Woodbearers in Fontainebleau Forest
Born in 1918, Mandela was imprisoned in 1962 and sentenced to five years in prison for instigating strikes and leaving the country without a passport. While serving his sentence, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the government accused of violent subversion of the state. Mandela, who served 27 years in prison, was released as a 71-year-old man. Mandela gained the supreme respect of South African nationals, and after four years from prison, he was elected president of South Africa and later re-elected. By the time he died at the age of 94, Mandela's reputation had long since surpassed that of political leaders and instead became a spiritual icon like Martin Luther King Jr.
But for Chinese readers, not only Mandela, but also South Africa, seems to be relatively new to us. This 600-page Autobiography of Mandela is the best reading for our approach to this great man.
Teacher Hu's reading club recommends books
The Long Road to Freedom: Mandela's Autobiography
South Africa
Although Mandela was born into a wealthier family and thus received a good education and became a lawyer, Mandela grew up in a time when apartheid could easily bring harm and injustice. Blacks can only do jobs that can only be done by Africans, and can only rent houses where Africans live. Day or night, if someone asks him to stop wherever he wants, show him a pass, and without a pass he will be arrested and thrown in jail. The pass records the address of the holder, the name of the chief, whether the poll tax has been paid, etc. In addition, travel documents, i.e. permits and letters issued by the employer, are required. A small mistake in the license can lead to arrest.
In South Africa at that time, a white man could stop a black man and send him, and the black man usually could not refuse. Blacks can't go to white people's restaurants, can't live in white areas, can't rent offices where white people are. These rules are like a naked statement: There is no equality in this world, and I can oppress you because I am different from you.
In such an inhuman reality, we can understand the urgent needs of a great man, but before reading this book, I always wondered, why Mandela?
Don't hate, reconcile
By the time Mandela was released in 1990, the social climate in South Africa had improved. White President De Klerk was more progressive in his political philosophy, and he and Mandela were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together in 1993, but the gap between blacks and whites had not yet completely disappeared. During his 27 years in prison, Mandela suffered from the loss of freedom and dignity. He was the biggest victim of apartheid in South Africa. During his arrest, his mother died and his son died in a car accident, and he applied to attend their funeral, but both were rejected. For 27 years, almost both physically and intellectually creative, he was imprisoned in prison, engaged in heavy, tedious physical labor (mostly stone-dropping in a quarry). He has ten thousand reasons to resent this society, to resent the government, to resent injustice, and the most natural thing to do under resentment is to take revenge.
But Mandela didn't.
Upon his release from prison, Mandela told enthusiastic citizens that segregation had no future in South Africa. Fearing that Mandela would retaliate against the whites, he said: "In prison, my anger against the whites has subsided, and I want the South Africans to understand that although I hate the system that makes us hate each other, I have no lack of love even for my enemies."
Without Mandela's tolerance, if Mandela was a man who remembered hatred, then ethnic integration in South Africa might have to be postponed, but why Mandela? Where did his greatness come from? Was he born great or did he grow up step by step? Why can prisons strip most people of their will, but not Mandela's greatness?
Mandela, who once lied
With these questions in mind, as a curious reader, it seems that looking for Mandela's ordinary became my "vicious" interest.
When Mandela was 9 years old, his father died, and his mother entrusted him to the regent of Mukziweni, but when he was in college, his adoptive father wanted to arrange a family affair for him, and Mandela did not agree, so he decided to run away from home with another child of the regent.
For two young people who had no money and no social connections, along the way, they were subjected to various inspections, interrogations, working in the mines, and were also driven out because of the opposition of the regent. In this turbulent and displaced life, Mandela can only use lies to cope with crises and find survival in the cracks.
Even as he later became a spiritual leader, he was not afraid to record the arrogance and humility of his youth in his autobiography. Since his adoptive father did not agree to his running away from home, he could only lie to those he found, including those well-meaning pastors, friends. He said: "I complain that I didn't tell anyone the truth. I became so used to lying that I lied even when I didn't need to. I told lies all the way, and every time I lied, it brought me bitter consequences. I know that I haven't taken the right step in my new life yet.
What made Mandela?
