Description
The first biography of Nelson Mandela written by an African scholar, this groundbreaking book offers a radically de-mythologized take on a global icon of anticolonial liberation struggles.
Leading sociologist Xolela Mangcu draws on original interviews and archival research – as well as on his own unique understanding of the complexities of Black South African culture – to offer an important corrective account of Mandela's identity, character, and political career. Mangcu not only sets the record straight about Mandela's Thembu, rather than Xhosa, heritage, but also uncovers a fundamental political pragmatism Mandela developed thanks to his family's strategic alliances with colonialists and through his own Victorian-style education at leading British mission schools. What emerges is a Mandela whose life story belongs less to the realm of hagiography and more to the realm of real-world struggle, with all the contradictions it entails.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Of Imperial Monarchs
3. Men of the Bhunga – A Parliamentary Heritage
4. Black Victorian
5. In Jabavu's Mode: The University Years A Baptism of Racism
6. Vanity and Virtue in the Heart of a Prince
7. Baptismal of Racism
8. The Struggle Needs Many Tactics
9. Communist or Pragmatist?
10. Mandela and the Cold War
Interlude
Part II: Mandela's Tragic Pragmatism/Pragmatic Cooperation With the Enemy
11. Into the Lion's Den
12. Infidelities and Infelicities
13. The Somana Affair
14. Tragic Hero on Trial
15. In the Belly of the Beast: The Robben Island Years
16. Time Out of Joint
17. Victory in Defeat
18. On the Wheel of History
Product details
| Published | 01 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 272 |
| ISBN | 9781350522121 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Dimensions | 234 x 156 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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