Zelda La Grange recounts a life-changing first meeting with Nelson Mandela, describing him as unexpectedly warm and unresentful. Mandela spoke Afrikaans—learned in prison despite its association with apartheid—which immediately lowered her defenses and started her on a journey of personal discovery. The excerpt is a short spoken exchange from a YouTube interview uploaded by James Laughlin.
Nelson Mandela. I'd love to know what it felt like when you first met him. That first meeting when you guys connect. What was he like? How did he treat you?
It was a life changing experience, just that first meeting. Because the person that I found in front of me was completely the opposite of, you know, what was propagated to us about him. You know, we expect to be angry. I expected him to be resentful, and he was completely the opposite. He spoke in my home language in Afrikaans, of course. He studied Afrikaans in prison with the language of apartheid, the language of the oppressor. But he studied Afrikaans to negotiate with the Afrikaner or the apartheid regime. So when he spoke to me in Afrikaans, it destroyed my defenses immediately and it opened me up to this journey of discovery.
