Barbara Johanneson reviews The World that Made Mandela
by Luli Callinicos
(STE, R250)
‘This book pays tribute to the people of South Africa, to the liberation movement, and to the places which impacted so powerfully on Nelson Mandela’s life.” So says Walter Sisulu, ANC stalwart, in the foreword to The World that Made Mandela.
The author of The World that Made Mandela, Luli Callinicos, is a social historian who believes that ordinary people play an important role in history, and tries to find out more about the lives of ordinary people. In the late 1970s Callinicos began writing her famous social histories – Gold and Workers (1981) Working Life (1987) and A place in the City (1993). These were some of the first history books about the lives of ordinary South Africans and have been invaluable resources for history educators seeking to supplement the stories of “great white men” in the apartheid textbooks.
The World that Made Mandela is a new way of writing South African biography. The book is not just about Nelson Mandela. It tells us not only about this great man, but also about the people and places that shaped his life. It is an inspiring source of information about 20th century South Africa, and every history teacher should read this book.
The World that Made Mandela is a large book. You therefore need to sit down with it, or put it on a desk in order to page through it and read it properly. It is well-designed and a treasure to read. The “feel” of the high- quality paper makes it special too. The events and people that are reflected make one proud to be a South African.
The blurb for the book says it “traces the sites and places of meaning in Mandela’s life. These sites range from rural villages, to missionary schools and other institutions of learning; to the workplaces, townships, buses and trains, offices and prisons of the metro-polis, and many other localities beyond.”
There are many things in our past that have caused pain. There are also things that we can celebrate and take pride in. Both positive and negative aspects of our past are reflected in the book.
Teaching the negative aspects of our history is particularly hard work. It is also one of the most challenging tasks in our schools today, and books like this assist teachers to be agents of transformation and challenge us to find creative ways of teaching our recent past.
No history is neutral, and this book is not neutral either. It supports a particular interpretation of the past which favours the African National Congress. Always keep in mind, and remind learners, that all history is constructed, and that we should ask as many questions about photographs as we do about other sources of information.
You should always look at photographs very carefully and find out as much other background about the event it is recording as possible. The caption of the photograph is added afterwards and can also interpret the photograph for you.
A teaching and learning pack will soon be available from STE Publishers to help teachers use The World that Made Mandela in classrooms.
The pack was written by Emilia Potenza and Barbara Johannesson and is based on a selection of photographs from the book.
-The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, May 2001.