By Paula L. Woods

Noted for his humility, Nelson Mandela is a man with a life writ large. Lawyer, anti-apartheid activist, one-time leader of the African National Congress’s (ANC) armed division, political prisoner for 27 years, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the first South African president elected in a fully representative democratic process and more, the 91-year old Mandela is an iconic and transformative figure in African and world history. And while he has written a memoir, 1994’s Long Walk to Freedom, and cooperated with journalist Anthony Sampson on an authorized biography published in 1999, those books were targeted to adults. Which begs the question: How does one communicate the principles, vision, values and accomplishments of the man and his movement to a younger generation?

One’s first thought would not have been to create a graphic memoir. Yet that is exactly what The Nelson Mandela Foundation and a South African comic book production company, Umlando Wezithombe, have done. “Young people read comics,” Mandela said in a 2005 speech that launched the autobiographical series on his life. “The hope is that the elementary reading of comics will lead them to the joy of reading good books….If the comic reaches new readers, then the project will have been worthwhile.”

Originally published in eight volumes over two years, more than 4 million copies of the book were distributed free to South African schoolchildren. The series is collected for the first time in Nelson Mandela: The Authorized Comic Book, a hardbound edition published by W.W. Norton and intended for a world market. It draws not only upon Mandela’s autobiography and Sampson’s work, but also biographies and memoirs of second wife Winnie Mandela, ANC colleague Walter Sisulu, and historical texts to provide a sweeping view of Mandela from his boyhood in the Transkei, on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, to his ascendency to the presidency of the once-brutally segregated African nation, and more.

Readers will find there is much to learn about Mandela’s early life, from his participation in heretofore secret tribal circumcision rites in the Transkei, to the mentorship of a tribal regent with whom young Rolihlahla (Raw-lee-lah-luh, Mandela’s tribal name) lived after the death of his father. Rolihlahla means “troublemaker,” the first chapter informs us, an ironic name for young Mandela, who first exhibited his strong-willed nature by supporting a boycott of student council elections at his boarding school and later running away from home to protest an arranged marriage.

Equally interesting are Mandela’s early days in Johannesburg, where he participated in bus boycotts in 1949, a full six years before the Montgomery bus boycott, and his days at Wits University Law School, where he was the only African in his class (presaging James Meredith’s integration of the University of Mississippi in 1961).

Other parallels between the South African and U.S. civil rights movements abound. Mandela’s leadership of the Youth League of the ANC is recounted in detail, as is the Youth League’ s use of “mass action” as a means of peaceful protest and its linkages to Gandhi’s work abroad. And while Martin Luther King, Jr. and the SCLC’s work, or that of the NAACP or even Malcolm X in the U.S. are not referenced here, one can see how they might have been the fruit of the seeds Mandela and the ANC’s Youth League planted decades before. Also revealed are the reasons behind Mandela’s anguished decision to abandon nonviolence, which led to his underground activities as the “Black Pimpernel” and his much-publicized and pivotal imprisonment at Robben Island Prison and elsewhere.

While the book attempts to balance the seriousness of Mandela’s anti-apartheid resistance and imprisonment through recounting his escapades as the Black Pimpernel, or revealing more lighthearted details of his personal life, it is at times a slow read. Numerous quotes from ANC historical documents or Mandela’s speeches hinder the forward momentum of the story, as do the inclusion of a huge number of individuals who, while undeniably important to the historical record of the ANC and Mandela’s life and development, feel like too much weighty information for a comic book to bear.

Umlando Wezithombe, the comic book production company involved in the project, tries to mitigate the narrative’s didactic inclinations with a lush palette of colors and beautiful renderings of Mandela and his circle, the South African landscape and even white South Africans. Details of Mandela’s life after release from prison extend the story beyond that of previously published books, rounding out the historical record and giving important insights into his commitment to eradicating AIDS, his support of women and his role as one of the world’s most pre-eminent elders. Mandela’s romance and marriage to Graca Machel, former first lady of Mozambique, is also related in a charming fashion that further humanizes a man who has been the symbol of conscience for generations.

It’s these revelations, plus the evolution of Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela from young firebrand to humble servant of South African and world peace, that will ultimately make reading this comic rewarding for an American audience.

Paula L. Woods is a book critic and author of eight books, including I, Too, Sing America: The African-American Book of Days, and four Charlotte Justice crime novels, which include Inner City Blues and Strange Bedfellows.