IN HIS OWN WORDS highlights the life of Nelson Mandela.  This is not an average memoir, not by any means.  Instead, it is a collection of his speeches throughout the ages.  Also included are forewords by President Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.  From the time of his trial and jail sentencing to present day, nothing is left out.

Perhaps the best image came from a speech Nelson Mandela made in 1962 during his court trial.  “I hate the practice of race discrimination, and in my hatred I am sustained by the fact that the overwhelming majority of mankind hate it equally.  I hate the systematic inculcation of children with colour prejudice and I am sustained in that hatred by the fact that the overwhelming majority of mankind, here and abroad, are with me in that.  I hate the racial arrogance which decrees that the good things in life shall be retained as the exclusive right of a minority of the population, and which reduces the majority of the population to a position of subservience and inferiority, and maintains them as voteless chattels to work where they are told and behave as they are told by the ruling majority.  I am sustained in that hatred by the fact that the overwhelming majority of mankind both in this country and abroad are with me.

Nothing that this Court can do to me will change in any way that hatred in me, which can only be removed by the removal of the injustice and inhumanity which I have sought to remove from the political and social life of this country.”

It often saddens me that throughout time, prejudice has not decreased.  We see it on the news every day, black youth are shooting other black youth for being “different.”  Homosexuals are beaten to death for being “different.”  Children are tormented by their peers for being too fat, too skinny, too smart, too stupid…  The truth of the matter is – we are all different and that is what makes the human race so unique.