As South Africa and the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandela‘s birthday on Wednesday, freelance photo-journalist, Fakir Hassen, launched his latest book titled: “100 Memories of Madiba”.
The 170-page book reflects mostly on the interactions between Madiba and the Indian community.
Included in the book are pictures, stories and speeches made by the former President during meetings with Indian communities across the country.
The book was launched at the Killarney Mall in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
“100 Memories of Madiba” is a book detailing Madiba’s interactions with the Indian community from the days of apartheid.
It also compromises of stories of ordinary South Africans and their meetings and encounters with South Africa’s first democratic President.
Written by award-winning journalist Hassen, the book tells of his experiences and encounters with Madiba in his career as a journalist of more than 30-years.
Fakir Hassen says:“I went back to my archives and I found lots of stories I did on Madiba and related events over the years, quite ironically I took many pictures of people with Madiba and I never had one of my own.”
“So the first phase was those stories, the second element was putting out a social media call for people who had pictures and stories to tell about Madiba.”
Hassen says the positive influence Madiba had on South Africans and the rest of the world is what led to him writing this book.
“I don’t think that there can be anybody in the entire world that couldn’t see that they couldn’t have been influenced by Madiba in some way or the other. Whether they saw him or not, billions of people across the world have never seen him, yet they hold him in such high stand.”
Hundreds of copies of the book will be donated to public libraries in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Hassen says the book will also be self-published and anyone who wishes to purchase a copy can contact him via email on fakir@vodamail.co.za.
“The first aim is always to find sponsors and if I can’t sometimes I pour my own money into it to make sure the book goes into public libraries and other public places where it must be accessible. In terms of selling I always want to keep it low as possible and because of that I often have problems with the major book sellers in this country who want to raise the price.”