In robben island prisons, the conditions of serving sentences are extremely harsh, not only poor food, but also heavy physical labor, and deprived of most of the rights to visit, pass, read, etc.
"I was able to walk from one end of the cell to the other in three steps. When I lay down, my feet and head could touch the cement wall. ”
"Right under the sun, I was shivering in my khaki shirt. At noon, we stopped for lunch. For the first week, our meal was all soup and it tasted bad. “
"For months, our lives always followed a pattern. Prison life is the same; every day is the same as yesterday, and every week is the same as last week. We have absolutely no idea what the exact time is. Lack of time can cause people to lose their attention and even lose their judgment. ”
"Prison is about destroying your spirit and resolve, destroying all your personality. They want to extinguish the spark that each of us keeps us human and our true nature. ”
In Mandela's autobiography, there is a highly consistent flavor with the film The Shawshank Redemption, where it seems that the same person is telling the story of what it was like to be imprisoned. That kind of system changes human nature.
Mandela's salvation
Mandela recounts his approach to independence and thinking for more than 20 years.
"To survive in prison, you have to find ways to feel satisfied in your daily life. There are many ways you can achieve this satisfaction, such as doing laundry to make your clothes exceptionally clean; cleaning the hallway so that there is not a little dust in the hallway; and cleaning up your cell so that your cell has as much space as possible. A person is proud to do big things outside of prison, and it is equally satisfying to do small things inside prison. ”
Different people's choices in prison must be different. As a resident of modern civilization, I resent the constraints even when I have countless choices, but as I see Mandela's choices in prison, I slowly come to understand what a positive outlook on life is.
And Mandela's experience of growing vegetables shows what the "mindfulness" that modern people are diligently seeking is:
"Almost since I started serving my sentence on Robben Island, I have asked the prison authorities to allow me to open a vegetable garden in the courtyard. For several years, they rejected me for no reason. Eventually, however, they agreed, and I reclaimed a small, narrow patch of land at the base of the opposite wall and set up a small vegetable garden.
In a way, I use the vegetable garden as a symbol of some aspect of my life. A leader must also manage his own vegetable garden, and he must also sow, care, cultivate, and finally harvest.
I wrote two letters to my wife, Winnie, about a particularly beautiful tomato. I told her how carefully I had served it, from sowing it all the way to growing into a large tomato tree with dark red fruit. But then, unbeknownst to something wrong or lacking in care, the tomato began to wither and wither, and there was nothing I could do about it. When it finally died, I carefully pulled it out of the ground, washed it and "buried" it in a corner of the vegetable garden. ”
While imprisoned, Mandela was not only able to live in the moment, but also maintain an active lifestyle, such as exercise.
"It was on Robben Island that I still stuck to my old boxing training model, from Monday to Tuesday, I stuck to running and physical training, and then, three days off. On Monday and Tuesday mornings, I run in my cell for 45 minutes, then do 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, 50 squats, and various other physical training activities. ”
With so much more freedom, I probably never thought that I don't need much support for exercising every day, and That Mandela in prison can, why can't we?
What do you get from reading this book?
More than 600 pages of Mandela's Autobiography. I don't know if I've found those answers. Why Mandela? Were great men born or raised? Why did 27 years of prison bring not resentment but tolerance?
But in searching for answers to these questions, I actually learned a lot more. Not only did I understand what greatness is, but I also understood that greatness is growth, that greatness comes from the ordinary, and more importantly, I don't blindly worship "greatness" or feel that ordinary people don't have a chance to be great.
Because I understand that greatness comes from the ordinary, I am more tolerant of the "ordinary" and more appreciative of others. As a father of two, I think this is important.
I also understood what freedom is. Freedom is relative, and freedom comes more from within. Freedom may seem like an external giving, but what matters is whether you have attained spiritual freedom or not.
Because a person who has lost his freedom can also live in the moment, I see the power of "living in the moment", he not only saves a person's reality, but also saves a person's spirit.
I understand more about abstaining from resentment, understanding tolerance, understanding of material things, and even more understanding of what is important to life, which has shaped my outlook on life as a result.
This is a book that requires patience when reading, but that patience pays off. In an era when videos are so common, not many people are willing to read it, but I recommend reading this book.