Nelson Mandela was very much in favour of his Xhosa tribe’s annual initiation rite during which circumcision for teenage boys takes place in remote rural areas, usually with blunt instruments that are not sterilised.
The current “initiation season” is upon … Read the rest
Nelson Mandela’s long-serving personal assistant has described the “chaos” around his funeral and bickering over his legacy in a hard-hitting memoir.
Zelda la Grange, who was Mandela’s assistant for almost 20 years, paints a picture of ANC politicians and his … Read the rest
by Dan Roodt
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Twenty years ago, on 28 March 1994, the ANC’s militia massacred a crowd of protesting Zulus in downtown Johannesburg, using automatic weapons against men armed only with … Read the rest
by Dan Roodt dan[at]praag.org
Few outsiders understand the ethnic dynamics of South Africa. Foreign journalists come here and imagine that we are some kind of remake of the USA, transposing American ethnic categories (and Hollywood movies) onto us. Of course, … Read the rest
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It simply boggles the mind having to witness people still prostrating themselves in the dust whenever the name Mandela is spoken. Elevated to a modern-day god, Mandela is believed to be three, … Read the rest
Margaret Thatcher made no mention of Nelson Mandela during the only formal talks she held with South Africa’s leader PW Botha, documents released recently reveal.
The papers blow apart recent Tory boasts that she helped end apartheid – and her … Read the rest
by Dan Roodt dan[at]praag.org
Ever since Britain started getting seriously interested in South Africa after the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley in 1866, there have been at least two conflicting views of the country. Throughout the twentieth century too, South … Read the rest
by Fidel Castro Ruz
Maybe the empire thought that we would not honor our word when, during days of uncertainty in the past century, we affirmed that even if the USSR were to disappear Cuba would continue struggling.
World War … Read the rest
Various newspaper reports suggest that Mandela’s heirs are fighting tooth and nail over the world-famous terrorist’s estate. One family friend even described the environment as “toxic”.
Apparently the Mandelas aim to kick Mandela’s widow, Graça Machel, out of the mansion … Read the rest
At a ceremony held at the University of the Witwatersrand yesterday, the audience heard that “Madiba was a radical and revolutionary” who met his fellow revolutionaries such as communist leader Joe Slovo, Ismail Meer, JN Singh, Ruth First, George Bizos … Read the rest
The body of Nelson Mandela, globally feted as a revolutionary, is lying in state at the Union Buildings, Pretoria, built by the hated Anglo-Boer government of 1910 and designed in a eurocentric, neo-classical style by British architect Sir Herbert Baker.… Read the rest
The American flag that flies over the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office will be raised high tonight despite an order by President Barack Obama that flags across the country be lowered to half-staff to honor the death of iconic South African … Read the rest
In a statement a few days ago, the South African Communist Party confirmed Nelson Mandela’s membership, calling him “one of the greatest revolutionaries of the 20th century”. The party proudly announed that Mandela was very much a communist during the … Read the rest
By Christopher Torchia
Most of Nelson Mandela’s handwriting is neat, but it harbors a few mysteries. Archivists sometimes struggle to decipher words in the vast body of documents that Mandela penned, and he often jotted an acronym that nobody, not … Read the rest
