The Legacy Lives On

Writing the sequel to Long Walk To Freedom was no easy task, author Mandla Langa admits. He tells more about chronicling the life and times of Madiba

- Khatija Nxedlana

DARE NOT LINGER is the sequel to Mandela’s global bestseller, Long Walk to Freedom, and the title is taken directly from the final paragraph of the first book.

By the time Madiba died in 2013 at the age of 95, he’d handwritten 10 chapters of his follow-up memoir on loose sheets of paper, leaving Mandla to fill in the gaps.

He was approached by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and publisher Pan Macmillan to complete the book, which tackles Madiba’s five years as president and gives his view of the 1994 elections.

Writing the book took more than a year and Mandla relied on the material that had been started by Mandela and those who worked around him, including ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Joel Netshitenzhe and former political prisoner Tony Trew.

“I had to breathe life into the material that had been put together by Tony and Joel but I also looked into the archives, including the minutes of NEC meetings, examined Mandela’s own scribblings and transcribed broadcast material,” he says. “I also spoke to various people.”

These included Mandela’s widow, Graça Machel, as well as a number of people who know a lot about the history of the country and the ANC.

Graça was very insightful, he says. “She was generous with her time. She explained why Mandela insisted on being civil to people like FW de Klerk, why he continued making overtures to people like Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, why he would embrace or bring into the fold personalities such as [apartheid-era military commanders] Constand Viljoen and Georg Meiring.”