Playing The Enemy Response

Playing the Enemy After reading playing the enemy, I must say I was actually pretty jealous of those fortunate enough to get to meet and leave an impression on the great man Nelson Mandela. The story was truly inspirational and after reading was very glad I chose this book to read. I knew that Nelson Mandela was a great man and I knew only part of his story. I knew that he was the first black president that South Africa had seen, I also knew that he was jailed for man years (27 to be exact) and was the reason that the South African Apartheid was ended. I was ignorant to the journey it took to get there and the millions of hearts he won over in his lifetime. It amazed me how throughout Mandela’s life he was able to win over the hearts of almost everyone he spoke to. From what most may consider the lowest point of one’s life, being locked away in prison, away from your family for 27 years, he was able to use this time to not only mellow down and forgive those who imprisoned him, but he also ended up befriending many of them. That to me spoke greatness upon his character. I recall reading about when he first started learning about the game of rugby, he did so all with the sole purpose of becoming close with one of his new prison wards. When I first read this part in the story I thought there is no way this could work… a big bad white South African man who obviously has many prejudice against Mandela and his people, but somehow he was able to pull it off, whenever given the chance, Mandela would discuss rugby with him and eventually it paid off, he soon was living the life, he was given a hot plate… a freaking HOT PLATE. The fact that a prisoner was able to pull that off was quite amazing. but it never stopped there. He was later moved out of his small little cell and was put into a little house. Then it went even farther when he was taken on drives around town and I think the peak of his prison privileges came when Mandela was allowed to go freely for walks.