nngu007
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 2, 2010
- 15,862
- 5,797
Nelson Mandela also visited Tanzania in 1962, staying with the late minister Nsilo Swai, whose wife, Vicky Nsilo Swai, told the BBC about his left luggage:
"On the day Mandela was leaving, he had to leave behind a suitcase because he had too much luggage. In the suitcase was a pair of brown, leather boots. My husband and I ended up keeping them for 33 years.
After my husband retired from politics, we moved from Dar es Salaam to Moshi, near to Kilimanjaro - and the boots came with us.
Then, my husband got a job with the United Nations so the boots lived in New York for 15 years.
I kept them in our bedroom in a cupboard. I never polished them, I never cleaned them but I put newspaper in them to keep them firm.
The boots are very strong and the leather is excellent - and when I took them back to Mr Mandela in 1995 they were really like new.
The boots still fitted Mr Mandela and he joked that 'these boots have travelled more than myself'.
A lot of people are surprised why I kept the boots for so long. But I really wanted a man who I saw so dedicated to his country to have a memory of these boots." "And while his intentions were good, that could
