Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson...

7
1 © Africa Institute of South Africa AISA POLICYbrief Number 61 – November 2011 1 Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela 1 1 1 Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi is a Research Specialist in the Knowledge Transfer and Skills Development Unit at the Africa Institute of South Africa, Tshwane. Justice Mkhabela is an Intern in the Sustainable Development Unit of the Research Division at the Africa Institute of South Africa, Tshwane. The Struggle is My Life Africa writes at the beginning of his article, ‘As the liberation hero turns 93, elites like to view him as a “moderate” rather than a supporter of armed struggle’. 3 In the historiography of Mandela – and by extension, of the African National Congress (ANC), of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), and of South Africa – the liberation struggle and its armed movement are the axis points for any narrative about the name and persona of Mandela, including the Mandela family, and in particular his second wife, Nomzamo Winnie Mandela. That is to say, we cannot comprehend Mandela without talking about him in the context of that important historical past that, despite its interweaving of cruelty and love, brought us to the South Africa that we, as a people, and the world, are enjoying today. AFRICA INSTITUTE OF SOUTH AFRICA BRIEFING NO 61 NOVEMBER 2011 The aim of this policy brief is to argue that the celebration of only the ‘positive’ aspects of Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela’s persona is an injustice to his contribution to South Africa history. What should rather be celebrated is Madiba in his totality, including his weaknesses and faults. It is submitted that ‘Our Madiba’ should be put in proper historical context, so that the world can best appreciate and celebrate Mandela in his totality for his contributions to world peace in the past, present and future. Nelson Mandela: From Prisoner to President This policy brief is a response to the Aljazeera Opinion piece entitled ‘Nelson Mandela: From prisoner to president’, written by David Africa and published as part of the 93rd birthday celebrations of the former president of South Africa on July 18, 2011. 1 This article by Africa was internally debated by the researchers at AISA on 26 July 2011. As historians of Robben Island and the African liberation struggle in South Africa, 2 both of which were central to Mandela’s story, it was felt as Africa does, that the people of South Africa need first and foremost to put our ‘Madiba’ in proper historical context, so that the world can appreciate and celebrate Mandela in his totality for his contributions to world peace in the past, present and future.

Transcript of Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson...

Page 1: Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela Neo

1© Africa Institute of South Africa AISA POLICYbrief Number 61 – November 2011 1

Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future

Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela

111

Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi is a Research Specialist in the Knowledge Transfer and Skills Development Unit at the Africa Institute of South Africa, Tshwane.

Justice Mkhabela is an Intern in the Sustainable Development Unit of the Research Division at the Africa Institute of South Africa, Tshwane.

The Struggle is My Life

Africa writes at the beginning of his article, ‘As the liberation hero turns 93, elites like to view him as a “moderate” rather than a supporter of armed struggle’. 3

In the historiography of Mandela – and by extension, of the African National Congress (ANC), of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), and of South Africa – the liberation struggle and its armed movement are the axis points for any narrative about the name and persona of Mandela, including the Mandela family, and in particular his second wife, Nomzamo Winnie Mandela. That is to say, we cannot comprehend Mandela without talking about him in the context of that important historical past that, despite its interweaving of cruelty and love, brought us to the South Africa that we, as a people, and the world, are enjoying today.

AFRICA INSTITUTE OF SOUTH AFRICA BRIEFINg NO 61 NOVEMBER 2011

The aim of this policy brief is to argue that the celebration of only the ‘positive’ aspects of

Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela’s persona is an injustice to his contribution to South Africa history.

What should rather be celebrated is Madiba in his totality, including his weaknesses and faults.

It is submitted that ‘Our Madiba’ should be put in proper historical context, so that the world

can best appreciate and celebrate Mandela in his totality for his contributions to world peace in

the past, present and future.

Nelson Mandela: From Prisoner to President

This policy brief is a response to the Aljazeera Opinion piece entitled ‘Nelson Mandela: From prisoner to president’, written by David Africa and published as part of the 93rd birthday celebrations of the former president of South Africa on July 18, 2011.1 This article by Africa was internally debated by the researchers at AISA on 26 July 2011. As historians of Robben Island and the African liberation struggle in South Africa,2 both of which were central to Mandela’s story, it was felt as Africa does, that the people of South Africa need first and foremost to put our ‘Madiba’ in proper historical context, so that the world can appreciate and celebrate Mandela in his totality for his contributions to world peace in the past, present and future.

