The book, "Mandela's Way: Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage", by Richard Stengel seeks to address how Nelson Mandela has shown courage throughout his life and how he has become the man that he is today through his journey along with the people who have influenced him and the people who he has influenced. This book is illustrated in the eyes of Richard Stengel during his time in South Africa with Nelson Mandela. Richard Stengel's comparison between Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama is exemplary. Richard Stengel describes Barack Obama as the 21st century Nelson Mandela (Stengel 19). For the most part, I can agree with that statement. Their characteristics are fairly similar in the fact that they both show empathy towards strangers and are willing to shake hands with everybody along with their willingness to learn seem identical. They are also both very organized and meticulous people (Stengel 4). Other than the suffering that Mandela had to go through, their attitudes are similar. The only critique I have about Mandela's view it that he still lived in the past and why's why Stengel may have said Obama is the "21st century version of Mandela" (Stengel 19). .
It is apparent from the first few pages of chapter one that Nelson Mandela is willing to take risks. First of all, Nelson Mandela showed he's willing to take risks by flying to Natal to speak to his Zulu supporters even after knowing that many of his Zulu supporters were being murdered by the rival Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party (Stengel 24). I admire Nelson Mandela for taking the risk to fly out to Natal to give a speech, but I found it foolish of him to take such a risk like that. Along with putting his own life in jeopardy he also put the lives of the two pilots, the bodyguard Mike, and Richard Stengel in jeopardy and that to me is just vacuous.
Nelson Mandela's description of courage is articulated. Firstly, Nelson Mandela defines courage as "courage is not the right absence of fear.
