A Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela | Paperback (b format)

One of the first pieces of news on the television that I remember vividly was the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in South Africa after a long imprisonment for organising resistance against one of the most overtly oppressive regimes in the world - Apartheid South Africa and the National Party.

A Long Walk to Freedom charts Nelson Mandela's life in South Africa. The beginning of the book is devoid of Nelson Mandela's involvement in politics as he had tried to avoid it on the advice of collegues. However, being an African in South Africa meant that he could not steer clear of politics all of his life and he eventually joined the ANC and worked his way up the chain of command, founding the armed resistance wing of the ANC along the way.

The remainder of the book deals with his imprisonment on Robben Insland and his eventual release when it became apparent that the leadership of the ANC could not be held prisoner if South Africa was to avoid a civil war.

This book is a fantastic glimpse of the man that Nelson Mandela is and why he is hearalded as the father of post-apartheid South Africa. However, it only gets 4 stars as I feel the book is rushed towards the end. I realise that the book is about the 'long walk to freedom' and there was a lot going on in Mandela's life at the time so I understand why it seems unfinished, but I wish it had a bit more on what happened in the first few years of the Rainbow Nation and Mandela as President.