The sketches have been executed in simple black charcoal lines with selected elements highlighted in pure pastel colors. The symbolism behind Nelson Mandela's choice in use of line, color and composition is significant, color having symbolic value in African culture. It is this, and the simple use of line, that plays a dominant role in all the drawings.

In the winter of 1964, Nelson Mandela arrived on Robben Island where he would spend 18 of his 27 prison years. Confined to a small cell, the floor his bed a bucket for a toilet, he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry.

He was allowed one visitor a year for 30 minutes. He could write and receive one letter every six months.

But Robben Island became the crucible which transformed him. Through his intelligence, charm and dignified defiance, Mandela eventually bent even the most brutal prison officials to his will, assumed leadership over his jailed comrades and became the master of his own prison. He emerged from it the mature leader who would fight and win the great political battles that would create a new democratic South Africa.

From: The Long Walk Of Nelson Mandela The Prisoner

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