ABSTRACT
The old man’s death triggered a tsunami of obituaries, welling with rhetorical excess and hyperbole. This chapter focuses on 19th- and early 20th-century Transkeian and particularly Thembu history. More convincingly revisionist is Shireen Hassim's article on Mandela's second marriage, to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, discussed later. The article is intended as a corrective to the view that the SACP initiated armed struggle and that MK was effectively a party project. The article by Thula Simpson deals with MK prior to that denouement. It is another of the contributions to this special issue that lock horns with aspects of historiographical consensus. As in any active field of scholarship, advances in the Mandela historiography do not close off enquiry but open new questions. It is as a political actor and leader that Mandela’s historical stature will be assessed in the future. Politicians do not usually enjoy a standing as ethical exemplars or moral titans.
