A sequel to Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, is to be published in South Africa next year, the late former president’s foundation said on Wednesday.
The book, titled The Presidential Years, which Mandela began writing in 1998, will be based on his five years in office.
He had already drafted 10 chapters “when he finally ran out of steam” in 2002, said the foundation, which has released a handwritten manuscript of the book’s opening sentences.
“It will be based on the 10 chapters written by Mandela himself,” Danielle Melville, the spokeswoman for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said.
She did not say who has been brought in to finish the book.
The foundation, which oversees Mandela’s legacy, said it had embarked on a project to see the completion of The Presidential Years“as an authorised account of Mr Mandela’s presidency”.
The hand-written draft opens with a poignant passage: “Men and women, all over the world, right down the centuries, come and go. Some leave nothing behind, not even their names. It would seem that they never existed at all.”
Mandela left instructions for the draft to be handed to five of his comrades for comments, including President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, who was also jailed with Mandela on Robben Island.
Sapa-AFP