A Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela Book

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality."Long Walk to Freedom" is his moving autobiography Here Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela tells the extraordinary story of his life - an epic of struggle setback renewed hope and ultimate triumph which has until now been virtually unknown to most of the world.The foster son of a Thembu chief Mandela was raised in the traditional tribal culture of his ancestors but at an early age learned the modern inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In engrossing prose he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in Johannesburg of his slow political awakening and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s. He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family the anguished breakup of his first marriage and the painful separations from his children.He also brings to life the escalating political warfare in the 1950s between the ANC and the government culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964 at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He recounts the surprisingly eventful 27 years in prison and the complex delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the inside account of the unforgettable events since his release that produced at last a free multiracial democracy in South Africa.

The riveting memoirs of the outstanding moral and political leader of our time, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM brilliantly re-creates the drama of the experiences that helped shape Nelson Mandela's destiny. Emotive, compelling and uplifting, A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story of hardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with the clarity and eloquence of a born leader. 'Burns with the luminosity of faith in the invincible nature of human hope and dignity ...Unforgettable' Andre Brink 'Enthralling ...Mandela emulates the few great political leaders such as Lincoln and Gandhi, who go beyond mere consensus and move out ahead of their followers to break new ground' Donald Woods in the SUNDAY TIMES