If you ever wondered what former SA President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s time in office was like. Then wait no further as the life and times of SA’s first democratic president in the presidential seat will be published in a book.
According to a statement, the book yet to be titled will be a sequel to Long Walk to Freedom and will be published in 2016.
It will provide readers with both an unprecedented account of Mandela’s ‘extraordinary presidency and a deep personal insight’ into the man behind the international statesman.
“Madiba started working on a manuscript provisionally titled ‘The Presidential Years’ in 1998. He wanted to put on record his own reflections of those important years in his life (1994-1999) when he was President of South Africa. The book he had in mind was to be a natural progression from his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. Circumstances did not allow him to complete the project. I am very pleased that a team comprising former senior advisors of his have accepted responsibility for completing this unfinished task on his behalf,” says the late president’s wife Graça Machel.
Tuesday 24 March 2015 15:11
Macmillan acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the sequel of Long Walk to Freedom from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown
The book will be ‘candid and clear-eyed’ about the difficulties Mandela faced while in office but also about the fault lines that run through contemporary South Africa.
“The sequel to Long Walk to Freedom will not only tell Mandela’s story from his release to his retirement from government, but will also be a rallying cry that will remind readers everywhere what he stood for – and how it is still possible for his vision and his political philosophy positively to change not only South Africa but the world,” says the Editorial Director, Georgina Morley.
Macmillan acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the sequel of Long Walk to Freedom from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown, representing the Nelson Mandela Foundation and PQ Blackwell.
“The unique, uplifting achievement that is Mandela’s life continues to resonate around a troubled world and my colleagues in South Africa, India and Australasia are as proud as we are in the UK, to publish this extraordinary testament,” says Anthony Forbes Watson.
Mandela was prisoned for 27 years in Robben Island. He was released on the 11 of February, 1990. He became the president of the country after the first democratic elections in 1994.
He only served one term in office and handed over to Thabo Mbeki. Mandela died at the age of 95 after suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection on the 5th of December 2013.
