📖 Novel of The Week: Good Morning, Mr. Mandela by Zelda la Grange

South African activist and politician Nelson Mandela would be 102 years old today and so what better day to talk about the memoir written by his former assistant Zelda la Grange?

Zelda la Grange, a white Afrikaner, grew up in segregated South Africa fearing black people. She wasn't racist because she believed white people were superior, but because that's what she has been raised to think that way.
After finishing a three-years degree for management secretaries at Technikon in Pretoria (today's Tshwane University of Technology), in 1992 she started working as a secretary at the Ministry of Economy.
In 1994 the first after-apartheid elections took place and Nelson Mandela won as first South Africa's black President. 

When Zelda heard about a job as a typist inside the newly established presidential offices, she applied and got the job. Her first encounter with Mandela felt like a surreal dream since not only he spoke to her in Afrikaans, but also spent a few moments to get to know her. Zelda felt so overwhelmed she started sobbing. Nelson Mandela, the man she had always pictured as an enemy, was asking how she was doing...

From that moment on, Zelda got to work closely with him, and every day she discovered something new about his character and his goals for South Africa's future. 
She then got promoted as a private secretary and, when he retired, she became the spokesperson for his charities.

Zelda and Nelson Mandela developed a beautiful relationship based on trust and they also called each other with the affectionate nicknames 'Zeldina' and 'Khulu' (meaning 'grandfather').
She got to travel almost everywhere in the world, meeting influential personalities like US Presidents, pop stars and celebrities, and even royals.

When Mandela became old, Zelda became even more protective of him and tried her best to please his requests and the ones from his charities.
Her loyalty went above and beyond her job's tasks and she was often called in the early hours just to at his side when he started to get sick. Being that close to him caused some jealousy among a few members of Mandela's family (they were suspicious about her real motives and, let's face it, they were thinking about the heredity) and, due to that, she was almost denied to attend his funeral.

I liked the evident evolution of Zelda in this memoir: from a quiet young girl to a strong, loyal, and resilient woman who only had Mandela's best interests and well-being at heart.
I read Mandela's autobiography 'A long way to freedom' as well, so it has been interesting and instructive to see two different perspectives on the same topic.
Reading this book will give you a better insight into what life working for Nelson Mandela was like, but also how things changed (or not) before and after Apartheid as well as the international perception on the matter.


Ph: goodreads.com & palife.co.uk HERE