The Decolonial Mandela: Peace, Justice and the Politics of Life
ISBN: 9781785331190
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Berghahn Books
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter



A significant contribution to the emerging literature on decolonial studies, this concise and forcefully argued volume lays out a groundbreaking interpretation of the "Mandela phenomenon." Contrary to a neoliberal social model that privileges adversarial criminal justice and a rationalistic approach to war making, Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni identifies transformative political justice and a reimagined social order as key features of Nelson Mandela's legacy. Mandela is understood here as an exemplar of decolonial humanism, one who embodied the idea of survivor's justice and held up reconciliation and racial harmony as essential for transcending colonial modes of thought.


Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is the Head of Archie Mafeje Research Institute at the University of South Africa. He is the Editor-In-Chief of Africa Insight and Deputy Editor of the International Journal of African Renaissance Studies. His recent publications include Empire, Global Coloniality and African Subjectivity (2013) and Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization (2013).

Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is the Head of Archie Mafeje Research Institute at the University of South Africa. He is the Editor-In-Chief of Africa Insight and Deputy Editor of the International Journal of African Renaissance Studies. His recent publications include Empire, Global Coloniality and African Subjectivity (2013) and Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization (2013).

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