The Nelson Mandela Unity Series

The Nelson Mandela Unity Series is a collaborative print project uniting the hand of Nelson Mandela with the work of leading artists, including Dr Esther Mahlangu.

Produced as a series of lithographs, the project translated Mandela's handwritten text — the 'Unity' manifesto — into a visual dialogue with each artist's practice. Dr Mahlangu's contribution brought her signature Ndebele geometric vocabulary into conversation with Mandela's words, joining two of South Africa's most globally recognised cultural figures in a single work.

The series was realised through House of Mandela Art and stands as a meeting of artistic and political legacy — a tribute to a shared vision of unity, reconciliation and the transformative power of image and word.

The lithographs have been exhibited and collected internationally, and remain a singular point of intersection between Dr Mahlangu's practice and South Africa's democratic story.