This interview of Nelson Mandela, which is taken from Reader’s Digest, April 2005, features in B.Ed. 1st Year’s General English book (Tribhuvan University). Here follow the key takeaways from the text:
1. Interview of Nelson Mandela taken by an American magazine Reader’s Digest; published in April 2005
2. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), a South African political leader and philanthropist:
- Nicknamed Madiba, considered as the wise father of the transformed nation of South Africa
- Had British education; was taught to be a “black Englishman”
- As a young lawyer, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and protested against the apartheid government
- Was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to life in prison; was kept in the prison of Robben Island, and elsewhere
- “Free Mandela” became a rallying cry throughout the world
- Finally in 1990, he was set free after the imprisonment of 27 years
- Was elected as the first black South African president in 1994
- In his later life, he founded Nelson Mandela Foundation to promote the vision of freedom and equality for all; he also began fighting against poverty and HIV/AIDS
3. Major Ideas of Nelson Mandela expressed in the given interview:
- “It is important not to be hostile to what a greater part of society has embraced, whether as Christians, Hindus or Muslims. The relation between a man and his or her god is a personal matter; you can’t go out and challenge the belief of people in a superior being.”
- Generally religion is good for humanity, but the competition between the various religious groups is not good.
- We should fight against the social stigma of avoiding people altogether who suffer from AIDS.
- “Don’t isolate people who are suffering from terminal diseases, because that alone kills people far more than the disease itself. When somebody discovers that they are no longer regarded as a human being, he or she loses the will to fight, whereas if they are supported, especially by their friends and people they rely upon, they fight back.”
- Beyond AIDS, the greatest problems facing the world right now are “poverty and lack of education”.
- “Give children education and explain that they should play a role for their country. Children bring you down to mother earth instead of floating high; they correct some mistakes that you have made in the past.”
- “When you have an organization representing the entire world [UN], it’s not correct to leave it and act unilaterally.”
- “. . . deep commitment to multilateralism”
- Mandela advocated for non-violent struggle, but opined that when the authorities did not listen to it at all, violent measures could be necessary to achieve the goal, as in the case of South Africa.
- “I am committed to the principle of finding rational solutions to situations of conflict.”
- Inspired by the lines of an English poem by an English poet, W.E. Henley, called “Invictus” to endure the long years of his imprisonment.
- “I do not want to be presented as some deity. I would like to be remembered as an ordinary human being with virtues and vices.”
Ramrowriter 
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