Mandela was not just "a brilliant political tactician and legal mind, but also an exquisite writer," says reviewer Goff. These letters give us a man of high ideals whose "fight for survival" in prison adds Goff, "would have broken many of us."
In what has been described as his most significant speech since leaving office, Obama used the Nelson Mandela annual lecture in front of a 15,000-strong crowd in Johannesburg to warn 'the politics of fear, resentment, retrenchment' are on the move 'at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago'
It is time for Ramaphosa to take decisive steps. He does not have sufficient time left. The early months in office set the tone. He has taken important decisions. But this administration needs to develop a strong vision and communicate it.
On the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth, Lynn Collins, British Trade Union Congress regional secretary, explains how his legacy will live on in Liverpool for generations to come.
One of the reasons why we need to recall Luthuli's life in this time of shameful and shameless greed is that he consciously emphasised what he called the "gospel of service". Even if the ANC chooses to neglect the memory and legacies of Luthuli we, the citizens of South Africa need to draw on these. Luthuli was the first non-racial leader in South Africa, the first African to have a following amongst whites.
South African anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada, who was sentenced to life imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela, died Tuesday, aged 87. Affectionately known as “Uncle Kathy,” the liberation struggle stalwart spent 26-years in prison under the apartheid government and went on to be an open critic of President Jacob Zuma. He was one of the most senior African National Congress (ANC) leaders to criticize Zuma as allegations of government corruption mounted.
It is no exaggeration to suggest that the legitimacy not only of President Jacob Zuma and the ANC, but also the notion of the liberation struggle itself is in shreds. For some of us, it was unthinkable that such an alliance of forces could degenerate into a moneymaking, lawless and violent operation represented by people who were prepared to trample on the values that we understood the movement to embody. Certainly, this did not happen overnight.
This week, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent a letter to President Obama, with a copy to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, asking him to immediately commute the sentence of political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, a decorated Vietnam War veteran.
In these times of widespread violence perpetrated by men, we may learn from Mandela's model of masculinity.
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