Page 2: Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela Neo

2 AISA POLICYbrief Number 61 – November 2011 © Africa Institute of South Africa2

To labour this point, part four of Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, is entitled ‘The struggle is my life’, which is the title of his Speeches and Writings, which was compiled to mark his sixtieth birthday, and includes historical documents and a recent account of conditions on Robben Island; it was published in London by the International Defence and Aid Fund in 1978.4

That significant historical past begins with the birth of the boy-child Rolihlahla Mandela on 18 July 1918 at Mvezo, in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. ‘Apart from life, a strong constitution and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name: Rolihlahla.’5 The heritage, traditions and customs of his upbringing, within a communal household of extended family members, are the bedrock on which the life and activism of Madiba, as we know him today, was built. Throughout his upbringing, from that family community to schools and to Fort Hare University College, to Johannesburg, to his various visits to African and European countries, and to Robben Island prison – and other prisons, one notices the awakening of his conscience – social, economic and political.

Consequently, Mandela was one of the youth members who formed the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) ‘on Easter Sunday 1944 at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre in Eloff Street’,6 Johannesburg. While the actual formation of the ANC Youth League took place in Johannesburg, the institution of Fort Hare was the most important breeding ground of student militancy in the country at the time. This was

clear from Mda‘s statement about Fort Hare: ‘Just the place to start a Youth League because the young people there are the intellectual leaders-to-be, and a growing consciousness of their role in the national liberation struggle will add a new vigour and force to the struggle for national freedom.7

Formation of ANC Youth League: ‘Lighting a fire under the leadership of the ANC’

The rationale for forming the ANC Youth League at the time was, writes Mandela, that ‘[m]any felt, perhaps unfairly, that the ANC as a whole had become the preserve of a tired, unmilitant, privileged African elite, more concerned with protecting their own rights than those of the masses. The general consensus was that some action must be taken, and Dr Majombozi proposed forming a Youth League as a way of lighting a fire under the leadership of the ANC’.8

The militancy and radicalism of the ANC Youth League today and in the past is traceable to its formation at that time by the generation of its founding fathers, Muziwakhe Anton Lembede and AP Mda, who became the Youth League’s first presidents in that sequence; and many others, including Mandela, Walter Sisulu and OR Tambo.

During the apartheid period Mandela was called a ‘terrorist’ because, amongst other things, as he writes, ‘I, who had never been a soldier, who had never fought in battle, who had never fired a gun at an enemy, had been given the task

The ‘terrorist’ Mandela is as important as

the ‘moderate’ Mandela of

today, who is celebrated by

the media as if the radical and

militant Mandela of the 1940s to 1960s had

never existed.

Source: the Nelson Mandela FoundationSource: Nelson Mandela, The Struggle is My Life, 1978

Page 3: Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela Neo

3© Africa Institute of South Africa AISA POLICYbrief Number 61 – November 2011 3

Robben Island was the lowest period of the liberation struggle.

of starting an army…. The name of this new organization was Umkhonto we Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation) – or MK for short. The symbol of the spear was chosen because with this simple weapon Africans had resisted the incursions of whites for centuries’.9

But Mandela did not wake up one day and declare ‘armed struggle now!’. ‘The debate on the use of violence had been going on among us since early 1960. I had first discussed the armed struggle as far back as 1952 with Walter Sisulu. Now, I again conferred with him and we agreed that the organization had to set out on a new course. … [W]e decided that I should raise the issue of the armed struggle within the Working Committee, and I did so in a meeting in June of 1961.’10 Mandela was raising this again after the Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960. As a factor in the decision to start MK, it is important to note the statement made by the ANC president of that time, Chief Albert Luthuli: ‘Who will deny that thirty years of my life have been spent knocking in vain, patiently, moderately and modestly, at a closed and barred door?’11

The ‘terrorist’ Mandela is as important as the ‘moderate’ Mandela of today, who is celebrated by the media as if the radical and militant Mandela of the 1940s to 1960s had never existed. The 18 years (1964–1982) that Mandela spent on Robben Island were as a result of his radicalism and militancy. For the oppressed majority, Mandela the person, and the organisation the ANC (and other similar movements), have always been freedom fighters and liberation movements; and not terrorists and/or terrorist organisations.

