THE other day a friend ventured to suggest that, being the sought-after marque it is, if BMW were to put its name on a wheelbarrow it would sell. Fast. Similarly, those who write books or wish to push them off the shelves, have seen the name of Nelson Mandela for the top-end luxury badge it is.
Said the foundation named after him a little while ago: "Mr Mandela is still overwhelmed by requests to write book forewords. A year ago he indicated he will no longer be agreeing to such requests."
This door shut in his face, what does a tinpot despot of suspect morality do? He plucks the words off an earlier speech to parade them as a "foreword" to his memoirs.
Such an enchanting name, some observer would later opine, was an accolade bigger than the Booker and Nobel prizes rolled into one. This was a one-in-a-million chance the corrupt autocrat was not going to let slip.
Though they initially threatened a lawsuit and a whole lot more fire and brimstone against Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the First Thief of Congo-Brazzaville, the Nelson Mandela Foundation soon relented and did not come out of the episode smelling of roses.
After the kerfuffle Sassou-Nguesso did manage to shift a number of copies of his Straight Speaking For Africa. By hook or by crook, it didn't really matter how, Mandela's name was in his book!
A tyrant used to worse heinous deeds against his own people, Sassou-Nguesso must have thought little about borrowing a few lines from Madiba, a man whose iconic status the Congolese's own character could never hold a candle to - not even in several lifetimes.
The others haven't really pilfered from Madiba, but they can never look Ismail Ayob straight in the eye and see a lesser mortal.
Richard Stengel took time away from editing Time magazine to stretch the art of biography a little. His Mandela's Way sets the cat among the pigeons and explodes the myth that Bantu Holomisa was like a son to the nonagenarian. Madiba, Stengel writes, kept Holomisa even closer only in keeping with the age-old wisdom of what to do with one's enemies.
Mandela, the magic wand and a bit of controversy seemed to work so well for Stengel that David James Smith took the baton and ran with it. To the recipe, he added a generous dollop of controversy to sell his own Mandela offering simply titled Young Mandela.
It is here that Smith turns the saintly image of Mandela on its head to reveal, warts and all, a man who is like the rest of us.
The punching bag is not the only surface the amateur boxer used to vent his frustrations on, according to Smith. He adds that the young Mandela was an abusive womaniser who wantonly laid his hands on Evelyn, his first wife.
Unzima lomthwalo!
On page 187 of my current read, A Journey, the memoirs of ex British PM Tony Blair, the author says: "Mandela is a fascinating study, not because he's a saint but because he isn't. I always got on well with Madiba, partly I think because I treated him as a political leader and not a saint."
Seeing that the ANC, currently locked in its national general council, is in the habit of carting off whole chunks of itself to the highest commercial bidder, shouldn't it be selling Madiba forewords to those narcissists gathered in Durban? Surely some of them have designs on penning autobiographies?
There's nothing like a bit of Madiba Magic to pep up an otherwise dull read!
Abusing Madiba Magic to sell their boring books
THE other day a friend ventured to suggest that, being the sought-after marque it is, if BMW were to put its name on a wheelbarrow it would sell. Fast. Similarly, those who write books or wish to push them off the shelves, have seen the name of Nelson Mandela for the top-end luxury badge it is.
Said the foundation named after him a little while ago: "Mr Mandela is still overwhelmed by requests to write book forewords. A year ago he indicated he will no longer be agreeing to such requests."
This door shut in his face, what does a tinpot despot of suspect morality do? He plucks the words off an earlier speech to parade them as a "foreword" to his memoirs.
Such an enchanting name, some observer would later opine, was an accolade bigger than the Booker and Nobel prizes rolled into one. This was a one-in-a-million chance the corrupt autocrat was not going to let slip.
Though they initially threatened a lawsuit and a whole lot more fire and brimstone against Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the First Thief of Congo-Brazzaville, the Nelson Mandela Foundation soon relented and did not come out of the episode smelling of roses.
After the kerfuffle Sassou-Nguesso did manage to shift a number of copies of his Straight Speaking For Africa. By hook or by crook, it didn't really matter how, Mandela's name was in his book!
A tyrant used to worse heinous deeds against his own people, Sassou-Nguesso must have thought little about borrowing a few lines from Madiba, a man whose iconic status the Congolese's own character could never hold a candle to - not even in several lifetimes.
The others haven't really pilfered from Madiba, but they can never look Ismail Ayob straight in the eye and see a lesser mortal.
Richard Stengel took time away from editing Time magazine to stretch the art of biography a little. His Mandela's Way sets the cat among the pigeons and explodes the myth that Bantu Holomisa was like a son to the nonagenarian. Madiba, Stengel writes, kept Holomisa even closer only in keeping with the age-old wisdom of what to do with one's enemies.
Mandela, the magic wand and a bit of controversy seemed to work so well for Stengel that David James Smith took the baton and ran with it. To the recipe, he added a generous dollop of controversy to sell his own Mandela offering simply titled Young Mandela.
It is here that Smith turns the saintly image of Mandela on its head to reveal, warts and all, a man who is like the rest of us.
The punching bag is not the only surface the amateur boxer used to vent his frustrations on, according to Smith. He adds that the young Mandela was an abusive womaniser who wantonly laid his hands on Evelyn, his first wife.
Unzima lomthwalo!
On page 187 of my current read, A Journey, the memoirs of ex British PM Tony Blair, the author says: "Mandela is a fascinating study, not because he's a saint but because he isn't. I always got on well with Madiba, partly I think because I treated him as a political leader and not a saint."
Seeing that the ANC, currently locked in its national general council, is in the habit of carting off whole chunks of itself to the highest commercial bidder, shouldn't it be selling Madiba forewords to those narcissists gathered in Durban? Surely some of them have designs on penning autobiographies?
There's nothing like a bit of Madiba Magic to pep up an otherwise dull read!
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