Representing Mandela
Picture from: http://www.freedomarchives.org/audio_samples/Nelson_Mandela.html With the sad, but sadly inevitable, death yesterday of one of the greatest political figures of the last hundred years it might be a good time to look at how language shapes different representations and how those representations change over time. For many, Nelson Mandela was always a hero: a man fighting injustice and racial intolerance in a country that had institutionalised racial separatism like no other. Given the almost-universal praise and warmth for Mandela upon his death, you might have thought that this was what people felt at the time, but it wasn't always like this. While the Special AKA recorded the magnificent single Free Nelson Mandela , making the point that Mandela was not just a figurehead but - as they put it "only one man in a large army" - young Conservative Party activists designed tasteless Hang Nelson Mandela t-shirts and posters - an early form of trolling, no doubt ...