Reassessing Mandela
By: edited by Colin Bundy and William Beinart
Series: Southern African studies
Publisher: Jacana Media
Published: 2020
Place of publication: Auckland Park, South Africa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 328
ISBN-13: 9781431430031
Copyright date: 2020
Subjects: Political and social views; Public opinion; Anti-apartheid movements; History; Politics and government
Description: "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 among younger black South Africans. These essays 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 his youth; his changing political beliefs and connections with the left; his role in the African National Congress and the turn to armed struggle; and 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."--Page 4 of cover.
Notes: "This volume first appeared as Journal of Southern African Studies, 45, 6 (2019) published by Routledge and republished with amendments by permission."

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: the challenge of rethinking Mandela / -- Colin Bundy; title: The headman, the regent and the 'long walk to freedom'  -- Philip Bonner; title: Mandela: the untold heritage  -- Xolela Mangcu; title: Mandela and the left  -- Tom Lodge; title: The M-Plan: to  struggle to reorient the African National Congress  -- Paul S. Landau; title: Mandela 's army: urban revolt in South Africa, 1960-1964  -- Thula Simpson; title: News from Robben Island: journalists' visits to Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment  -- Martha Evans; title: Mandela, human rights and the making of South Africa's transformative constitution  -- Timothy Gibbs; title: The impossible contract: the political and private marriage of Nelson and Winnie Mandela   -- Shireen Hassim; title: Mandela and beyond: thinking new possiblity in the 21st century -- Elleke Boehmer.