational in each bit), the most interesting part for me was the end, which focuses on negations regarding the new form of government and constitution. The mammoth task of simultaneously dismantling the existing regime and replacing it with something vastly different is explained in detail, with explanations of each consideration made, every decision that goes ahead, every compromise agreed... Reading that about that from the point of view of someone who actually had to make those calls, rather than from the point of view of a distant historian (as one usually does) really brings home the difficulties of it, but was also weirdly reassuring, because Mandela & his allies managed it. South Africa today is, obviously, far from perfect, but when you consider that not long ago the government had members/supporters who were openly Nazis, and were considered by some within the country to be too far left on the political spectrum... it's pretty amazing what was achieved.