Tyrone August reviews Young Mandela (Weidenfeld and Nicolson) by David James Smith.
In a way, in 1990, Nelson Mandela walked out of one prison straight into another, quickly and surely becoming captive to the many myths that have come to surround him.
But not for much longer, if British journalist David James Smith can help it — his Young Mandela sets out to liberate Mandela from this new form of captivity.
He boldly declares: “My plan was to rescue the sainted Madiba from the dry pages of history, to strip away the myth and create a fresh portrait of a rounded human being.” To make sure we get the point, Smith reminds us, a little later on: “From the beginning, I was encouraged by those around Mandela to write about him as a human being. Don’t write about the icon, came the plea; he knows he is not a saint – he has flaws and weaknesses like everyone else.”
The first myth to be dismantled is the one concerning Mandela’s father, Henry Mandela, a chief in the Eastern Cape village of Mvezo. The story, as told by Mandela himself in his autobiography, is that Mandela senior was forcibly removed from his position after he rebelled against the authority of a white magistrate, by defying a summons to appear before him.
Smith notes: “The impression is of a prestigious lineage summarily and unjustly terminated; a chief – Mandela’s own father – humiliated; and a family condemned to hardship.”
In fact, according to records from the magistrate’s archives, Mandela’s father was stripped of his position after complaints that he irregularly allocated land to villagers, in exchange for either gifts or money.
Truth and myth can easily become blurred in the memory, either accidentally or purposefully.
Smith readily acknowledges that there was not necessarily any wrongful intention in Mandela’s own account of events: “In passing on the oral history of his father’s downfall, he was observing an important custom, but also, perhaps inadvertently, exposing its fundamental weakness as a reliable record.”
He adds, perceptively: “Truth and myth can easily become blurred in the memory, either accidentally or purposefully.”
A pity, then, that Smith proceeds to disregard his own wisdom. For instance, he revisits rumours of an affair between Mandela and fellow anti-apartheid activist Ruth Mompati, which tells that a child was born of their relationship. The story was based on hearsay (Smith cites “people close to Mandela”), and offers no more than circumstantial evidence to support the rumour (“apparently he looked like his father”).
Nevertheless, Smith confidently concludes that a child was indeed born from the relationship.
Another example concerns a reference to anti-apartheid activist Amina Cachalia. Nowhere does Smith suggest there was ever anything other than friendship between her and Mandela. Yet, almost gratuitously, he includes Cachalia in a list of women who allegedly hoped Mandela would join them on his release from prison.
There were other women, too, some with names that do not appear elsewhere in the record, stories that hinted at, rather than proved, affairs
The danger, then, is that while seeking to destroy some of the myths surrounding Mandela, Smith actually constructs new ones. There is no doubt that Mandela was involved in relationships with various women (his daughter Zindzi confirmed as much in an interview with Smith). So there is no reason to distort or exaggerate this aspect of Mandela’s life.
Yet, instead of shedding light on such matters, Young Mandela comes across as tacky – even mischievous. Note, for instance, the unsubstantiated comment that “…there are suspicions there could be other half-siblings too”. Or the titillating “There were other women, too, some with names that do not appear elsewhere in the record, stories that hinted at, rather than proved, affairs.” Nudge-nudge; hint-hint.
Smith spends quite a bit of time on various sexual shenanigans, even when Mandela is not directly involved. For instance, he recollects often-told tales about the infidelities of anti-apartheid leaders Joe Slovo and Ruth First. According to Smith, First was romantically involved with Ismail Meer before she got married. Years later, they danced together at a party. Smith breathlessly recounts: “Ruth was quivering when she came to Amina [Cachalia]. What should she do about her reawakened feelings for Ismail?”
The sexual escapades of Arthur Goldreich are also dredged up. Smith quotes a disapproving Denis Goldberg: “Arthur was a womaniser and Hazel [Mrs Goldreich] knew and tolerated it. He used to boast about his revolutionary activities, to get into young women’s pants.”