The role of the liberation movements in bombing and attacking the then apartheid regime landed their leadership and the organisations onto the apartheid government’s list of terrorists, with dire consequences, as most Western countries and the United States (US) joined to blacklist the ANC and its military wing, Umkhonto We Sizwe. Given the above trend, it came as no surprise that even 15 years after having been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Mandela’s name still lingered on the list of US blacklisted terrorists.12 Nevertheless the verdict gradually gained ground that those who regarded Mandela as a terrorist were on the wrong side of history, and the US view of Mandela became an obvious embarrassment of its own until the US gradually refrained from keeping his name on the list. In fact, the US now views South Africa as one of Africa’s most important and strategic countries. This signals a reversal of the negative perceptions that were attached to the ANC.13 It is interesting to note that the current British Prime

Minister, David Cameron, has roundly rebuked one of his predecessors, Margaret Thatcher, for having labelled Mandela a terrorist; Cameron referred to Mandela as one of the ‘greatest men alive’.14

‘Robben Island: The dark years’

On June 13, 1964, Mandela’s activism as a freedom fighter landed him in Robben Island Maximum Security Prison, off the Cape coast, which was at the time considered to be Africa’s Alcatraz. Robben Island was the lowest period of the liberation struggle; that period justifies the title of the section ‘Robben Island: the dark years’, which narrates Mandela’s time on the island in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.15 Esiquithini is the word for ‘at the Island’ in isiXhosa, the mother tongue of Mandela. Esiquithini was at first a place of brutality; but the generation of Mandela and Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe’s freedom fighters, as well as the post-1976 youth prisoners, were able, in time, to humanise those who imprisoned them and the atmosphere of the prison.

For example, take the story of James Gregory, the former Robben Island prison warder, who wrote a book about his experiences of Robben Island and Mandela in particular, entitled Goodbye Bafana: Nelson Mandela, my prisoner, my friend, which, after its publication, provoked a controversy regarding the genuineness of its story; and was subsequently, in 2007, released as a docudrama under the name The Color of Freedom. 16

When Mandela was released from prison on 11 February 1990, a minority were afraid the ‘terrorist’ was out to expel them from the land into the sea; while for the majority the ‘freedom fighter’ was out of prison to bring them freedom and all that is associated with it. Mandela was to prove to both the minority and the majority that he was not the Messiah who could achieve either: drive people into the sea; or completely fulfil others’ great expectations about what he could do for them. What Madiba was able to do, and successfully, was to tell all of us – regardless of race – that ‘the work has just begun to liberate ourselves’; and that we are all, in fact, on our long walk to freedom, individually and collectively as a nation.

Madiba’s Greatest Legacy: Humility

Among Madiba’s greatest gestures of recon-ciliation was having the courage to ask South

Page 4: Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela Neo

Africans, especially the African and black people, to embrace the Springboks as a national sporting emblem for post-apartheid South Africa. Rugby seemed an unlikely instrument to make the country whole. White people loved the sport. It was, as Mandela said, their ‘religion’. The national team, the Springboks, were the white nation’s high priests. But black South Africans hated rugby, and the Springboks in particular, whose green jersey they saw as a loathsome symbol of apartheid oppression.17

However, sport is a uniting force. In one symbolic move in 1995, elected President Nelson Mandela came out in support of the Springboks and united a divided nation. It was one moment when history and sport merged and put Mandela’s moral authority, integrity, compassion and commitment to reconciliation on global display. It is these attributes that have made him the icon he is today, writes Jonathan Jackson.18

Madiba had spent the prime decades of his manhood, fatherhood, brotherhood, uncle-hood, and grandfather-hood in the prisons of South Africa. Throughout that time, he got used to dressing in a casual manner. After his release, as the first African president of the democratic Republic of South Africa, President Mandela would be seen in what became known famously and affectionately as ‘the Madiba shirts’. Executives of all kinds in the boardrooms of South Africa would copy Madiba’s dress style, and it became the norm in the country to dress in this less formal way. This was one example of a restoration of Africa’s simple ways of respectable dressing that colonialism and apartheid had not accepted. Every time we dress the Madiba way, it is a celebration of the humility of Mandela.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission: An Important Process

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was not perfect, but it was an important process that the country needed to go through in order to begin healing. President Mandela’s speech at the handover ceremony of the TRC Report stated ‘Out of that negotiation process emerged a pact to uncover the truth, to build a bright future for our children and grandchildren, without regard to race, culture, religion or language. Today we reap some of the harvest of what we sowed at the end of a South African famine.’19 Madiba paid tribute to ‘the hundreds who dared to open the wounds of guilt so as to exorcise it from the nation’s body politic; indeed the millions who make up the South

African people and who made it happen so that we could indeed become a South African nation’.20

There were criticisms of the TRC, especially its processes, because it re-awakened ‘troubling emotions’. But, as the president said, ‘Though the interim report is formally given to me as president, it is in reality a report to all of us. For that reason it is being released to the public and given to our elected representatives without a moment’s delay. Its release is bound to reawaken many of the difficult and troubling emotions that the hearings themselves brought. Many of us will have reservations about aspects of what is contained in these five volumes. All are free to make comment on it and indeed we invite you to do so. And for those who feel unjustly damaged, there are remedies.’21

‘It is in reality a report to all of us’; that was very important, in particular for white South Africans, who were equally morally damaged by the apartheid state. Had most white South Africans known much of what the TRC revealed, perhaps apartheid would not have lasted for such a long period, while the country’s resources – human and material – could have been shared humanely on the basis of a shared humanity.

