Rhodes University Political and International Studies

Next week Friday, August 28, join us for the Friday Lunchtime seminar at the Political and International Studies Department with Mr Martin A. Ewi, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Pretoria, entitled: Failing or Falling: The Relevance of the African Union in a fragmented World Order

[In Photos] First Post Graduate Research Colloquium that brought together some of our PG students, along with PG students from other departments at Rhodes University to share some of their very interesting research projects they are working on. Well done PG students! We are proud of the energy that you brought to this colloquium and for investing time in the academic project.

Photos credit: Chuma Songelwa.

We encourage our students to attend this Pan African event.

Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi of the Thabo Mbeki Foundation to deliver keynote address at the Samora Machel Symposium

Forty years after the death of Mozambique's founding president and liberation icon Samora Moisés Machel, Rhodes University will bring together members of the Machel family, prominent African thinkers, liberation veterans, scholars, artists and young people from across the continent to confront a question that remains deeply relevant: what remains unfinished about Africa's liberation project?

🔗 https://www.ru.ac.za/latestnews/samora_machel-1.html

This Friday, you are cordially invited to the Political and International Studies' department's first Post Graduate Research Colloquium. This event brings together some of our PG students, along with PG students from other departments to share some of their very interesting research projects they are working on. The event details are as follows:

Date: Friday, 14 August 2026
Time: 13H00 - 15H00
Venue: Ruth Mompati Seminar Room, Political and International Studies Department.

[In Photos] Friday Lunchtime seminar with Prof. Eduard Jordaan entitled: A New Dawn: Ramaphosa’s South Africa on the UN Human Rights Council.

Photos credit: Chuma Songelwa

Mandela was no sellout

By Ragel Maritz

The author of a forthcoming biography of Nelson Mandela has challenged South Africans to rethink the legacy of democratic South Africa's first president by examining the complexities of history rather than portraying him as either a flawless hero or a political "sell-out".

Historian and sociologist Professor Xolela Mangcu presented a public lecture titled Mandela: Romance of Tradition, Romance of Revolution last Tuesday at Rhodes University, ahead of the publication of Mandela: The Aristocrat and the Revolution, which is set to be the first full biography of Mandela written by an African scholar.

Introducing the lecture, Rhodes University's Dean of Humanities, Professor Siphokazi Magadla, said it was timely to revisit Mandela's legacy in 2026, marking 65 years since he became the first commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC's armed wing. She noted that Mandela had played a central role in persuading the ANC to move away from its long-standing commitment to non-violence following the Sharpeville Massacre.

Mangcu, a professor at George Washington University in the US, said that while his lecture had originally focused on Mandela as a "radical pragmatist" his research had led him to describe Mandela instead as a "tragic pragmatist".

"What I want to suggest here tonight is that binaries are only for computers," he said. "In political struggle what we may see are actually contradictions and reversals and complexities."

Throughout the lecture, Mangcu argued that Mandela consistently balanced radical political goals with pragmatic decision-making. He cited Mandela's willingness to engage with political opponents, business leaders and later apartheid officials, while remaining committed to the broader struggle for liberation.

He rejected claims that Mandela "sold out" during negotiations with the apartheid government, arguing that such criticism often ignores the political realities facing the ANC in the 1980s.

"By making that political calculation, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo actually saved the ANC from extinction," Mangcu said, pointing to the military strength of the apartheid state, declining regional support for the ANC and changing international politics as factors that shaped the movement's decisions.

Drawing on the writings of historian David McCullough and revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon, Mangcu argued that history requires empathy as well as critical analysis.

"They fought as well as they could, with the arms that they possessed at that time," he said, quoting Fanon to illustrate that liberation leaders should be judged within the historical circumstances in which they acted.

Mangcu also challenged what he described as the "romantic" tradition in many Mandela biographies, which present Mandela as a singular heroic figure. Instead, his forthcoming book draws on the tradition of Greek tragedy to explore Mandela's sacrifices, contradictions, and difficult choices.

"The tragic hero is not suffering for himself or herself, but for the larger community," he said.

During the question-and-answer session, the discussion broadened beyond Mandela to contemporary South Africa's political and moral landscape. Mangcu argued that many of the country's current challenges stem from an obsession with wealth and status.

"Everything that is wrong with this country right now — the corruption, criminality, and all of that — is because of this quest for money," he said. "We need to ask ourselves what gives our lives meaning."

He also spoke about the importance of role models, recalling that leaders such as Steve Biko had shaped his own political imagination as a young man growing up in Ginsberg, Qonce. He encouraged young people to reflect on the values they want to uphold rather than measuring success through material wealth.

