Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Nelson Mandela has been universally praised by political leaders in ‘the West’ for his leadership of post-apartheid South Africa. However, Mandela’s relationship with ‘western’ governments hadn’t always appeared so harmonious. In 1980 conservative MP Teddy Taylor commented that Mandela “should be shot”, whilst as late as 1987 the ANC remained a “terrorist organisation” in the eyes of Margaret Thatcher. Characterisations such as these were partly informed by Mandela’s long held and vocal opposition to western imperialism in Southern Africa. In the 1950s, at the height of mass civil disobedience against oppressive race laws, Mandela vehemently opposed the involvement of both the U.S. and Britain in South African affairs. The piece, which appeared in the journal Liberation in March 1958 gives an indication of Mandela’s ideological anti-imperialism and raises questions over how Mandela as a global political figure is viewed today… Continue reading →