‘Part of a Collective’

Madiba has always told us that he is part of a collective. Mandela belongs to the African National Congress, which was formed in 1912, just six years before he was born in 1918, and which turns 100 years in January 2012. Yet the media, which today love Madiba as much as they hated him with a passion yesterday, have succeeded in talking about Mandela in a vacuum. Achmat Dangor, the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, expressed that ‘Mandela … himself had always been part of a collective.’22

‘My family paid a terrible price, perhaps too dear a price, for my commitment’

In our celebration of Madiba, we must not romanticise him to the extent that we fail to acknowledge that he is human like all of us; and all human beings have faults. Let us take, for example, Madiba’s family, about whom he expresses himself so movingly in the last three pages of his 617-page autobiography; coming at the end, this to us symbolises a continuous loss that cannot be recovered. We will use Madiba’s

4 AISA POLICYbrief Number 61 – November 2011 © Africa Institute of South Africa44

We are all, in fact, on

our long walk to freedom, individually

and collectively as a nation.

Out of that negotiation

process emerged a pact to

uncover the truth.

Page 5: Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela Neo

In conclusion, we would like to reiterate the point we made at the beginning of this policy brief. We need to put Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela, Our Madiba, in a proper historical context, so that the world can best appreciate and celebrate Mandela in his totality for his contribution to world peace: in the past, present and future. Mandela is not only what the media want us to believe he is; Madiba is his work and activism in totality, less of a ‘terrorist’ and more of a humanist. Yet Mandela was in his time a revolutionary, as well as the icon of reconciliation the world loves to celebrate.

References1 Africa, D., 2011. Nelson Mandela: From prisoner to president.

Opinion, Al Jazeera. Available at http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/2011717113813621140.html [Accessed 7 July 2011]. Africa is an independent security analyst based in South Africa. He has previously worked in counter-terrorism intelligence and research, and he served in the underground of the then banned African National Congress in South Africa.

2 N.L. Ramoupi is a PhD Candidate and wrote his dissertation on the subject of Robben Island and its culture of liberation at Howard University, Washington DC. He was a researcher at Robben Island Museum in 2000–2003.

3 Africa, D. 2011, op. cit.

4 Mandela, N., 1994. Long Walk to Freedom: the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Randburg: Macdonald Purnell, pp.131-182; Mandela, N. 1978.The struggle is my life: his speeches and writings brought together to mark his 60th birthday : also included are Historical documents and A recent account of conditions on Robben Island. London: International Defence and Aid Fund.

5 Mandela, N., 1994. Long walk to freedom, p.3.

6 Mandela, N., 1994. Ibid., p.92.

7 William Cullen Library, Historical Papers, University of the Witwatersrand. ANC Papers, La 4.3, A.P. Mda to G.M. Pitje, 24 August 1948, cited in: White, T.R.H., 1995. Z K Matthews and the Formation of the ANC Youth League at the University College of Fort Hare, Kleio, XXVII, p.124.

8 Mandela, N., 1994. Long walk to freedom, pp.91–92.

9 Mandela, N., 1994. Ibid., p.262.

10 Mandela, N., 1994. Ibid., pp.251-252.

11 Chief Albert Luthuli, cited in Mandela, N., 1994, Long walk to freedom, p.133.

12 Debusmann, B., 2010. America, terrorists and Mandela. Available at http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/01/15/america-terrorists-and-nelson-mandela/ [Accessed 20 August 2011].

13 Black, R., 2008. United States still consider Mandela a terrorist threat. Available at http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-128218.0.html [Accessed 21 August 2011].

14 Grice, A., 2006. Cameron: we were wrong to call Mandela a terrorist. Available at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-we-were-wrong-to-call-mandela-a-terrorist-413684.html [Accessed 23 August 2011].

5© Africa Institute of South Africa AISA POLICYbrief Number 61 – November 2011 5

own words so that we are not misunderstood or misinterpreted:

‘For myself, I have never regretted my

commitment to the struggle, and I was always

prepared to face the hardships that affected me

personally. But my family paid a terrible price,

perhaps too dear a price, for my commitment.

