On Mandela: The Unfolding Legacy By Elleke Boehmer
lthough Nelson Mandela’s often-
which are familiar to the many audiences before whom he has
mentioned ‘iconic’ status as a ‘moral
appeared. He was one of Johannesburg’s first black lawyers,
colossus’ bestriding the 20th Century
charismatic and principled; he was also one of the world’s
sends straightforward heroic messages,
longest-detained political prisoners, unflinching till the end;
my convinced sense is that his legacy
and he was of course the first President of a democratic South
today constitutes a still-ingathering
Africa. These are the constants of career and character that we
and unfixed cluster of values, symbols,
associate with the well-known story of his life.
stories and emotions. Speaking as the author of a cultural history of Mandela, I also believe that this ‘unfixedness’ is no
Yet, due precisely to those sterling qualities, he has also
bad thing. Although a number of qualities attach securely to
become a universally admired symbol for reconciliation and a
him – political courage, social justice, hope for the future –
negotiated peace. Worldwide, he is regarded as an exemplary
still, the ‘meanings of Madiba’, to quote a 2006 book title, in
figure connoting non-racialism and democracy; as himself an
many ways remain malleable, and will continue to shift and
embodiment of social justice. Indeed, for many young people,
change even as South Africa’s 21st Century history unfolds.
who were small children when he walked free, he probably
Yet, far from this being a cause for anxiety – for worries that
represents more prominently as human icon than as living
his memory might eventually recede from the world’s mind
man. Inevitably, therefore, he is more closely associated with
– this malleability around the one-time struggle icon, can
the static past, hardening into fixed symbols (incorruptible
rather be considered a rich source of mythic potential and as
Madiba alongside, say, sexy Monroe, or uncompromising
something to be encouraged, as I will contend here.
Ché), than with the endlessly unspooling present. Hence the question of what he stands for becomes as prominent
As regards Nelson Mandela’s significance both at home
as who he is. As icon, however, he is often, regrettably, seen
within the nation and in the transnational arena, the
as unique and singular in what he represents, whereas, as
question concerning what he might stand for has in recent
he would be the first to admit, all his achievements have
years, as he has grown older, become almost as important as
involved close cooperation with others: ‘I have been only one
the question who this guarded, intensely private man really
in a large army of people’. This is something that Mandela
is. True, Mandela the man has led a widely publicised life of
the man never forgets. However, when we look at Mandela
exemplary political probity and self-discipline, the details of
the familiar tourist website logo or fridge magnet, what he
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