Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics at Rhodes University and co-editor of Re-imagining the Social in South Africa, Peter Vale cuts a troubled figure as he marks the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. Where are we going as a nation? What have we lost and how can we get it back? he asks, in an article that ranges from Invictus to Jawaharal Nehru:
DESPITE the silken promises of the World Cup, South Africa has marked the 20th anniversary of FW de Klerk’s famous speech with distinct bleakness – a torpor close to despair.
To appreciate this requires a viewing of the film Invictus, Hollywood’s account of SA’s victory in another World Cup, rugby’s, 1995 competition. More than anything else, the movie highlights the sense of awe that South Africans felt as they searched for a new identity and their realisation that in order to achieve it, they would have to sacrifice.
Of course, this country is not the first to experience the rush and the excitement of a new national beginning. On the eve of Independence – August 14, 1947 – Jawaharal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, delivered a speech which began with two dramatic sentences: “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”
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Re-imagining the Social in South Africa: Critique, Theory and Post-aparheid Society
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