An insight into Nelson Mandela
Ear, nose and throat surgeon, Dr Peter Friedland, had unprecedented access to Nelson Mandela, helping him to hear again.
If you had personal time with Nelson Mandela, what would you discuss? This may seem like a hypothetical question but for Dr Peter Friedland it’s not. The ear, nose and throat surgeon spent years looking after Mandela helping him to hear again.
But at the end of the day, it was Friedland who learnt how to listen.
Acknowledging that there are hundreds of books about Mandela, Friedland said it was his unique access to the former president that made him want to write everything down. It was his sister who helped him realise the process.
“Peter has lots of stories and he has been telling them for a long time, he’s a wonderful raconteur,” Jill Margo told The AJN over zoom. The author explained that she was going to write everything down and print it as a small book for the family for Friedland’s 60th birthday. But it became much bigger.
“I learned so much from him and so many lessons that I wanted to put down for the generations that follow,” Friedland said. “Most of the books on Nelson Mandela have been written about his immediate release from prison, his early president years, and also about his childhood and growing up. And I had this unique gift of being able to see him in his post-presidential years, sort of in the twilight of his life and the calm of his home in Houghton. And I could sit with him in confidence, and we could have a chat, and I could listen and I could learn the lessons from the great master himself.”
In Quiet Time With The President, Friedland and Margo tell the story of how Friedland helped Mandela with his ear health. Importantly though, while it’s another book about Mandela, it is framed by the experience that Friedland himself had in South Africa and his move to Australia.
“I’ve described in detail a lot of my dilemmas, a lot of my faults and my foibles. I think people will understand that it’s not easy to immigrate,” Friedland recalled.
For Margo and Friedland, writing the book together was an interesting and special process. Margo, who has worked on several biographies and memoirs, said writing with her brother was unique.
“We talk in shorthand,” she laughed. “Writing with him was a complete pleasure. We had a few minor disputes, but we solved these quickly, and he could trust me in a way that he might not have trusted a stranger.” Margo recalled staying at Friedland’s house one night and going downstairs when she couldn’t sleep, only to find Friedland in his pyjamas about to meditate. They picked up on a previous conversation.
“He was undefended, open,” she said. “We had this deep conversation that wouldn’t have been possible [normally]. You immediately sink to a level of intimacy, and I think you feel that in the book… as if you’re in the family with us.”
Both Margo and Friedland explained that the book went through a rigorous research process because they had to corroborate a lot of information never shared before. Stories like an assassination attempt and like Mandela slipping away from his security detail in Australia to make past wrongs right.
When asked what they hope people get out of the book, Friedland was emphatic: “I wanted people to understand the greatness of one of the most magnificent souls of the 20th century, of someone who had worked on himself for 27 years and who just didn’t talk the talk, but walked the walk,” he said.
“And of course, he admits that he had made lots of mistakes and he wasn’t perfect. But he had such ideals; if we had leaders today in this world who could strive to that, or even reach those heights, can you imagine what that would mean for us?”
Quiet Time With The President is published by Australian Scholarly Publishing, $34.95 rrp.
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