Nelson Mandela’s “Show Trials”: An Analysis of Press Coverage of Mandela’s Court Appearances

ABSTRACT

The figure of Nelson Mandela looms large in twentieth-century history. Beloved by celebrities around the globe, critics have noted his unique charisma—referred to as “Madiba magic” —and his ability to enchant audiences. Despite this, there have been few analyses of his construction as a celebrity politician, most likely because of celebrity’s association with frivolity and lack of substance—which sits poorly with our sense of Mandela. There have been particularly few examinations of his portrayal prior to imprisonment, when the seeds of the Mandela myth were sown. This paper examines some of the early press coverage, focusing on Mandela’s “performances” in court. The paper argues that Mandela, helped by others, had a canny ability to pre-empt reactions to his appearance, and worked hard to direct his own image for political purposes. In addition, while Madikizela-Mandela’s role in raising awareness of her husband’s fate is well known, the paper shows how, even at this early stage, Mandela’s prominence and machismo depended on her feminine visibility. Mandela’s famed speech from the dock also founded a new moral tradition of protest and set the stage for his resurrection as the symbol of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Nelson Mandela
• South African media
• celebrity
• Rivonia trial
• Anti-Apartheid Movement
• show trial
• Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was first used in the 1930s. Ironically, given apartheid South Africa’s supposed opposition to Communism, it has mainly been associated with legal hearings in the Soviet Union.

2 Two recent documentaries on the events of Rivonia (Champeaux and Porte 2018; Stadlen 2018) make an effort to rectify this imbalance.

3 Kathrada, who drove Widlake to the meeting, clarified that he was in fact truly lost (2004, 148)!

4 In an official account of the arrest, Rivonia Unmasked! (1965), the police allege that they received a lucky tip-off from a willing informant whose motivation is never clarified. It is more likely, however, that they procured information through interrogation and possibly torture, from one of the 23 people detained after a pre-dawn swoop two weeks before the Rivonia raid. The arrests targeted people close to Sisulu (Rand Daily Mail, 26 June 1963), including Lilian Ngoyi and Alfred Nzo, who were held in solitary confinement for long periods.