Nelson Mandela's Presidential Years

On 16 October 1998, Nelson Mandela sat at his desk and he took a piece of blue notepaper and with a favoured pen he put down, in a strong and decisive hand, the date in Roman numerals. He followed this with what was his working title: ‘The Presidential Years’. Underneath it he wrote ‘Chapter One’. This was the beginning of his effort to write the sequel to his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

At some point, at the head of the page, he wrote the word ‘Draft’. The final year of his presidency, his involvement in the Burundi negotiations, political distractions of the moment, the demands of his charitable work, and an endless stream of visitors thwarted the book’s progress.

His advisors suggested he get a professional writer to work with him, but he refused. He was very protective of the writing, wanting to do it himself. He did have a research assistant for a while, but he grew impatient with the arrangement. Ultimately, he simply ran out of steam.

Sections of this draft Sequel are printed in the book Conversations with Myself published in 2010 and quotes are drawn from it for Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations published in 2011.

“I am committed to ensuring that the president of a country like ours must not live in a style which is totally different from that of the masses of the people who put him in power.”

In the draft of the sequel to his autobiography he writes about how the presidency which he assumed after the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 was “imposed” upon him and that he believed a younger person should take the responsibility.

What is equally remarkable is that it was before he was inaugurated as President that Mr Mandela decided to only serve for one term. This decision on his part is perhaps one of the most often cited examples of how he differed from his counterparts in other African countries.

Nelson Mandela jokes outside his Cape Town office, Tuynhuys with US Vice-President Al Gore while South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki looks on.

Nelson Mandela at a meeting with, amongst others, Colonel Muamar Gadaffi and Yasser Arafat.

On the page marked 29 August 1995, on the same page as statistics about funding for HIV/AIDS he wrote this note:

“Responsible sex programs are run at schools and youth centres. 200 “Aids” taxis are driving around Gauteng and KwaZulu/Natal and another 50 in each province.”

In his 1998 diary on the page for 11 to 13 December he wrote about how one had to have been in a South African prison in order to see how cruel people can be to one another.

This typed note with a paragraph scratched out and replaced by one in his hand is housed in the archive of the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory.

He used the letter to explain his background and the fact that he only really started receiving Valentines tokens after his release from prison – when he was already in his 70s.