Responding to questions about whether Mandela could still be criticised for the outcomes of South Africa's democratic transition, Mangcu said criticism must always be rooted in historical evidence rather than political slogans.

"Before you call somebody a sell-out, just make sure that you know what you're talking about," he said.

He argued that there is an important distinction between compromise and betrayal, noting that Mandela had repeatedly rejected offers of release from prison that required him to abandon the liberation struggle.

Mangcu also questioned why so few African scholars have written major biographies of Mandela, arguing that South Africans have not invested sufficiently in documenting their own intellectual and political history.

Concluding the evening, he urged students and researchers to embrace complexity when writing about South Africa's past. "We may disagree with some things they did," he said, quoting Steve Biko's reflections on liberation leaders, "but we know that they spoke the language of the people."

His upcoming book, 'Mandela: The Aristocrat and the Revolution,' is set to be released on 10 December this year.

Professor Xolela Mangcu (centre) with, from left: Dr Lindokuhle Mandyoli, Dean of Humanities Professor Siphokazi Magadla, HoD of Political and International Studies, Professor Eduard Jordaan, Dr Cecilia Nedziwe and Dr Masixole Booi. Photo: Ragel Maritz

Reminder: Join us today for the Friday seminar with Prof. Eduard Jordaan entitled: A New Dawn: Ramaphosa’s South Africa on the UN Human Rights Council at 13:00hrs

Location: Ruth Mompati Seminar Room (Politics Department, Rhodes University)

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/95379974428

[In Photos] Public Lecture by Professor Xolela Mangcu from George Washington University, United States, entitled: "Rewriting Mandela: The Making of a Radical Pragmatist" organised by the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) & the Department of Political & International Studies.

Images credit: Chuma Songelwa

Reminder: Today, the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) & the Department of Political & International Studies presents: “Rewriting Mandela: The Making of a Radical Pragmatist” Public Lecture.

Speaker: Professor Xolela Mangcu, George Washington University, United States

Date & Time: Tuesday, 4 August 2026, 6PM

Venue: Eden Grove Blue

Speaker Bio: Xolela Mangcu is Professor of Sociology and History at George Washington University. He obtained his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University in 1997 and has held fellowships at Oxford University, Harvard University, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), The Brookings Institution, The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, The Rockefeller Foundation, and The Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. In 2015 he was awarded the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship to write the first African-authored biography of Nelson Mandela. The book will be published by Bloomsbury Press in December 2026. Mangcu has also authored and co-authored nine books including Biko: A Life, which won the University of Cape Town’s Meritorious Award; The Meaning of Mandela (Essays by Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Cornel West and Wole Soyinka); Becoming Worthy Ancestors (Essays by Benedict Anderson, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martin Bernal) and To the Brink: The State of Democracy in South Africa. He is currently working on a new biography of Desmond Tutu for Yale University Press. He is also turning into a book his Ph.D. dissertation on Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington (Cornell University Press). Mangcu was the founding executive director of the Steve Biko Foundation, and a newspaper columnist for South Africa’s leading newspapers. The Sunday Times described him as “probably South Africa’s most prolific public intellectual.” Political scientist Peter Vale described him as "the most interesting, certainly the most engaging voice amongst South Africa’s public intellectuals.”

Abstract:

Drawing on his biography of Mandela, the first such book authored by an African writer, Professor Xolela Mangcu, uses the philosophy of pragmatism as an alternative interpretation of Mandela’s leadership. This interpretation differs from existing biographies, all of which attribute his leadership to the influence of his guardian and Thembu chief, Jongintaba. Professor Mangcu will discuss what the historian Elsie Wagenaar described as the Thembu royal family’s “pragmatic friendship with colonialists.” For their role as colonial allies, they were rewarded with leading positions in the colonial, quasi-parliamentary body known as the Bhunga – in which both the regent and his father Gadla played prominent roles, thereby bequeathing to Mandela a modern political heritage. In short, Professor Mangcu places Mandela within a long historical modernist approach as opposed to the dominant colonial-anthropological interpretation of his non-African biographers. By placing Mandela within this pragmatic, modernist tradition, Mangcu demonstrates that African resistance politics were always a mix of radicalism and pragmatic accommodation, hence his description of Mandela as a radical pragmatist. In the talk Professor Mangcu also challenges the claims of mostly Western and American historians that Mandela was a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and thus acted on its behalf in forming the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. He suggests that the claims are shaped more by Cold War obsessions than statements of fact. Using the same pragmatic framework and drawing on decades of Mandela’s own denials of Party membership, Professor Mangcu argues that the philosophy of pragmatism provides a more productive framework for understanding Mandela’s political heritage and political alliances, including those he formed with the Party.

All are welcome!