Smith lamely tries to justify this kind of prurience: “More than anything, perhaps, it is fascinating to reflect on why there was so much extramural sexual activity and what that tells us about the chief characters and the world and the age they were living through.”
Fortunately there is much more to Young Mandela than the salacious. Smith unearths fascinating and little-known details about Mandela’s trip through Africa in search of political and military support for the ANC’s newly declared war on apartheid, after the Sharpeville killings of 1960.
Mandela’s journey took him to Botswana, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia (via Sudan), Egypt (via Libya), Morocco and Senegal. So thorough was Smith’s research that he can include Mandela’s own conscientious account of the funds he raised during his journey.
This information is based on a report that Mandela wrote for his comrades on his return. It also provides a sobering account of the widespread support for the ANC’s rival, the Pan Africanist Congress, in many (if not most) parts of the continent.
This is a major strength of Smith’s book: when documentary evidence is available, it is engaging and authoritative.
Another example is the way he deals with the court papers filed by Evelyn (née Mase), Mandela’s first wife, when she filed for divorce in 1956. In these papers, she alleges that Mandela assaulted her several times over a period of 10 months.
If it is true that he attacked his wife, the explanation may lie in the unrelieved pressure and instability of his life in those years
Smith deals with her claims dispassionately and with circumspection. He notes that they were never tested in court, and that Mandela categorically denied the allegations in a petition filed by his lawyers (as well as in subsequent interviews).
Yet, in line with Smith’s unrelenting quest to demythologise Mandela, he cannot resist returning to these claims a little later. “If it is true that he attacked his wife, the explanation may lie in the unrelieved pressure and instability of his life in those years,” he speculates.
“Perhaps sometimes he simply blew a gasket and Evelyn suffered for it. Whilst that does not excuse his behaviour, it may provide some kind of context.”
So, at first, Smith diligently questions the veracity of Evelyn’s claims. Yet, a few pages later, he resorts to conjecture. A couple of cases like this sometimes make Young Mandela a frustrating read: it gives unnecessary prominence to the scandalous, making claims where sufficient evidence can’t be produced to corroborate them.
This is even the case in matters not related directly to Mandela. For instance, there is a snide reference to the political credentials and character of fellow Robben Island prisoner Govan Mbeki, based on unidentified sources.
Where Smith does fair best is in repositioning Evelyn and her three children at the centre of Mandela’s life, alongside Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and their two children. He reminds us that his first family were the original occupants of the famous Mandela house in Orlando West (now a museum). “Among the first family there is a feeling that they have been dispossessed, written out of Mandela’s life,” observes Smith. His account, written with much empathy, goes some way towards restoring them to their rightful place in Mandela’s life story.
Smith also movingly touches on the void left in the lives of both families by Mandela’s single-minded devotion to the anti-apartheid cause. His granddaughter, Ndileka, for instance, appears to be most open about the loss. But, notes Smith, she could just as well have been speaking for Zindzi.
Of course Mandela can never make up for that loss. It is too late: he turned 92 in July, and is suffering from the afflictions that typically arrive with advanced age. According to Smith, for Mandela this includes short-term memory loss. As he poignantly comments: “Mandela had given his best years to the struggle for liberation, and this was all that was left now, for his family: the same harmless yarns replayed many times over…”
Smith takes a well-aimed swipe at those who endlessly recount “the triumphant narrative” of Mandela’s life, yet never pause to consider the pain and suffering that his heroism imposed on those around him. In part, that is what this welcome account seeks to rectify, even if the end result is not altogether satisfactory. Too many sources stay unnamed, and some come across as rather self-serving, even spiteful.
However, we do now know a bit more about the man behind the myths. For that, we are indebted to Smith.
Tyrone August reviews Young Mandela (Weidenfeld and Nicolson) by David James Smith. Article was taken from the August 2010 edition of noseweek magazine.
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