Theorising Mandela

Abstract

Nelson Mandela can be said to be the most celebrated leader so far to have emerged from the African continent. He has been variously written about in literary works and history books, differently presented in [auto] biographies and the mainstream media [newspapers and television], fictionalized and actualised in film, immortalised through art work such as painting and sculpture. In liberal-driven South African and Western media, Mandela is/was presented as a “messiah”, a superhuman character, a humanist, a philanthropist, and a persona who works as an ideal model for what should constitute modern African political leadership. Yet in some academic circles Mandela is viewed as “a terrorist-turned-politician” (Willcock 2013: 1), a political and ideological “construct” of the Western world; a framed “dramatis persona” by the Western media to project and deepen the colonialist agenda in Africa. This article seeks to theorise Mandela and in the process draw some justifications to the worthiness or the shallowness of labels attributed to Mandela as a symbolic figure that embodied the values of “Africanness” and “ubuntuism” or as an “African Cyborg” that was created and controlled by the Western world. The article also attempts to locate and expose to the surface the different layers of present day South African challenges ‒ which can be attributed to the legacy left by Mandela, but are often concealed by the ruling government under the carpet of “Rainbow Nation” and a blind celebration of “National reconciliation”.

Opsomming

Nelson Mandela kan beskryf word as die beroemdste leier wat die Afrika-kontinent nóg opgelewer het. Daar is wyd oor hom geskryf in literêre werke en geskiedenis-boeke, en hy word verskillend uitgebeeld in (outo-) biografieë en die hoofstroommedia (koerante en die televisie), fiktief gemaak en verwerklik in films, onsterflik gemaak deur kunswerke soos skilderye en beeldhouwerke. In liberaalgedrewe Suid-Afrikaanse en Westerse media is/was Mandela uitgebeeld as ʼn “messias”, ʼn bomenslike karakter, ʼn humanis, ʼn filantroop, en ʼn persona wat werk as ʼn ideale model vir wat moderne politieke leierskap in Afrika behoort te wees. Tog word Mandela in sommige akademiese sirkels beskou as “ʼn terroris wat ʼn politikus geword het” (Willcock 2013: 1), ʼn politieke en ideologiese “idee” van die Westerse wêreld; ʼn dramatis persona wat deur die Westerse media aangewend is om die kolonialistiese agenda in Afrika te projekteer en te verdiep. Hierdie artikel het ten doel om Mandela te teoretiseer en in die proses ʼn mate van regverdiging te gee vir die verdienstelikheid of vlakheid van etikette wat aan Mandela as ʼn simboliese figuur toegeken is – wat die waardes van “Afrika uitleef en ubuntu uitleef” vergestalt; of as ʼn “Afrika-kuborg” wat deur die Westerse wêreld geskep en beheer is. Die artikel poog ook om die verskillende lae van hedendaagse uitdagings in Suid-Afrika, te vind en na die oppervlak te bring – uitdagings wat toegeskryf kan word aan Mandela se nalatenskap, maar wat dikwels verskans word deur die regering aan bewind, onder die mat van “reënboognasie” en ʼn blinde viering van “nasionale versoening”.