Reviews for Hunger for Freedom: The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela

The average rating for Hunger for Freedom: The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-12-20 00:00:00 Sherry Garten This book has changed who I am The book is a social/political/personal history of Mandela with the commen thread of food running through out it. It goes from his time as a herdboy in the Eastern Cape, eating scrounged mushrooms and mielies to his retirement from retirement when he had allowed himslef to relax enough to eat spare ribs. Through the examination of what he was allowed to eat, what he preferred to eat and what he was given to eat, the awfulness of the apartheid era, as well as the amazing transformation this country underwent, is made real and personal. While reading this book, I cried and laughed, was overwhelmed and saddened, felt fear and hope, couldn't put it down and had to put it down to digest it. Every single South African should read this book. I thought I knew this lands history but realised I had little idea of what we have come from; what happened and what was done. Seeing Mandela's life through the very human lens of eating shows that he was just that - a human, a man, a father, husband and friend. His suffering was the suffering of a man - not that of the deity he has been transformed into. This book made it all so very real to me. I can't remain unchanged by it all. Read this book - everyone should!

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-19 00:00:00 Marc Desaules For the September book group segment on Sin & Redemption. I read this for a book group that didn't happen, and while it is a wonderful theological treatise on Desmond Tutu's life and work it was way over my head. I'm doing a presentation on it and its hard to distill the essence of how Ubuntu theology works rather than how Tutu came to the inner dynamics of his own theology. It's not going to be a great presentation.