South Africa: How the Mandela Myth Helped Win the Battle for Democracy in South Africa

- and their role in the country's struggle for democracy. It's also a book that shatters countless myths about the couple and the liberation struggle that have been formed in popular culture and even academic tellings of history. As South Africa It may be best to start with a working definition of myth. I don't take myth to mean fiction; to mythologise isn't necessarily to make things up that are not true.

But while Nelson and Winnie were responsible for the beginning of their mythologisation, others came on board later. In the late 1970s, ANC leaderwas approached with the idea of celebrating Mandela's 60th birthday. He understood immediately that he'd been presented with the opportunity of crafting a hero figure to embody the struggle for freedom. He did not consult with the ANC executive because he knew they'd shout it down, warning of personality cults and so forth.

That's the positive side of the story. The negative side is that myths conceal a great deal. Tambo told colleagues quite bluntly that he promoted the myth of Mandela because Mandela was ANC and if the myth worked, rivals like thefaded. ANC partisan history became hegemonic history. Vital, uncomfortable questions were suppressed. Like what it meant to be black and to reconcile with whites and on what terms such reconciliation was acceptable.

Winnie and Nelson: new book paints a deeply human portrait of the Mandela marriage and South Africa's struggle

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