The lost Mandela tapes: Power and conviction in his voice, but also loneliness, says biographer

Richard Stengel, who helped Nelson Mandela write his autobiography, says listening to almost 70 hours of recordings of conversations between them was a moving experience. He spoke to Pieter du Toit.

In Episode 4 of the podcast Mandela: The Lost Tapes, journalist Richard Stengel leads the listener through Nelson Mandela’s rationalisation for turning to the armed struggle during the darkest years of apartheid.  

He explains that, to Mandela, non-violence wasn’t a matter of principle but rather one of tactics. Mandela was willing to use any tactic if it meant getting him and the liberation movement closer to its goal: the overthrow of apartheid. And it eventually led to his arrest in 1962, thanks to the CIA’s tipping off South African authorities.