Title: Mandela
Year: 1991
Issue: 51
Cover image: AFRADIX/WEINBERG; Impact Visuals
CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT
A Time of Transition — Wole Soyinka
POSITIONS
Beyond the Berlin Wall — lf Africa can’t rid itself of a corrupt and opportunistic leadership, religious zealots stand ready to pick up where ideological zealots left off. The clock is ticking for those who haven’t read the writing on the wall. Wole Soyinka
The End of ldeologies? — Rumors of the Left’s demise may be exaggerated. With Reaganomics teetering on the precipice and the Kremlin out of the picture, Fuentes argues that a truly progressive politics is needed now more than ever. Carlos Fuentes
On Seeing England for the First Time — In a personal meditation on the experience of cultural erasure, Kincaid recalls that as a child growing up in Antigua, three words ran through her life: Made in England. Jamaica Kincaid
Mandela, Messianism, and the Media — While Mandela has nimbly avoided the Messianic mantle, glamour politics is a dangerous temptation for his followers. Mandelamania may suit the short-term needs of the media more than the long-term needs of national liberation. Rob Nixon
The African Scholar — Is an “African perspective” at odds with the scholarly ideal of objectivity? A leading African intellectual considers the impact Africa could make on the knowledge industry. Abiola lrele
Vile Bodies, Vile Places: Traveling with Granta — It’s the perfect read for the armchair colonialist. Sugnet takes a look at some lovely prose about nasty places and wonders-what century is this anyway? Charles Sugnet
AIDS, Africa, and Cultural Theory — Both the continent and the disease hold a morbid fascination for the Western imagination: what happens when you put them together? A year of international conferences and press reports shows that statisical knowledge travels well; cultural knowledge does not. Paula Treichler
“No Longer in a Future Heaven”: Women and Nationalism in South Africa — From “Botha’s Babes” to “Ma Africa,” women have had a totemic role in South Africa’s nationalist movements. But is feminism really just a distraction from the serious business at hand? McClintock ponders the politics of wait-your-turn. Anne McClintock
Visions of Excess: African Development in an Age of Marketplace Idolatry — After ten years of strong medicine from the free-market theologians, most African economies are as sickly as ever. Maybe it’s time to put away the World Bank’s leeches and cups-and get a second opinion. Michael Watts
UNDER REVIEW
Mandela at the Crossroads — Dennis Brutus reviews the challenges facing Mandela as well as the organization he represents-and ventures some bleak predictions.
Philadelphia Fire — Kathleen Cleaver revisits the MOVE crisis with the new pundits of “conflict resolution” and asks why nobody is asking the right questions.
The Logic of Racial Preferences — Stephen J. Carter says what he thinks Shelby Steele and Thomas Sowell get right, what they get wrong, and why both their friends and foes are overreacting.
Looking for Trouble — Kobena Mercer takes a second look at Robert Mapplethorpe’s controversial nudes, and discovers whose national endowments Senator Jesse Helms is really worried about.
Whither Rushdie? — For those who insist on burning books, Sara Suleri surveys recent works on the Rushdie affair and comes up with at least one that deserves a singeing.
If You Can’t Join ‘Em, Beat ‘Em — From underground bestseller Shahrazad Ali to curmudgeonly critic Stanley Crouch, Michele Wallace finds reason to speculate about the new climate of cultural and sexual conservatism.
IN FOCUS
What Makes Michael Run? — Wesley Kerr talks with Jamaica’s prime mi about his chameleonic career and weighs the research of his biographer, too.
Now I Know My ABC’s — Ernest Gellner pages through the first encyclopedia of nationalism and reassesses the A-B-C paradox.
Monsieur Negritude — Christopher L. Miller on a new biography of Senegal’s master of masks, Leopold Sedar Senghor.
Minding South Africa — Lewis Nkosi on recent histories of South Africa by Allister Sparks and Leonard Thompson.
Sand Trap — David Rieff on a Middle-East travelogue that mistakes whinging for wit.
So This Is What It’s Like — R. Neville Choonoo on Albie Sachs’s memoir of dismemberment and recovery