Back home after an extended hospital stay at the end of 2012, Nelson Mandela is once again in good health, according to his granddaughters, Zaziwe Dlamnini-Manaway and Swati Dlamini. The pair were in New York promoting their upcoming reality show Being Mandela.
“His health is very good. He’s surrounded by family,” Dlamini-Manaway told theGrio. “We go to the house all the time. He’s really happiest the most when he spends time with his great-grandchildren. So before we came on the trip, we literally went to go see him to say bye. So he’s in really, really good spirits. We’re very happy.”
Their show will debut on NBC’s Cozi TV Feb. 10, providing a deeper look into their day-to-day happenings of the Mandela family. Promotional photos of the family were released as well, the first photo of the civil rights leader to be published since July of last year.
One of the photos features Mandela with his two granddaughters, daughter Zenani Mandela Dlamini, and two of his great-grandchildren.
A children’s book detailing the life of Mandela, 95, was also published early last month, and has been named one of the most impressive picture books released for Black History Month by The New York Times. Written and illustrated by Coretta Scott King Author Award winner, Kadir Nelson, “Nelson Mandela” is designed to tell Mandela’s legend through powerful paintings accompanied by simple prose.
Nelson’s book allows young readers to empathize with the struggle of the South African leader on a remarkable level. One spread page, featuring the emotional faces of those protesting Mandela’s imprisonment, lays out his role in simple words:
“South Africa began to fall apart.
There were more protests.
More rallies,
And violence,
The People needed a leader.
Nelson snuck a message to the people:
‘I will return.'”
