Mandela: The Aristocrat and the Revolution

By Xolela Mangcu

The first biography of Nelson Mandela written by an African scholar, this groundbreaking book offers a radically de-mythologized take on a global icon of anticolonial liberation struggles.

Leading sociologist Xolela Mangcu draws on original interviews and archival research - as well as on his own unique understanding of the complexities of Black South African culture - to offer an important corrective account of Mandela's identity, character, and political career. Mangcu not only sets the record straight about Mandela's Thembu, rather than Xhosa, heritage, but also uncovers a fundamental political pragmatism Mandela developed thanks to his family's strategic alliances with colonialists and through his own Victorian-style education at leading British mission schools. What emerges is a Mandela whose life story belongs less to the realm of hagiography and more to the realm of real-world struggle, with all the contradictions it entails.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1350522120
• ISBN13: 9781350522121
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.2"