MANDELA'S WAY

c. Choose, out of the fifteen chapters of the book, the three ones that interest you more and explain why.

The chapters 8 (Know your enemy), 9 (Keep your rivals close) and 14 (It's always both) are the ones I have enjoyed the most.

First, it is narrated how Mandela tried to understand and discover his political opponents' weaknesses. Being imprisoned, Mandela learned the language of his oppressor, the Afrikaans, and the history of the Afrikaners. He would say that on addressing an enemy, you have to go beyond the rational and, literally, "you go straight into their hearts." It was both an act of persuasion and, at the same time, he converted some enemies into his allies. The parallelism he drew, in Afrikaans, between the submission of the Afrikaner to the British during the Boer war and the apartheid in front of the South African president, P. W. Botha, was awesome and resulted in the release of Walter Sisulu. Being the first South African president elected democratically, he turned to sports, specially rugby, as way of healing the nation. He wanted to convey that South Africa would be one, that there would be justice for the black minority and that there would not be any revenge and so the white population did not have to be scared.

In second place, Mandela was said not to lose track of his opponents, even his friendly ones. He did not make a god out of loyalty. That is what happened to Mandela's relation to Bantu Holomisa and Chris Hani. They were immature and visceral. Mandela behaved as a father for them, teaching them to make decisions on the head rather than the blood. The Zulu leader Mangosuthu Butelezi is portrayed as an ally to become an enemy. Therefore, Mandela, when appointed South African president, invited him into first cabinet as minister of home affairs as he was so dangerous for Mandela that he needed to "keep an eye on him."

Last but not least, Mandela the answer to optional questions was almost always both. In a dilemma all explanations might be true. A "both" or a "maybe" is closer to the truth than a "yes" or "no". When he was released, he tried to solve a problem reconciling both sides. Sometimes it was not possible to make everyone happy. For instance, in his negotiations for the country's first government, he made compromises in order to come to an agreement, that is, a unity government with the National Party, in which F. W. de Klerk was vice president in spite of knowing that he had been a traitor to him several times. 

In all, Mandela constantly had to tolerate a lot of people who meant to do harm to him; however, he gave them back kindness and confidence. That is for most people impossible. It is an act that requires, according to Richard Stengel empathy and imagination. But the reward is something that can fairly be described as wisdom.