The new biography of Nelson Mandela is not just another book on the former president, but conveys his values, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Monday.
”Perhaps the strongest sense that this portrait conveys is that ubuntu is real — we are because they are — and that the values of ubuntu and the commitment to service are as noble now as they were in Qunu in the 1920s, only perhaps more needed now to define us as Africans who care in a caring democracy,” said Manuel.
He was speaking at the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) in Johannesburg at the launch of the book Mandela: The Authorised Portrait.
Present were Mandela, President Thabo Mbeki and some of the dozens of people who contributed to the book.
Mandela presented Mbeki with a signed copy of the book. Mandela jokingly greeted contributors, businessman Tokyo Sexwale and editorial consultant Ahmed Kathrada, as ”terrorists”, but did not address the gathering.
”I think the biggest challenge was to deal with the sense of ‘not another Mandela biography’, so what they’ve done is take 88 years of South African history … and through it they’ve actually traversed the most wonderful journey in the life of Mandela,” said Manuel.
Manuel said the books innovation came from the observations and anecdotes from dozens of people around the world who met and reacted to Mandela. They included his friends, his jailers and world leaders. — Sapa