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Mandela Gets His Boots Back
In 1962, Nelson Mandela was on the run, drumming up support for his anti-apartheid movement on illegal trips abroad. Before departing on one such trip, he stayed with his good friend Asanterabi Swai in Tanzania, the father of Fyiane Nsilo-Swai, who is now a member of the Babbidge Library staff. In his haste to depart, Mandela left behind a pair of worn boots in which he had traveled the world on his quest for freedom. He planned to retrieve them on his way back to South Africa, but instead he went directly home and was arrested shortly thereafter. Mr. Swai went on to become Tanzania's representative to the United Nations and Mr. Mandela to the presidency of South Africa. The boots stayed behind in Tanzania, becoming a treasured memento of the relationship between the two men. When Mr. Swai died in 1994, his will directed that the boots be returned to Mandela. The return of the boots became a major political gesture, which the Nationalist Party attempted to prevent. But in 1995, Vicky Swai, Fyiane's mother, carried out her late husband's request. In a ceremony in South Africa she presented the boots to Nelson Mandela. The boots now reside in a museum in that country.
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