Smuts and Mandela

The Men Who Made South Africa
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-84701-470-2
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer

Buch, Englisch, 424 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 771 g

Compares how, as individuals, Smuts and Mandela shaped key aspects of the making of South Africa, moving beyond sweeping condemnation of the first and uncritical reference of the second to provide a more rounded assessment of their significance in the history of the nation.

South Africa has produced two leaders who achieved global recognition and renown in their respective eras: Jan Christiaan Smuts (Prime Minister, 1919-24 and 1939-48) and Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (President, 1994-99). The former was much celebrated for playing a significant role in reconstructing international architecture after both world wars; the latter remains globally admired for his leading part in drawing South Africa back from racial war and becoming a democracy. As a result, both have attracted multiple biographies. Today, however, whereas Mandela remains a much-admired global icon, Smuts' reputation is much diminished, with contemporary historians citing his racism and role in constructing the foundations of apartheid South Africa.

In this controversial book, Roger Southall provides a re-evaluation of Smuts' hugely contradictory career by proposing fascinating parallels with the life and political trajectory of Mandela. Both came to maturity as political leaders as freedom fighters - Smuts against the British and Mandela against the apartheid regime. Both played a pre-eminent in founding a new South Africa, the first made for whites at Union in 1910 and the second for all South Africans in 1994. Both aspired to be nation-builders, but while Smuts' hoped-for South African nation was white, Mandela aspired to bring all of South Africa's people together. Both came to stride on the international stage, albeit in very different ways and for various reasons.

Smuts' career failed, and he was ejected from office. Mandela retired gracefully from office and continued to be lauded for his well-earned retirement, yet South Africa's contemporary travails reveal his hopes and policies as unfulfilled. This book makes the case that we cannot fully understand Mandela without first understanding Smuts and how South Africa continues to struggle with the legacy he left behind.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Southall, Roger

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Afrikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politikerbiographien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Why Smuts and Mandela?

Part One
Introduction: Freedom Fighters

1. Smuts: Reluctant Rebel, Boer General
2. Mandela: African Nationalist
3. Mandela: Political Revolutionary

Part Two
Introduction: State Makers
4. Smuts: Negotiating the Union
5. Mandela: Fighting from Prison

6. Mandela: Negotiating a Democracy

Part Three
Introduction: Nation Builders

7. Smuts and 'South Africanism'
8. Smuts: The Supremacist Democrat

9. Mandela: Remaking the Nation

10. Mandela's Democracy

Part Four
Introduction: Global Statesmen

11. Smuts: The Nationalist Internationalist

12. Smuts: Liberal Imperialist

13. The Global Mandela

Part Five
Continuities and Contradictions

14. Smuts, Mandela and the Making of South Africa

Notes

Key Sources and Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Southall, Roger
ROGER SOUTHALL is Emeritus Professor in Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand and Professorial Research Associate, Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS. His books include Liberation Movements in Power: Party and State in Southern Africa (2013), The New Black Middle Class in South Africa (2016) and Whites and Democracy in South Africa 2022).