Professor Colin Bundy
Reassessing Nelson Mandela
Summary
This presentation looks at the way Mandela’s reputation has fared, especially among younger black South Africans, and why. It also identifies scholarly approaches that have helped to reassess aspects of the great man’s career. Finally, it poses the question: how should Mandela be remembered?
Professor Colin Bundy
Historian Colin Bundy retired after a career as an academic and university administrator. He served as vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, principal of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford. As a scholar he was best known for his Rise and Fall of a South African Peasantry and was co-author (with William Beinart) of Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa. He has published widely on South African history and politics, and this lecture draws upon two of his books in the Jacana Pocket series: Short-changed? South Africa since apartheid, and Poverty in South Africa: Past and Present.
That’s a complicated one. He originally intended to be succeeded by a young trade unionist and brilliant negotiator called Cyril Ramaphosa. He then fell out with the UDF leadership, including Ramaphosa, basically over their critique of Winnie, and Thabo Mbeki became a successor almost by default.