Transnational Perspectives in Nelson Mandela’s Writings

As the Cold War world was divided according to political and ideological alliances and specific terminologies developed on both sides of the Iron Curtain, Nelson Mandela’s use of the term “cosmopolitanism” in one context and “internationalism” in another situation highlights a complex conceptual map that has been flattened out after 1989. This article is focusing on tracing the developing transnational dimension of Nelson Mandela’s worldview during the Cold War as well as the terms of this engagement. What are the tenets of Mandela’s comprehensive international vision and how did it evolve during the apartheid years, as the leader spent much of this period behind bars, with limited contact with the world outside? To provide an answer to this question, this article looks at Nelson Mandela’s autobiographical writings and several speeches during his presidency to discuss the shaping of his transnational perspective. In order to discern the tenets of his international approach, the article engages with an array of terminology, ranging from cosmopolitanism to internationalism and from Pan-Africanism to Afro-Asian solidarity, which are placed in the context of the Cold War. Mandela used both liberal humanist terms that align with a cosmopolitan outlook as well as a lexicon of solidarity that resonated with leftist internationalism, as demanded by the ANC’s political alliances and attentive to the ideological tensions produced by the Cold War.