Mandela reveals misery over family’s suffering in new book

JOHANNESBURG - Former South African President Nelson Mandela’s anguish at the suffering his political activism caused his wife and children has been revealed in a new book called ‘Conversations with Myself’, which is set to be released today.

His new book, which is collection of letters, diaries and conversations, shows a husband and father sacrificing personal happiness for political greatness as the leader of South Africa’s liberation struggle.

According to the Guardian, ‘Conversations with Myself’ includes a letter to his daughters Zenani and Zindzi, then aged nine and 10, in 1969 after police detained his then wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, a harassment she would often endure over the 27 years he was in jail.

“For long you may live like orphans without your own home and parents, without the natural love, affection and protection Mummy used to give you,” Mandela wrote.

In a letter to his wife, in 1970 when she was in prison, he wrote: “I feel I have been soaked in gall, every part of me, my flesh, bloodstream, bone and soul, so bitter am I to be completely powerless to help you in the rough and fierce ordeals you are going through,” and added “She reminded me: ‘I, not you, brought up these children, whom you now prefer to me.’ I was simply stunned.”

He further expressed his anxiety in the book, saying that the world should not view him as a saint as he has suffered “weaknesses, errors and indiscretions”.

Much of the book, which contains a foreword by the US President, Barack Obama, is based on a never completed autobiography that Mandela wanted to write as a sequel to his international bestseller, Long Walk to Freedom.

Revenue from sales of the book will go to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the paper said. (ANI)