Prof Vladimir Shubin has clarified his reference to Nelson Mandela’s military training, made during a presentation at the National Heritage Council conference in East London earlier this year.
In his letter to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, Shubin writes:
Your letter regarding my presentation at the National Heritage Council conference in East London has been brought to my attention. Unfortunately my position has been reported in a wrong way. In fact my paper, submitted to the conference organisers, states the following:
"A lack of access to them [archives] and what is worse, a lack of stamina to 'dig' in them (and you need stamina to do so, because work in archive is a long and labour-consuming process) results in creation of various 'myths' and 'legends' which are 'walking' from one book or article to another one, and sometimes begin living their own life. That happens, for example, with a story of Nelson Mandela’s alleged military training in Algeria in 1962."
So I did not use the case of Mr Mandela's military training to illustrate how archives "can lie", but on the contrary used this example to show the need of the hard work in archives.
By the way I used the word "lie" only in my oral presentation, expressing a readiness to "withdraw" it, if it seemed too strong. But a South African participant insisted it was correct.
In any case my text reads:
"Besides, one can find distortions in archive documents, albeit often not deliberate ... I recall also how at one of the discussions with the delegation of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) in the Soviet General Staff, its Head spoke critically about the Lusaka Manifesto, approved by a group of African countries in April 1969 that virtually attempted to reach a settlement with colonial and racist regimes behind the back of the liberation movement. But a military translator who spoke good English but was very far from the realities of Southern Africa converted this 'Manifesto' to a declaration of 'decisive armed actions adopted by freedom fighters who met in Lusaka'.
"One can imagine how surprised future historians will be when finally (let us hope) the archive ... will be accessible for them."
So the example had nothing to do with Mandela.
As to his alleged training in Algeria I called for logical thinking:
"... one has to think over the facts and dates: did Mandela have time in Algeria for such training if the independence of this country was proclaimed on July 5 1962, and a month later he was arrested in South Africa, having managed to visit Addis Ababa and having discussed with ANC members in Dar-es-Salaam, Johannesburg and Durban."
I am sure you are well acquainted with Mandela's story of his training in Ethiopia. As to his stay in Morocco with the ALN one may call it "training", but judging by the pieces from his diary attached to your letter and from my experience, I would rather call it "acquaintance" with the military matters. (It happened so that I was directly involved in military training of Africans in my younger years and later indirectly for two decades as well).