Good Morning Mr Mandela
By Zelda La Grange
Published by Penguin Group (2014)
ISBN: 978-0-241-00401-2

IN the book Good Morning Mr Mandela, Zelda La Grange takes the reader through her perceived transformation from being a racist to appreciating the black race as equals.
La Grange a white Afrikaner born in 1970 at the height of the apartheid system in South Africa not only grew up enjoying the benefits at the expense of the indigenes of the country, but also strongly supported the rules of segregation.
“Ours was a typical privileged white family, benefiting from apartheid through good education, access to basic services and a sense of entitlement to the land and its resources,” writes La Grange.
“Apartheid was our regime’s political solution to enforce segregation and the separation of races, classes and cultures.”
To the author, apartheid was the norm as it had not only been endorsed by her parents, but the church as well.
“At the time of apartheid you didn’t even contemplate anything but simply did it,” she writes.
“According to our church, we were right.
“We did the right thing and yes it was right, as in direction to the right.”
At the time when La Grange and her people were enjoying the benefits of living in South Africa, the majority black South Africans were wallowing in poverty and treated like second class citizens in their country.
It was also during that time when courageous men and women organised themselves to stage the war against the apartheid government.
Among the men was the late Nelson Mandela, a man whom La Grange grew up knowing as a ‘terrorist’ working to topple the government.
She did not know she would one day work hand-in-hand with the man she had grown to despise.
When apartheid ended in 1994, La Grange joined the office of the first democratically elected president in South Africa who was Mandela.
Two weeks after joining the President’s office as a typist, La Grange comes face-to-face with the man she had loathed all her life and as she writes, “One does not know what to do at that point except cry.”
The question is, were they genuine tears of appreciation of the man or she was mourning the death of a regime that had protected her kith and kin.
The writer gives the impression that all the ideologies that had been instilled in her over the past 24 years were wiped off in that moment.
Having grown up knowing blacks as servants and now the tables had turned, the writer claims at that moment she had admiration for the man she had loathed all her life.
La Grange writes that during her first days in the office a colleague Mary Mxadana had shared with her stories about the liberation struggle.
“I started to be intrigued by the history of my own country,” she writes.
“It felt like I had lived on another planet and I was completely unaware of anything she was telling me.”
Indeed, it is expected that you would be surprised by the stories of the liberation struggle as you were not on the receiving end of the apartheid system.
The writer now wants to identify with the history of the black South Africans yet it was her people that had perpetrated evils on the locals.
The chameleon in La Grange was beginning to change its colour so she could once again enjoy the benefits of being a sympathiser of the black regime.
For years, La Grange worked with Mandela closely as one of his private secretaries.
The writer takes the reader through the experiences she shared with the man she had grown to love and respect.
The new found love for Mandela is however questionable.
Interesting to note, was how only the writer focuses more on the visits by Mandela to the West and she gives prominence to the relations he had with the Western community.
She goes to town about interactions with the likes of George Bush, Gordon Brown, and Lori McCreory among other white friends Mandela had.
It was these white friends of Mandela who supported him and his Foundation as La Grange puts it.
It is as if Mandela never had any relations with his African counterparts.
By so doing La Grange is underhandedly taking away the ‘Africanness’ in Mandela trying to portray him as more of a hero for the West and not Africa.
To prove how the years of working with Mandela had not changed her perception of the black African community, La Grange is silent on Mandela’s interactions with other African leaders.
To her these were non-events, and did not deserve a place in Mandela’s history.
The writer continues working with Mandela in his last days when he was sick and again the superiority complex of La Grange is revealed as she constantly feels she alone had to make the best decisions for him.
The unspoken theme is how abominably Mandela was treated after retiring from the presidency in 1999 and in his last days by the South African government, his family and staff.
To her all the people failed him and it was only her who had the best interests for Mandela.
Inevitably, La Grange was forced out of her job by the ‘vipers’ nest of Mandela family intrigue.
In as much as La Grange wants the world to perceive her as a ‘born again racist’ her book leaves a lot to be desired.
Her feelings towards the black race have not changed only her outward act, like the skin of the chameleon changing to suit the environment but not the inner person.