Mandela: My prisoner, my friend

This very personal and unpretentious memoir by Christo Brand helps fill in many dimensions of Mandela's life during imprisonment and also the varying faces of apartheid.  Brand grew up in South Africa in unusual circumstances - though of Afrikaans descent, his parents were very open-minded and, within the limits of South African society and rules, were open to relations with all people.  Accordingly, when he became a warder in the South African Prison system at age 18 (to avoid military service), he was a combination of naive obedience to the system coupled with an open-minded outlook toward people of all races.

When assigned to the maximum security prison on Robben Island, he was surprised to find that he was to oversee not the hardened criminals he expected, but "even worse", murderous terrorists, as the government had depicted them - especially including Nelson Mandela, who was 60 and had already served many years.  Brand soon found that these were serious, decent and kind people, and over time, he began helping them in small ways that seemed to him to be only human, yet could easily have resulted in his dismissal.

One feature of imprisonment for the "Rivonians" (so-called because of the trial that resulted in their life sentences, held at Rivonia) that I had not known about and that weighed on them very heavily was that they were forbidden from seeing or even hearing the voices of children at any time, especially their own children.  Thus, when Brand once secretly made a startling exception to the rules and allowed Mandela to briefly hold his granddaughter, it was particularly meaningful and helped cement their relationship.  Not surprisingly, the book reveals Mandela to be amazingly patient, disciplined and kind to all - though also quite impressively resolute when he felt it necessary.  An easy, heart-warming read - very highly recommended.