The Nelson Mandela Foundation has announced that a new book by Nelson Mandela, 'Conversations with Myself', was released worldwide in 22 editions and 20 languages, from 12 October 2010.

With a foreword by President Barack Obama, 'Conversations with Myself' is an intimate journey from the first stirrings of Mr Mandela’s political consciousness to his galvanising role on the world stage. It is a rare chance to spend time with Nelson Mandela the man, in his own voice: direct, clear and private.

President Obama writes that Mandela, who largely retired from public life in 2004, is inspiring even if he is no saint. "Underneath the history that has been made, there is a human being who chose hope over fear - progress over the prisons of the past," Obama wrote. "And I am reminded that even as he has become a legend, to know the man ... is to respect him even more."

"Conversations" is best read as a companion to "Long Walk," which was in part calculated by Mandela and other members of his African National Congress party to stir support for anti-apartheid activists as they stepped into new roles as leaders trying to heal and develop a divided, impoverished nation.

Sales of the book will benefit the Nelson Mandela Foundation. The foundation, which houses a Mandela archives and supports development and other projects in his name, switched in recent years from a logo featuring Mandela's face to one of his hands. That reflected his desire to shift the focus from himself, and his concern his legacy would mean little if South Africans did not take it upon themselves to build their country.

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