Nelson Mandela: postcolonial thinker, postmodern icon, modern world leader

纳尔逊·曼德拉：后殖民思想家、后现代偶像、现代世界领袖

• 批准号: AH/E503543/1
• 负责人: Elleke Boehmer
• 金额: $ 2.88万
• 依托单位: Royal Holloway University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FE503543%2F1
• 关键词: Nelson; Mandela; postcolonial; thinker; postmodern

From his early years as an anti-apartheid lawyer and pugilist-revolutionary, to his recent post-presidential achievements in fighting global poverty and raising AIDS-awareness in his country, Nelson Mandela has succeeded not only in ceaselessly reinventing his ideas of social justice and broad-church political struggle, but also in shaping his society's understanding of itself, as well as the world's perception of Africa. This political and cultural achievement, the research project suggests, represents a form of 'theory-in-action', which has creatively mobilised, adapted, extended, and in some cases reanimated the core-concepts of what is now termed post colonialism: amongst others, active alongside passive resistance; rainbow or mixed identity; and a new or redefined humanism.Context: Studies of Mandela to date, by Guiloineau, Meer, Sampson, Lodge, amongst others, tend without exception to approach his career in strictly biographical, chronological and empirical terms, in ways that often markedly coincide with his own self-representation as South African father of the nation. More sceptical accounts, which target his post-1994 neo­ liberalism, such as those by Alexander or Brutus, have likewise shown little interest in looking at his politics as an integrated ethical system. Recent work in postcolonial criticism has explored the relation between anti-colonial resistance and postcolonial thought. This study will extend the parameters of such debate.Aims and objectives: Ironically, Mandela's political 'philosophy', influential though it has been, exists in fragmentary and inconclusive form: in speeches, interviews and communiques both pre-1964 and post-1990; in scattered prison writings; in his (ghosted) autobiography, 'Long Walk to Freedom'. While acknowledging that it is difficult to speak of 'Mandelaism', in contrast with Gandhism, the key task of the research will be to glean from these diverse and divergent statements and practical achievements the core precepts of his political morality. The objective will be to analyse his eclectic approach under a number of themed headings, derived both from his biography, and from postcolonial theory.Potential applications and benefits: Mandela's contribution as a political leader, on both the national and the international stage, remains poorly understood as a post-independence set of ethics or philosophy-of-a-kind despite his wide influence and reputation. This book will address this oversight by suggesting that post colonialism's central critical concepts themselves demand modification in the light of Mandela's at once Africanist yet multiculturalist achievements. The study will make the unprecedented case that it is precisely the absence of a coherent philosophy that has given Mandela his chameleon-like political flexibility and his versatility in manipulating media images (of his country, African society, etc.). Moreover, his eclecticism has allowed him to pursue innovative modes of postcolonial nation-building. On the one hand, Mandela has as a nationalist intercalated aspects of African tradition with colonial modernity by representing these as already modern and yet as unique and native (as in his rationalistic building of consensus). Yet, on the other hand, post-1990, he has been concerned to seize hold of modern technologies in order, if anything, to outface those who would possessively claim these as western in origin. In recent years he has become for some- western world leaders as well as his own people- a screen on to which a range of different moral and political crusades has been projected. Yet throughout he has retained, and robustly asserted, the interlocking values of community ('Ubuntu'), comradeship and a 'unity of conscience'. In general, from the point of view of its British and its international readerships, the book will bring a fresh understanding of postcolonial leadership and independence, as well as of transnational and multicultural identity.

从早年的反种族隔离律师和拳击革命者，到最近卸任总统后在消除全球贫困和提高本国艾滋病意识方面取得的成就，纳尔逊·曼德拉不仅成功地不断重塑了他的社会正义和广泛的教会政治斗争思想，而且塑造了他的社会对自身的理解，以及世界对非洲的看法。该研究项目表明，这种政治和文化成就代表了一种形式的“行动理论”，它创造性地调动、调整、扩展并在某些情况下重新激活了现在被称为后殖民主义的核心概念：除其他外，积极与消极抵抗;彩虹或混合身份;以及新的或重新定义的人文主义。背景：到目前为止，吉洛诺伊、梅尔、桑普森、洛奇等对曼德拉的研究，无一例外地倾向于严格按照传记、年代和经验的方式来研究他的职业生涯，这种方式往往与他自己作为南非国父的自我描述明显一致。更多的怀疑论者，如亚历山大或布鲁图斯，针对他1994年后的新自由主义，同样没有兴趣将他的政治视为一个完整的伦理体系。后殖民批评的最新研究探讨了反殖民抵抗和后殖民思想之间的关系。具有讽刺意味的是，曼德拉的政治“哲学”，虽然有影响力，但以零碎和不确定的形式存在：在1964年之前和1990年之后的演讲，采访和公报中;在分散的监狱著作中;在他的（幽灵）自传“漫长的自由之路”中。虽然承认这是很难说的“曼德拉主义”，与甘地主义相比，研究的关键任务将是收集从这些不同的和不同的声明和实际成就的核心戒律，他的政治道德。目标将是分析他的折衷主义的方法下的一些主题标题，都来自他的传记，并从后殖民理论。潜在的应用程序和好处：曼德拉的贡献作为一个政治领袖，在国家和国际舞台上，仍然很少被理解为一套后独立的道德或哲学的一类，尽管他广泛的影响力和声誉。这本书将解决这一疏忽，建议后殖民主义的核心关键概念本身的要求修改，在曼德拉的非洲主义，但同时多元文化的成就。这项研究将提出一个前所未有的案例，即正是缺乏一种连贯的哲学，才使曼德拉具有变色龙般的政治灵活性和操纵媒体形象（他的国家、非洲社会等）的多才多艺。此外，他的折衷主义使他能够追求后殖民国家建设的创新模式。一方面，作为一个民族主义者，曼德拉将非洲传统的各个方面与殖民地的现代性结合起来，将这些方面表现为已经现代化，但又是独特的和本土的（如他理性主义的共识建设）。然而，另一方面，1990年后，他一直关注抓住现代技术，以便（如果有的话）击败那些声称这些技术源于西方的人。近年来，对于一些人--西方世界领导人以及他自己的人民--来说，他已经成为一个屏幕，一系列不同的道德和政治十字军东征被投射到这个屏幕上。然而，在整个过程中，他一直保留并坚定地主张社区（“Ubuntu”），社区和“良心统一”的连锁价值观。总的来说，从英国和国际读者的角度来看，这本书将带来对后殖民领导和独立以及跨国和多元文化身份的全新理解。

项目成果

Postcolonial terrorist The example of Nelson Mandela

后殖民恐怖分子 纳尔逊·曼德拉的例子

• DOI: 10.1080/13534640500331666
• 发表时间: 2005
• 期刊: Parallax
• 影响因子: 0.3
• 作者: Boehmer E