Seven years since his death (2013), Nelson Mandela still occupies an extraordinary place in the global imagination. Internationally, Mandela’s renown seems intact and invulnerable. In South Africa, however, his legacy and his place in the country’s history have become matters of contention and dispute, especially amongst younger black South Africans. The essays in this book analyse aspects of Mandela’s life in the context of South Africa’s national history, and make an important contribution to the historiography of the anti-apartheid political struggle. They reassess: the political context of Mandela’s youth; his changing political beliefs and connections with the Left; his role in the African National Congress and the turn to armed struggle; his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and their political relationship. By providing new context, they explore Mandela as an actor in broader social processes such as the rise of the ANC and the making of South Africa’s post-apartheid constitution.
The detailed essays are linked in a substantial introduction by Colin Bundy and current debates are addressed in a concluding essay by Elleke Boehmer. This book provides a scholarly counterweight both to uncritical celebration of Mandela and also to a simplistic attribution of post-apartheid shortcomings to the person of Mandela.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Southern African Studies.
Edited by:
Colin Bundy,
William Beinart
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 246mm,
Width: 174mm,
Weight: 960g
ISBN: 9780367507176
ISBN 10: 036750717X
Series: Southern African Studies
Pages: 190
Publication Date: 25 September 2023
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. The Challenge of Rethinking Mandela Colin Bundy 2. The Headman, the Regent and the 'Long Walk to Freedom' Philip Bonner 3. Mandela: The Untold Heritage Xolela Mangcu 4. Mandela and the Left Tom Lodge 5. The M-Plan: Mandela’s Struggle to Reorient the African National Congress Paul Landau 6. Mandela’s Army: Urban Revolt in South Africa, 1960–1964 Thula Simpson 7. News from Robben Island: Journalists’ Visits to Nelson Mandela during his Imprisonment Martha Evans 8. The Impossible Contract: The Political and Private Marriage of Nelson and Winnie Mandela Shireen Hassim 9. Mandela, Human Rights and the Making of South Africa’s Transformative Constitution Timothy Gibbs 10. Mandela and Beyond: Thinking New Possibility in the 21st Century Elleke Boehmer
Colin Bundy has retired after a career as university academic and administrator. An historian, he is author of Nelson Mandela, a Jacana pocket biography. William Beinart is Emeritus Professor, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, author of Twentieth-Century South Africa (OUP, 2001) and Rights to Land (with Peter Delius and Michelle Hay, Jacana, 2017). With Ed Teversham he wrote an A-level text on South Africa, 1948–94 (Pearson, 2015).
