On Monday, 8 September, the History Society was presented to by Andrew Russell, OD. Andrew addressed the society on a little explored area of Mandela's life: the final 14 months of his life.

 

The talk followed Mandela's time at his prison-house at Victor Verster and his relationship, in particular, with his guard, Jack Swart. The retelling was laced with primary sources, such as grocery notes written by Mandela, stories of seemingly trivial experiences (such as the need for firewood in the house and an incident of a mouse). In doing this, many at the talk came to see Mandela as what he was: a man who, like any other, had hopes, dreams and experienced daily challenges, big and small, significant and trivial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is easily lost in the retelling of the lives of great people like Nelson Mandela are the contributions of the "minor" characters in the story arc without whom the greats would not have reached their lofty heights in the ways that they did. Andrew filled in the details of the broad strokes of Mandela's life with stories of the ordinary people in between that helped shaped his legacy: Jack Swart, his house-guard at Victor Verster with whom Mandela grew a strong affinity; Gene Doyle, the famous sculpture who sculptured the three—secretely four—statues of Nelson Mandela, one being at the site of his release at Victor Verster Prison and another in Washington D.C.; Mark Peters, the photojournalist whose image of Mandela as he walked out of Victor Verster, fist raised, would be printed over a million times by the following Monday.

 

We are grateful to Andrew for having addressed us and for having brought to light these lesser known aspect of South Africa's history. We look forward to his return. For any interested in furthering their knowledge of these years in Mandela's life and to read more by Andrew, his book "The Leadership We Need: Lessons for Today from Nelson Mandela" is available of purchase online.