NELSON MANDELA, LIGHT AND SHADOWS

The dark sides of a man of peace

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) devoted his life to his fellow countrymen, as a lawyer dedicated to human rights, an architect of peace and the first democratically elected president in South Africa.

However, behind the official story, do we really know the real Nelson Mandela? Gilles Van Grasdorff studied the grey zones in the life of the activist, the lawyer, the prisoner and the political man.

Mandela's presidency (1994-1999) was not a bowl of cherries. What did Mandela know about the Quatro, the African National Congress office that tortured and killed any people considered as a traitor? What did Mandela to fight the spreading of HIV? Why did pregnant South-Africans gather under a Treatment Action Campaign flag to make a complaint against the 1993 Peace Nobel Prize and his government?

This biography also questions his bonds with marxism, communism, church, Jehova's Witnesses and ubuntu, his South-African wisdom. Such as his peculiar relationships with women who joined his fights.

GILLES VAN GRASDORFF
Gilles Van Grasdorff has been a reporter in Afghanistan, Honduras, Chad – at the edge of war. As early as 1993, he recounted his meeting and conversations with the 14th dalai-lama. Presses du Châtelet published his books about Dalai-lama (2012), Easter Island (2013), Noah's Ark (2014)...