Christo Brand is a South African author and former guard at Robben Island Prison. Beginning his tenure there in 1978 at age 19, Brand was responsible for guarding Nelson Mandela during his lifetime sentence. In 1982, Brand was transferred along with Mandela to Pollsmoor Prison, where the pair developed a close friendship over the course of many years.
In 2018, Brand retired to pursue storytelling full time. He is the co-author of “Doing Life with Mandela: My Prisoner, My Friend.”