When Ryland Fisher embarked on the mammoth task of assembling the ultimate book on the life and times of former South African President Nelson Mandela in April, he was faced with the challenge of producing something different to anything that had been published before.
There exists an almost inexhaustible amount of subjects on the anti-apartheid icon, with hundreds of books written about him.
However, Fisher realised since he started working on the official Nelson Mandela Opus that once one digs deeper into the legend that is Madiba, the challenge was rather what to exclude.
“It has been a privilege and an honour for me to be part of this because I have previously done a book on Nelson Mandela, but that book pales in comparison to this book,” Fisher says about the challenge he faced when he started the project.
“This is the biggest tribute that you can ever think of to pay to such a great South African, and part of the challenge we had was to ensure that the unique thing about the book not only be its size, but the unique elements in the book.”
The Nelson Mandela Opus will pay tribute to Madiba in the year of his 95th birthday, and the publishing of the book is set to coincide with South Africa’s 20 years of democracy in 2014.
The half-a-metre square book, weighing 37kg, will tell Mandela’s magnificent story in a unique and definitive way, featuring the finest writers, stunning images displayed on an unprecedented scale and presented in a beautifully-designed, luxury format.
Fisher, former editor of the Cape Times and author of the book Race, had to go to great lengths to find the untold stories of people’s encounters with the great man.
“For instance, the chapter on the day of Madiba’s release is unique because we spoke to various people involved in different parts of his release,” Fisher explains.
“We also spoke to someone who was in the house with Madiba before he came out, we spoke to the person who drove his car, we even spoke to another guy who walked around on the Grand Parade with a gun hidden under his coat, looking for potential people who might want to take Madiba out.”
The Opus will be filled with writings by a historian on Mandela’s history. It is a look at the economic, political and historical situation in the world at each of the key points in Mandela’s life, from his birth, his conviction and his eventual release.
Among the topics covered in the Opus are Madiba’s early years, his royal lineage, joining the ANC, the Treason Trial and his incarceration on Robben Island.
While the book will explore his life in great detail, it will also include the emotional accounts of friends, family, comrades, and international leaders and personalities.
“We’ve got this fantastic story about his family and how part of the family felt they were neglected because all the publicity and attention was on only one part of the family,” said Fisher.
“When we did the interviews with family members I really thought we would get a sanitised version of history, and people would not be open and honest with us. What we’ve got was actually amazing – we got the family members speaking ‘warts and all’, really.”
Celebrated South African photojournalist Benny Gool, who chronicled the life of Madiba, is the official photographer for the Opus and had to wade through thousands of images for the book.
“We ended up with close to 20 000 images, which we are slowly starting to sift through and we are moving to a point where we will end up with a minimum of 2 000 images, and from there on we will draw on whatever will end up in the book,” Gool says of the mammoth task.
“What is nice about this book is that you can display images like I’ve never seen in a book. It is probably the biggest book on Madiba ever to be made.”
The foreword to the Nelson Mandela Opus will be written by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. It will also feature special written contributions by international icons such as Bill Gates, Naomi Campbell and Sir Richard Branson – among others.
It will include a personal account by President Jacob Zuma on his recollections of Madiba, while former US President Bill Clinton and Madiba’s fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former SA President FW de Klerk have also added their voices to the Opus.
Poet Zolani Mkiva, who has been Mandela’s traditional praise singer for 13 years, has been tasked with ensuring historical accuracies in the book, particularly around traditions and Madiba’s heritage.
“In a book like this that will be going global, what we want to do is mainstream the African heritage which he comes from,” says Mkiva.
“You will realise that in terms of his early influences on leadership, his love for the community started from his grassroots, and we didn’t want to leave that out."