The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomes the decision to withdraw Mandela’s Last Years
The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomes the decision by Penguin Random House to withdraw the book Mandela’s Last Years from trade.
While the Foundation has no authority over those who represent the life and times of Madiba through publications, we welcome new interpretations and fresh stories related to the life and times of Nelson Mandela. Madiba constantly reminded the Foundation that he wanted us to promote spaces for multiple voices.
However, those who choose to do so must respect a medley of legal and ethical requirements. The author of Mandela’s Last Years demonstrably failed in this regard.
Thousands of books, documentaries, feature films, online features, articles and other forms of publication on Madiba are produced by various people. Many of these have used our resources. Madiba mandated us to provide archival and broader memory services without fear or favour. In 2014 we marked the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Long Walk to Freedom by publishing online over fifty errors of fact in the book.
Our memory work allows us to assist research projects across a wide spectrum of both voice and perspective. Alf Kumalo used our fact-checking service while preparing his book 8115: A Prisoner’s Home. So did Anant Singh while working on the movie Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Xolela Mangcu, who is currently working on a new Mandela book, took comment from us on his book concept. All these narrators chose which of our inputs to accept and disregard. A healthy pattern, in our view.