Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface: Mandela and Mbeki: Two great lures for ‘Republicans’
- Chapter 1 What is ‘greatness’ exactly? The peculiarities of Mandela and Mbeki
- Chapter 2 What makes ‘Republicans’ Republicans? ‘We would still have chosen Frank and Lucille!’
- Chapter 3 When Mandela and Mbeki descend wildly into ‘novelistic’ fiction ‘Imagined communities’ and the stereotypes of Calpurnia and Julius Caesar
- Chapter 4 ‘Who first’ and who is the ‘martial captain’ of the class? Of the ‘commoners’ and ‘bourgeois’ people
- Chapter 5 ‘This thing of us is more than a comrades’ club’ The ‘medieval’ mentality of the ANC
- Chapter 6 ‘The Prince William inheritance’ of Thabo Mbeki ‘Oh by the way, I have decided that you will be my Deputy President’
- Chapter 7 ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t’ ‘Hyphenation’, ‘dehyphenation’, and the ‘modern presidency’
- Chapter 8 Stuck on the wrong and right side of history Why Mr Mbeki lost his Presidency and why Mr Mandela did not
- Chapter 9 Reflections on the problems of paternal power and nostalgia Why Mr Mbeki was clearly a ‘patriarchalist’ and why Mr Mandela was clearly a ‘Republican’
- List of sources
- Index
Chapter 5 - ‘This thing of us is more than a comrades’ club’ The ‘medieval’ mentality of the ANC
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 March 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface: Mandela and Mbeki: Two great lures for ‘Republicans’
- Chapter 1 What is ‘greatness’ exactly? The peculiarities of Mandela and Mbeki
- Chapter 2 What makes ‘Republicans’ Republicans? ‘We would still have chosen Frank and Lucille!’
- Chapter 3 When Mandela and Mbeki descend wildly into ‘novelistic’ fiction ‘Imagined communities’ and the stereotypes of Calpurnia and Julius Caesar
- Chapter 4 ‘Who first’ and who is the ‘martial captain’ of the class? Of the ‘commoners’ and ‘bourgeois’ people
- Chapter 5 ‘This thing of us is more than a comrades’ club’ The ‘medieval’ mentality of the ANC
- Chapter 6 ‘The Prince William inheritance’ of Thabo Mbeki ‘Oh by the way, I have decided that you will be my Deputy President’
- Chapter 7 ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t’ ‘Hyphenation’, ‘dehyphenation’, and the ‘modern presidency’
- Chapter 8 Stuck on the wrong and right side of history Why Mr Mbeki lost his Presidency and why Mr Mandela did not
- Chapter 9 Reflections on the problems of paternal power and nostalgia Why Mr Mbeki was clearly a ‘patriarchalist’ and why Mr Mandela was clearly a ‘Republican’
- List of sources
- Index
Summary
To conservatives, the political excesses (of the French Revolution) are a terrifying instance of what happens when radicals turn their backs on the past. For them, society was an organic whole rooted in tradition; to apply first principles without respect for inherited institutions was a threat to the very fabric of the social order … they [recognised] that mankind was not so free from the hand of the past as they had supposed, that progressive change must be built on the accumulative achievements of earlier generations. (John Tosh)
I solemnly declare that I will abide by the aims and objectives of the African National Congress as set out in the Constitution, the Freedom Charter and other duly adopted policy positions, that I am joining the organization voluntarily and without motives of material advantage or personal gain, that I agree to respect the Constitution and the structures and to work as a loyal member of the organization, that I will place my energies and skills at the disposal of the organization and carry out tasks given to me, that I will work towards making the ANC an even more effective instrument of liberation in the hands of the people, and that I will defend the unity and integrity of the organization and its principles, and combat any tendency towards disruption and factionalism’ (the ANC's Oath)
I spent my life protecting my family .. I did whatever I could to protect [it] from the horrors of this world .. I commanded this family, right or wrong (‘Michael’ – Godfather III)
THE INTERVENING YEARS BETWEEN 1905 and 1945 marked the emergence of the African elite for the revival and championship of the creed of African nationalism, which laid out the political options for dealing with the hurly-burly nature of white politics in South Africa (a form of politics that necessitated the need for racial domination on a massive scale). African nationalism, I argue, was ‘concomitant’ with the rise of industrialisation, which began at the turn of the last century, reaching its apogee in the period immediately after the Second World War.
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- Mandela and MbekiThe Hero and the Outsider, pp. 159 - 192Publisher: University of South AfricaPrint publication year: 2012