Archetypal hero or living saint? The veneration of Nelson Mandela

Maylam, Paul

Title: Archetypal hero or living saint? The veneration of Nelson Mandela
Creator: Maylam, Paul
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2009
Date: 2009
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/450030
Identifier: vital:74877
Identifier: https://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/hist/v54n2/04.pdf
Description: It is now a commonplace that Nelson Mandela–Madiba–has become the most venerated, iconic political figure of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Accolades and awards have been heaped upon him. In the words of Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General,“To this day, Madiba remains probably the single most admired, most respected international figure in the entire world”. 1 “In these times of global warfare and strife,” remarks Desmond Tutu,“… Nelson Mandela stands out as a global icon for peace, love, reconciliation and magnanimity.” 2 In the international media, Mandela has been variously described as the only living saint, 3 and as “a moral colossus” towering over the world. 4 Nadine Gordimer views Gandhi and Mandela as “the two indisputably magnificent great people of the last millennium.” 5 The former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, was determined, when still in office, that a statue of Mandela be built in Trafalgar Square “so Nelson on his column and Nelson Mandela on his pedestal would in a sense encapsulate the beginning and the end of the British Empire.” 6 There are actual plans afoot to construct a massive statue of Mandela, along the lines of the Statue of Liberty, overlooking the harbour in Port Elizabeth.
Format: 16 pages
Format: pdf
Language: English
Relation: Historia
Relation: Maylam, P., 2009. Archetypal hero or living saint? The veneration of Nelson Mandela. Historia, 54(2), pp.21-36
Relation: Historia volume 55 number 2 21 36 2009 2309-8392
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Historia Statement (https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_serialandpid=0018-229Xandlng=enandnrm=iso)

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Maylam, Paul (Distinguished Fellow Emeritus Professor)

RU Department of History

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