Mandela quote: If you talk to a man in a language he understands ….

[Garson O'Toole]

Thanks to Benjamin for an interesting question. The Peace Corps book
is available in full view at HathiTrust. Here is some metadata from
Hathitrust. Also, here is an excerpt and some links into HathiTrust.
The date on the cover is "April 1996".

At home in the world : the Peace Corps story.
Published: [Washington, D.C.? : Peace Corps, 1996]
Subjects: Peace Corps (U.S.) > Case studies.
Physical Description:   vii, 161 p. ; 18 cm.
Original Format: Book

Page: vi

[Begin excerpt]
Nelson Mandela explained why he learned Afrikaans, the language of his
prison guards in South Africa: "If you talk to a man in a language he
understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own
language, that goes to his heart."
[End excerpt]

Link to book in HathiTrust:
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951d012241914

Link to page with quote:
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951d012241914?urlappend=%3Bseq=14

Link to page with date: April 1996
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951d012241914?urlappend=%3Bseq=6

On Sat, May 26, 2012 at 7:53 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      =?windows-1252?Q?Mandela_quote=3A_If_you_talk_to_a_man_in_a_lang?
>              = =?windows-1252?Q?uage_he_understands=85=2E?=
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Nelson Mandela is widely attributed as saying "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart," but I cannot find any date or definitive citation. There is also a query on Wikiquote (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Nelson_Mandela).
>
> The earliest Google Books citation I find is 1996 in "At home in the world: the Peace Corps story" (fifth item on http://ow.ly/baNxg).
>
> Can this be dated?
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Seattle, WA
>
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