Read Online Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Nelson Mandela
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convince him on that question…because their view is that you are not only telling your life; we want you to be a model around which we are going to build our organisation. Now if I deal with Evelyn here, I will have to tell you why our marriage collapsed, because our marriage really collapsed because of differences in politics and I don’t want to [say] that now against a poor woman, you know? Who can’t write her own story and put her own point of view. Although she has been interviewed by people, you see, and she has really distorted what actually happened…And once I start dealing with her, I must give the proper story, the full story. I would like to leave that out.
7. CONVERSATION WITH AHMED KATHRADA
KATHRADA: Now this is about Evelyn.
MANDELA: Uhuh?
KATHRADA: Now that you have corrected already. ‘According to Evelyn, when Mandela complained that she was spoiling their son by giving him too much money he took her throat and the boy went to neighbours who came round and found scratches on her neck.’
MANDELA: Mmm!
KATHRADA: Not true?
MANDELA: That’s not true. But what I wonder is how I could have not noticed these things.
KATHRADA: You see you have corrected this other thing where ‘Evelyn became a dedicated Jehovah’s Witness and spent much time reading the Bible. Mandela objected that the Bible tamed people’s minds, that the whites had taken the Africans’ land and left them with the Bible.’ You have said, ‘Not true.’
MANDELA: Yes, quite.
KATHRADA: But further on, this thing about ‘taking her by the throat’.
MANDELA: No, definitely say ‘Not true’ for the whole thing.
KATHRADA: Oh, I see.
MANDELA: For the whole thing because there is no question of that, there’s no question of that. I am sure she would have taken me to the police if I had done a thing like that. You know what happened?
KATHRADA: Ah.
MANDELA: We were arguing.
KATHRADA: Ah.
MANDELA: Now she had prepared for this, unknown to me. You remember those stoves, old stoves?
KATHRADA: Aha.
MANDELA: Coal stoves? We had an iron.
KATHRADA: Ja, a poker?
MANDELA: That’s right, a poker.
KATHRADA: Ja.
MANDELA: So she had put this thing in the coal and it was red hot and as we were arguing she then pulled this thing out, you know, in order to, what-you-call, to burn my face. So I caught hold of her and twisted her arm, enough for me to take this thing out.
KATHRADA: The poker away.
MANDELA: That’s all.
8. CONVERSATION WITH AHMED KATHRADA ABOUT THE POTATO BOYCOTT 3
KATHRADA: All right, page 30 [of Long Walk to Freedom draft], still the questions from the publisher. Ah, what you are saying here: ‘One of the most successful campaigns also occurred in 1959 and that was the Potato Boycott.’
MANDELA: Yes.
KATHRADA: ‘…It was well known that labour conditions on white farms in the Transvaal were grim but no one knew quite how grim they were until Henry Nxumalo, an intrepid reporter for the magazine posed as a worker himself and then wrote about it…’ 4 Now you are going on with a paragraph or two about the the the Potato Boycott. He is saying, ‘Were you involved in this in any personal way? If you were not, I’d be inclined to delete this material.’
MANDELA: Oh.
KATHRADA: That’s what he’s saying, although I would disagree with him because I think the Potato Boycott was such an important…
MANDELA: Oh yes, quite.
KATHRADA:…event for us.
MANDELA: Yes. I was…that was in 1959, hey?
KATHRADA: Somewhere there.
MANDELA: Yes, quite. Was it not [19]57?
KATHRADA: No, no…
MANDELA: I remember Lilian [Ngoyi] addressing a meeting with a potato and [s]he says, ‘Look, I will never eat a potato in my life. 5 Look at this potato; it looks like a human being…’
KATHRADA: Aha.
MANDELA: And, ‘Because it was fertilised, you see, out of human flesh.’ Something like that. I think that was [19]57, but you may be right – it may have been [19]59…I remember OR [Oliver Tambo], 6 [ chuckles ] when
7. CONVERSATION WITH AHMED KATHRADA
KATHRADA: Now this is about Evelyn.
MANDELA: Uhuh?
KATHRADA: Now that you have corrected already. ‘According to Evelyn, when Mandela complained that she was spoiling their son by giving him too much money he took her throat and the boy went to neighbours who came round and found scratches on her neck.’
MANDELA: Mmm!
KATHRADA: Not true?
MANDELA: That’s not true. But what I wonder is how I could have not noticed these things.
KATHRADA: You see you have corrected this other thing where ‘Evelyn became a dedicated Jehovah’s Witness and spent much time reading the Bible. Mandela objected that the Bible tamed people’s minds, that the whites had taken the Africans’ land and left them with the Bible.’ You have said, ‘Not true.’
MANDELA: Yes, quite.
KATHRADA: But further on, this thing about ‘taking her by the throat’.
MANDELA: No, definitely say ‘Not true’ for the whole thing.
KATHRADA: Oh, I see.
MANDELA: For the whole thing because there is no question of that, there’s no question of that. I am sure she would have taken me to the police if I had done a thing like that. You know what happened?
KATHRADA: Ah.
MANDELA: We were arguing.
KATHRADA: Ah.
MANDELA: Now she had prepared for this, unknown to me. You remember those stoves, old stoves?
KATHRADA: Aha.
MANDELA: Coal stoves? We had an iron.
KATHRADA: Ja, a poker?
MANDELA: That’s right, a poker.
KATHRADA: Ja.
MANDELA: So she had put this thing in the coal and it was red hot and as we were arguing she then pulled this thing out, you know, in order to, what-you-call, to burn my face. So I caught hold of her and twisted her arm, enough for me to take this thing out.
KATHRADA: The poker away.
MANDELA: That’s all.
8. CONVERSATION WITH AHMED KATHRADA ABOUT THE POTATO BOYCOTT 3
KATHRADA: All right, page 30 [of Long Walk to Freedom draft], still the questions from the publisher. Ah, what you are saying here: ‘One of the most successful campaigns also occurred in 1959 and that was the Potato Boycott.’
MANDELA: Yes.
KATHRADA: ‘…It was well known that labour conditions on white farms in the Transvaal were grim but no one knew quite how grim they were until Henry Nxumalo, an intrepid reporter for the magazine posed as a worker himself and then wrote about it…’ 4 Now you are going on with a paragraph or two about the the the Potato Boycott. He is saying, ‘Were you involved in this in any personal way? If you were not, I’d be inclined to delete this material.’
MANDELA: Oh.
KATHRADA: That’s what he’s saying, although I would disagree with him because I think the Potato Boycott was such an important…
MANDELA: Oh yes, quite.
KATHRADA:…event for us.
MANDELA: Yes. I was…that was in 1959, hey?
KATHRADA: Somewhere there.
MANDELA: Yes, quite. Was it not [19]57?
KATHRADA: No, no…
MANDELA: I remember Lilian [Ngoyi] addressing a meeting with a potato and [s]he says, ‘Look, I will never eat a potato in my life. 5 Look at this potato; it looks like a human being…’
KATHRADA: Aha.
MANDELA: And, ‘Because it was fertilised, you see, out of human flesh.’ Something like that. I think that was [19]57, but you may be right – it may have been [19]59…I remember OR [Oliver Tambo], 6 [ chuckles ] when
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