Gra\u00e7a Machel sheltered her husband, Nelson Mandela, from South Africa\u2019s woes in the last two years of his life, she told CNN\u2019s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say he was aware of \u2013 about all these things, maybe until about two years back,\u201d she said in her first television interview after emerging from six months of mourning.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I decided to save him, to protect him, from getting involved and knowing in depth what was going on, because he was such a sensitive person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amanpour had asked Machel whether Mandela knew about his country\u2019s \u201cstruggle,\u201d such as the \u201cgrowing inequality\u201d and \u201coppression against women.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow aware,\u201d she asked, \u201cwas he that the dream still needed a huge amount of work in order to make it really come true?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t be able to act on those issues,\u201d Machel said. \u201cAnd I felt, why to keep him with a heavy heart where he is not able to make a difference to change the situation?\u201d<\/p>\n
Both she and the rest of her family made a conscious effort to shield him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMadiba also trusted, you know, people he was working with; he trusted even the leadership of this country. So many times he would say, \u2018You know mum, I\u2019ve done what I was able to do, and let other young people, other leaders, to carry on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s in the hand of everyone; it\u2019s not one single person.\u201d<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gra\u00e7a Machel sheltered her husband, Nelson Mandela, from South Africa\u2019s woes in the last two years of his life, she told CNN\u2019s Christiane Amanpour on Monday. \u201cI would say he was aware of \u2013 about all these things, maybe until about two years back,\u201d she said in her first television interview after emerging from six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":28803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1539,14],"yoast_head":"\n