section_path: Reception and legacy/Biographies and popular media
section_name: Biographies and popular media
paragraph_text: Biographies and popular media
  
  The first biography of Mandela was based on brief interviews with him that the author, Mary Benson, had conducted in the 1960s. Two authorised biographies were later produced by friends of Mandela. The first was Fatima Meer's Higher Than Hope, which was heavily influenced by Winnie and thus placed great emphasis on Mandela's family. The second was Anthony Sampson's Mandela, published in 1999. Other biographies included Martin Meredith's Mandela, first published in 1997, and Tom Lodge's Mandela, brought out in 2006.
  
  Since the late 1980s, Mandela's image began to appear on a proliferation of items, among them "photographs, paintings, drawings, statues, public murals, buttons, t-shirts, refrigerator magnets, and more", items that have been characterised as "Mandela kitsch". In the 1980s he was the subject of several songs, such as The Specials ' " Free Nelson Mandela ", Hugh Masekela 's " Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela) ", and Johnny Clegg 's " Asimbonanga (Mandela) ", which helped to bring awareness of his imprisonment to an international audience.
  
  Mandela has also been depicted in films on multiple occasions. Some of these, such as the 2013 feature film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, the 2017 miniseries Madiba and the 1996 documentary Mandela, have focused on covering his adult life in entirety or until his inaugural as president. Others, such as the 2009 feature film Invictus and the 2010 documentary The 16th Man, have focused on specific events in his life. Lukhele has argued that in Invictus and other films, "the America film industry" has played a significant part in "the crafting of Mandela's global image".