Speaking Volumes: Celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday at your local Manatee library
July 18 would have been Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday.
Mandela was one of the greatest moral and political leaders in history. He was a South African anti-apartheid activist and revolutionary who served as South Africa’s first black president from 1994-99.
He fought tirelessly against the racial oppression by the Afrikaners in South Africa, for which he was imprisoned 27 years. In 1993, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights and racial equality advocacy work.
Mandela died on Dec. 5, 2013, at age 95 after suffering from a respiratory illness.
His life is an incredibly interesting and inspiring story, and your local library has many materials to help you learn more about this hero.
“Long Walk to Freedom” (1994) is Mandela’s autobiography describing the early years of his life. Check out the movie adaptation with the same title, also available through the Manatee County Library System.
Then, delve into the recently published sequel to “Long Walk to Freedom” called “Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years” (2017). Co-authored by Mandla Langa, due to Mandela’s declining health at the time, this sequel describes the later years of his life, including his term as President and the rebuilding of a racially equal society.
For further context, “Conversations with Myself” (2010) contains journal entries and draft letters written from Robben Island and the other prisons Mandela was incarcerated in, private recorded conversations, speeches and correspondence, and other archival documents that form a unique narrative of the fight for freedom and justice in South Africa.
“Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation” (2008) by John Carlin recounts the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted and won by South Africa. Mandela knew he needed a cause that all South Africans could share – the Springboks.
“Who Was Nelson Mandela?” offers a child-friendly portrait. Kids will be captivated by the audiobook “Nelson Mandel’s Favorite African Folktales,” a collection of traditional stories from Africa that come to life in this format.
Interested in reading about other experiences in Apartheid Africa? The 1948 classic “Cry, the Beloved Country” by Alan Paton describes a black man’s country under white man’s law.
“Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” (2016) by Trevor Noah is a compelling yet comical coming-of-age story set in the final years of the apartheid. Noah replaced Jon Stewart as the host of the ”Daily Show” on Comedy Central in 2015, and his unique experience growing up in South Africa to a black mother and a white, European father provides readers with a contemporary take on the political climate of South Africa in the late 20th century.
Find out more at mymanatee.org/library.
Kaitlin Crockett is a youth librarian at the Palmetto Library. Speaking Volumes, written by Manatee County Public Library System staff members, is published each Sunday in the Bradenton Herald.