The project
The first in an ongoing series of interviews with inspiring individuals from around the world, the project is a collaboration between the Nelson Mandela Foundation and its long-time creative partners, Blackwell & Ruth. Released in 2020 as a series of books, and is the basis for Live to Lead, a Netflix documentary series created and directed by Geoff Blackwell.
With a history of creating projects focussed on equality, humanity and the environment, Geoff Blackwell and Ruth Hobday proposed creating the series while working on a book of Nelson Mandela’s prison letters with the Nelson Mandela Foundation. “This started in response to the relentless news cycle that we are all confronted with; the climate crisis, mass shootings, human suffering, and certain political leaders using tactics of divide and conquer and spreading misinformation to serve their own interests,” says Geoff Blackwell. “Against that backdrop, we were working on a book about Nelson Mandela and his prison letters, and feeling inspired by the sacrifices he made, and the commitment to service that defined his leadership.”
Inspired by these qualities, Blackwell & Ruth and the team at the Nelson Mandela Foundation have developed a project founded on a series of interviews with men and women from around the world who demonstrate the same commitment to selflessness, kindness and the service of others. “We wanted to ask them what really matters to them; to ask them to tell us their truth,” Blackwell explains. “We were looking for, as Greta Thunberg says in her interview, ‘people who care’, people who want to make a difference. Contemporary leaders who, as Gloria Steinem describes, ‘lead by example because, we do what we see, much more often than we do what we’re told.’”
I Know This to Be True launched with eight small books founded on original and authorized interviews with Albie Sachs, Bryan Stevenson, Gloria Steinem, Greta Thunberg, Jacinda Ardern, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Curry and Waleed Aly. This was followed by titles founded on original and authorized interviews with René Redzepi, Simone Biles and Ayesha Curry. Each individual is asked fundamental questions about their values, daily disciplines and thoughts on the world. Alongside these, a unique title, Nelson Mandela: Guiding Principles by Sello Hatang and Head of Leadership & Knowledge Development, Verne Harris, explores the lessons that Mandela’s incomparable leadership offers.
Across the series, messages of courage, compassion, humility, hope and generosity aim to motivate a new generation of leaders ready to create meaningful change. I Know This to Be True was first published in 2020 and more titles will follow, together with the documentary series which premiered on Netflix on 31 December 2022.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation
The Nelson Mandela Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Nelson Mandela in 1999 as his post-presidential office. In 2007 he gave it a mandate to promote social justice through dialogue and memory work. Its mission is to contribute to the making of a just society by mobilizing the legacy of Nelson Mandela, providing public access to information on his life and times and convening dialogue on critical social issues. The Foundation strives to weave leadership development into all aspects of its work.
Produced and originated by Blackwell & Ruth
I Know This to Be True was conceived by Geoff Blackwell, who also conducted the interviews and created the photographic portraits.
Blackwell & Ruth is a multi-award-winning creator and publisher whose work is inspired by humanitarian individuals, and social issues such as equality, conservation of the environment and food security. Blackwell & Ruth’s books have sold more than 30 million copies in 40 languages, and have contributed over $5 million to non-profit organizations dedicated to social issues.
Its authors include Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and the late Nelson Mandela with whom they created five books including The New York Times bestseller Conversations with Myself (which featured a foreword by Barack Obama), and The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela. Blackwell & Ruth has also originated books, films and exhibitions with many of the world’s leading photographers including Tim Flach, Platon, Albert Watson, Elliott Erwitt, Andrew Zuckerman, Phillip Toledano, Mark Laita, Rachael Hale-McKenna, Leila Jeffreys, Kieran E. Scott, Peter and Beverly Pickford, KK Ottesen, Vincent J. Musi, Callie Shell, Tim Laman and Matthew Abbott among many others.
Special projects include: M.I.L.K.: Moments of Intimacy, Laughter and Kinship – a collection of images founded on humanity that has been exhibited at venues around the world; 200 Women: Who will change the way you see the world – a book and exhibition project; and the Great Cookbook series which has raised over $1 million for food security organizations.