Nelson Mandela, Robben Island and the imagination of a new South Africa

Abstract

This article is concentrating on Mandela and seek to show how, through his participation in debate and study, he evolved a particular approach to thinking about questions of the future South Africa. While Mandela's pre-Robben Island experiences were as important as the time he spent on the island in shaping and thinking. The author suggests that the island gave him a concentrated opportunity to think through the contradictions of South Africa. He came to a management of these contradictions with difficulty. He struggled with the question of modernity and its racial insistence and the demands of tradition and "cosmopolitanness" in facing questions of the past, present and future.