One of the world’s most revered public figures, Nelson Mandela is an iconic symbol of the triumph of the human spirit over prejudice and fear. Renowned for his tireless crusade against gender and racial inequality, Mandela’s anti-apartheid campaigning, his outspoken social criticism, and his values of freedom, have made him a hero of our time.

Mandela follows the extraordinary path of this man’s journey to become a living legend. With in-depth chapters on his tribal roots, his revolutionary ANC activities that led to his notorious 27-year imprisonment, and his career after his momentous release in 1990, discover how one man came to heal a torn nation as its President.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MP Peter Hain is renowned for his three decades of anti-apartheid campaigning.

Born to anti-apartheid activists with links to Mandela that go back to the 1960s, he grew up in South Africa where his parents were jailed and then banned by the regime.

At just 15, Hain made his first anti-apartheid speech at the funeral of an activist, a year before his parents were forced to leave South Africa, taking him to London. Hain’s fervent campaigning throughout the 1970s made apartheid a national issue in Britain, whilst making him a target of the regime’s security services. A regular contributor to daily newspapers in the UK, he is also the author of thirteen published works including Don’t Play With Apartheid, Mistaken Identity: The Wrong Face of the Law and Sing the Beloved Country.

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John Carlin In SA
7- 11 December to promote
the big screen
release of
Invictus

 

This paperback edition of Invictus is a film tie-in version of John Carlin’s Playing the Enemy.  The film of Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, will be released nationwide on 11 December 2009.

As the day of the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, and the Springboks faced New Zealand’s all-conquering All Blacks, more was at stake than a sporting trophy.

When Nelson Mandela appeared wearing a Springbok jersey and led the all-white, Afrikaner-dominated team in singing South Africa’s new national anthem, he conquered white South Africa.

Mandela’s genius was to transform that which divided black and white South Africa into a force for good. The green jersey of South Africa’s Springbok rugby team, which whites loved and blacks saw as a detested symbol of racial oppression, became the instrument around which Mandela chose to heal ancient wounds, unite the country and prevent a war. When Mandela stepped onto the field at Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, on the 24th of June 1995 wearing the green and gold jersey, he captured the hearts of white South Africans, forging an unimaginably powerful patriotic bond with their black compatriots.

Invictus tells the extraordinary human story of how that moment became possible. It shows how a sport, once the preserve of South Africa’s Afrikaans-speaking minority, came to unify the new rainbow nation, and tells of how – just occasionally – something as simple as a game really can help people to rise above themselves and see beyond their differences. It is a story with the power to make grown men cry; a thrilling account of how the most charismatic statesman of our time deployed his wits and charm and generous vision to pull off this most unlikely of miracles.
JOHN CARLIN grew up in Argentina and in the UK and lived in South Africa from 1989 to 1995 as the Independent’s correspondent. He has also lived in Nicaragua, Mexico and Washington, writing for The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Times and The New York Times, among other papers, and worked for the BBC. He now lives in Barcelona, where he writes for El Pais.
 
John Carlin will be in South Africa (Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town) from the 7th to the 11th of December 2009 to promote the release of Invictus, that hits screen nationwide on the 11th of December.

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http://www.channel24.co.za/Content/Movies/Features/654/f37a403c6d034790b5bbfb8dae522f88/22-10-2009-06-36/First_look_Invictus_poster

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R.W. Johnson’s major new book tells the story of South Africa from that magic period to the bitter disappointment of the present. As it turned out, it was not so easy for South Africa to shake off its past. The profound damage of apartheid meant there was not an adequate educated black middle class to run the new state, and apartheid had done a great deal of psychological harm that no amount of goodwill could wish away. The new leaders were equally damaging, and this disastrous combination had a terrible impact.

At the heart of the book lies the ruinous figure of Thabo Mbeki, whose over-reaching ambitions led to catastrophic failure on almost every front. But, as Johnson makes clear, he had plenty of help. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R.W. Johnson has spent much of his life thinking and writing about South Africa. As an anti-apartheid activist since his teens and an ANC supporter, he narrowly escaped jail before arriving in England as a Rhodes Scholar. His long exile has left him with few illusions about the ANC and its Communist allies. R.W Johnson now lives in South Africa and is the correspondent for the London Sunday Times.

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The South African cast includes well known local actors Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng, Matt Stern, Leleti Khumalo, and Marguerite Wheatly who plays South African rugby captain Francois Pienaar’s wife. Playing The Enemy is based on the true story of how Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president joined hands with the South African rugby team’s captain Francois Pienaar in the 1995 Rugby World Cup to unite the country. Nelson Mandela used the universal language of sport to bring the racially and economically divided South African people together in the aftermath of apartheid. South Africa became the unlikely victors of the rugby World Cup against fierce rivals the ALL BLACKS New Zealand team. To South Africa’s credit, the film will be shot entirely on location in Cape Town and Johannesburg with predominantly a South African crew, cast and extras. Clint Eastwood was quoted as saying ” We are honoured to have the full support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and South African Rugby as we set out to capture this unforgettable chapter of their shared legacy” So in anticipation of production of the film, we suggest you read the book!

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The biography of South Africa’s longest-serving Cabinet minister

Trevor Manuel was a member of Nelson Mandela’s original Cabinet and became South Africa’s first black Minister of Finance in 1996, at a time when the economy threatened to spiral into a debt trap. Under his stewardship for more than 12 years, South Africa entered its longest economic growth period. By 2007, Manuel was the world’s longest-serving Minister of Finance and the most respected African finance minister.

Born into a working-class family on the Cape Flats, Manuel’s story reflects the fate that befell thousands of people classified as coloured under Apartheid. Despite the constant moving under the cruel Group Areas Act, clashes with gangsters who roamed the Flats and a truncated education, Manuel stared down fate to become one of the most prominent leaders in the resistance movement of the 1980s.

CHOICE, NOT FATE ~ The Life and Times of Trevor Manuel tells the story of Manuel’s origins, his family, his personal struggles and his reflections. It is a story of how a man is both shaped by his country’s history and how his choices changed the course of the new South Africa. It is a story of how a young country, emerging from the heavy shadow of repression, made hard-nosed decisions about its future. It is a story of the choices Manuel has grappled with in his own life, both personal and political, and how, at times, he has been forced to change himself.

THE AUTHOR

Pippa Green is a highly respected South African journalist and writer who began her career in 1982 reporting on the trade union and anti-Apartheid resistance movement for The Argus. Born in Cape Town in 1958, Green was educated at the University of Cape Town and at Columbia University in New York, and in 2006 held the position of Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton in New Jersey. Her work has been published widely across South Africa and the US. She has served as the deputy editor of The Sunday Independent and Pretoria News, and as Head of Radio News at the SABC.

For this book, Green conducted many hours of intensive interviews with Manuel over a period of four years, as well as numerous other interviews with more than 90 key members of Manuel’s family and friends, his comrades and critics, and his colleagues in the Treasury and Cabinet. Interviewees include Kader Asmal, Jeremy Cronin, Alec Erwin, Pravin Gordhan, Lesetja Kganyago, Pali Lehola, Tito Mboweni, Cyril Ramaphosa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Zwelinzima Vavi.

CHOICE, NOT FATE ~ The Life and Times of Trevor Manuel is a vibrant and fascinating political biography of one of South Africa’s most respected public figures. It is accessible, interesting and provides fascinating insight into the later years of the anti-Apartheid struggle and the robust first years of South Africa’s reconstruction in the democratic era. This is a book that will intrigue readers of all ages from many different spheres of society.

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