The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

Oliver Tambo was “slight, dark‐skinned with tribal marks engraved on his cheeks, nice
looking, with neat hands”, while Nelson Mandela was “slow to rebel”. 242 Benson was
clearly impressed by Walter Sisulu:
He, more than any other individual in the [Youth] League, and
probably than any Congress leader, knew just what it meant to be
‘a native’. 243
It was this biographical research on South African resistance history by Mary Benson that
led to one of the first published biographical profiles of Nelson Mandela. This took place
in August 1962 and the circumstances were Mandela’s arrest after he had returned from a
secret tour through African countries and Britain. Benson helped draft a profile of
Mandela that was used for a biographical piece published in the Observer. 244 She had
encountered Mandela along with other ANC leaders like Walter Sisulu during a visit in
1952, and then again in 1957 during the Treason Trial, while she was secretary of the
Treason Trial Defence Fund. During 1961, while researching the history of the ANC,
Benson had met with Mandela, and conducted interviews on at least three occasions.
These meetings had taken place clandestinely as Mandela had been operating
underground at this time. In June 1962, Benson again spent time with Mandela, this time
in London, while he was secretly out of South Africa.
At the time that these interviews were conducted, Benson had concentrated on exploring
Mandela’s association with the ANC. She did not make use of a tape recorder. She had no
idea “how important every detail of Mandela’s personal as well as his political life would
become”. 245 Nevertheless, these interviews with Mandela and with others were to become
important for direct biographical purposes. After being the first South African to testify
before the United Nations Committee on Apartheid in May 1963, Benson followed this up
the following year, in March 1964 with further testimony along with Oliver Tambo,
Miriam Makeba and representatives of American anti‐apartheid organisations. Benson
242 Mary Benson, The African Patriots, pp 104, ?
243 Mary Benson, The African Patriots, p 105
244 Mary Benson, A Far Cry, p 144.
245 Mary Benson, A Far Cry, p 130.
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