In life, every man has twin obligations –

obligations to his family, to his parents, to his

wife and children; and he has an obligation to

his people, his country. In a civil and humane

society, each man is able to fulfil those

obligations according to his own inclinations

and abilities. But in a country like South Africa,

it was almost impossible for a man of my birth

and colour to fulfil both of those obligations. In

South Africa, a man of colour who attempted

to live as a human being was punished and

isolated. In South Africa, a man who tried to

fulfil his duty to his people was inevitably

ripped from his family and his home and was

forced to live a life apart, a twilight existence of

secrecy and rebellion. I did not in the beginning

choose to place my people above my family, but

in attempting to serve my people, I found that I

was prevented from fulfilling my obligations as

a son, a brother, a father and a husband.

In that way, my commitment to my people, to

the millions of South Africans I would never

know or meet, was at the expense of the people

I knew best and loved the most. It was as simple

and yet as incomprehensible as the moment a

small child asks her father, “Why can you not be

with us?” And the father must utter the terrible

words: “There are other children like you, a great

many of them ...“ and then one’s voice trails

off.’23

The question is, whose fault was this? The fault of Mandela, the man? Or of the colonial and apartheid systems and those who supported and encouraged them? Whose fault was it, really? Some of us have lived with our fathers for all our lives; the children and grandchildren who call Mandela ‘my father’ and ‘my grandfather’ did not. We cannot deny what Madiba tells us ‘... my family paid a terrible price, perhaps too dear a price, for my commitment.’

The media, have succeeded in talking about Mandela in a vacuum.

Page 6: Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela Neo

report. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/truth_and_reconciliation/204104.stm [Accessed 14 October 2011].

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 Dangor, A., 2008. Legends of liberations struggle gather to honour Sisulus. Available at: http://www.nelsonmandela.org/index.php/news/article/legends_of_liberation_struggle_gather_to_honour_sisulus/. [Accessed on 3 November 2011]. In addition, many media interviews and documentaries, Mandela communicates this aspect of his ‘collectivism’.

23 Mandela, N., 1994. Long walk to freedom, pp.615-616.

6 AISA POLICYbrief Number 61 – November 2011 © Africa Institute of South Africa

15 Mandela, N., 1994. Long walk to freedom, pp.365-434.

16 Gregory, J., with Bob Graham, 1995. Goodbye Bafana Nelson Mandela, my prisoner, my friend. London: Headline Books.

17 Carlin, J., 2008. The Full Nelson: How a sports-savvy Nelson Mandela used rugby to unify his troubled land. Available at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1143996/index.htm [Accessed 14 October 2011].

18 Jackson, J., 2010. Nelson Mandela. Available at http://www.thinkbigmagazine.com/mindset/182-nelson-mandela [Accessed 14 October 2011].

19 Excerpts from South African President Mandela’s speech at the handover ceremony of the Truth and Reconciliation

6

Page 7: Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and ... · Celebrating Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela: Past, Present and Future Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi and Justice Mkhabela Neo

77

Africa Fast FactsCompiled by GIS and Cartography (AISA)

ISBN 978-0-620-426-25-1

Africa In FocusCompiled by GIS and Cartography (AISA)

ISBN 978-0-620-426-24-4

The Coming African Hour Dialectics of Opportunities and Constraints

Edited by Luc Sindjoun

ISBN 9780798302302

Africa’s New Public PolicyImperatives for Globalisation & Nation-building in Nigeria

Edwin Okey Ijeoma

ISBN 9780798302227

HIV/AIDS, Gender, Human Security and Violence in Southern AfricaEdited by Monica Juma and Jennifer Klot

ISBN 9780798302531

Archie MafajeeScholar, Activist and Thinker

Dani Wadada Nabudere

ISBN 9780798302869

The State of Africa 2010/11Parameters and Legacies of Governance and Issues Areas

Edited by Korwa Adar, Monica Juma and Katabaro Miti

ISBN 9780798302401

Contemporary Social IssuesCases in Gaborone,

Kampala, and Durban

Edited by Mokong Simon Mapadimeng and Sultan Khan

ISBN 9780798302449

Natural Resources Governance in southern AfricaEdited by Lesley Masters and Emmanuel Kisiangani

ISBN 9780798302453

Afrikology, Philosophy and Wholeness:An Epistemology

Dani Wadada Nabudere

ISBN 9780798302555

PO Box 630Pretoria

0001South Africa

No 1 Embassy HouseBailey Lane

ArcadiaPretoria

Tel: +27 (0)12 304 9700 Fax: +27 (0)12 323 8153

E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.ai.org.za

AISA is a statutory research body focusing on contemporary

African affairs in its research, publications, library and

documentation. AISA is dedicated to knowledge production,

education, training and the promotion of awareness on Africa, for Africans and the

international community. This is achieved through independent

policy analysis, and the collection, processing and interpretation, and

dissemination of information.