Resumen de "Magic Negro", Saint or Comrade: Representations of Nelson Mandela in Film

• �In the late 1980s, Nelson Mandela stood alone against the apartheid state.� This comment taken from the DVD Box set cover of Nelson Mandela: From Freedom to History summarises the approach taken by many of the cinematic and televisual representations of Mandela. Linked with this is a statement by the CEO of Marriott which speaks of Mandela as �an individual who changed the arc of history through his or her singular contribution, not as a function of the era or the movement but because of what they did alone.� Together, these descriptions attempt to appropriate Mandela for a sanitised version of western individualism which sees him variously as a liberal icon, saintly hero, or the celebrity one-off �magic negro�, in Okwongo�s damning phrase taken from his magisterial valedictory piece �Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel� (Okwongo 2013). In the process, Mandela�s role in the anti-apartheid...