Doing Life with Mandela

Afrikaner farm boy Christo Brand joined the South African prison service at age 17 to avoid having to serve in the military, as all white males were required to do under the apartheid regime. He found himself guarding men he was told were the country’s most notorious terrorists: Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada – names that would later become legendary worldwide for moral and political heroism. The lifelong friendship Brand forged with Mandela is the subject of his memoir, first published in 2014. The book’s London launch was presided over by Mandela’s daughter Zindzi, at her late father’s behest. Mandela passed away in December 2013 at age 95.

Now updated and republished by Blue Ear Books, with a special section of freshly commissioned writings by 16 people who knew both men well – including fellow political prisoners, family members, European and North American activists and educators, and a member of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission – Doing Life with Mandela: My Prisoner, My Friend is more timely than ever, showing as it does the difference that personal respect and friendship can make in a racially divided society and under an oppressive regime.

“Brand had the bigness of heart to see beyond Mandela ‘the terrorist’, ‘the communist’, the convicted prisoner. Seeing that Mandela treated him with kindness and respect, he responded in kind. Brand may be seen as a milestone in Mandela’s political mission: his first white convert.”

– John Carlin, author of Playing the Enemy (made into the film Invictus) and Knowing Mandela