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The Black Pimpernel: Nelson Mandela on the Run
The story of Nelson Mandela's early years on the run from the apartheid authorities
JOHANNESBURG. MARCH 1961.
Thirty-one activists are on trial for treason. Among their number is Nelson Mandela, a rising star of the resistance movement and one of the biggest threats to the South African government and their racist system of apartheid. To everyone's surprise, they are found not guilty. But rather than relish his newfound freedom, Nelson disappears.
With this, the incredible true story of Nelson Mandela's life on the run begins. For months, he is an outlaw, the police and secret services hunting him in vain, living under new identities and separated from his young family. His mission? To set up armed resistance to apartheid, and in doing so change the course of history.
JOHANNESBURG. MARCH 1961.
Thirty-one activists are on trial for treason. Among their number is Nelson Mandela, a rising star of the resistance movement and one of the biggest threats to the South African government and their racist system of apartheid. To everyone's surprise, they are found not guilty. But rather than relish his newfound freedom, Nelson disappears.
With this, the incredible true story of Nelson Mandela's life on the run begins. For months, he is an outlaw, the police and secret services hunting him in vain, living under new identities and separated from his young family. His mission? To set up armed resistance to apartheid, and in doing so change the course of history.
- GenresNonfictionAfrica
144 pages, Paperback
Published September 27, 2022
About the author
Zukiswa Wanner
30 books91 followersBorn to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother in Zambia, Zukiswa Wanner is the author of the novels The Madams (2006), Behind Every Successful Man (2008), Commonwealth and Herman Charles Bosman Award shortlisted Men of the South (2010). Her two children’s books Jama Loves Bananas and Refilwe will be out in October this year.
As an essayist she has written The Politics of Race, Class, and Identity in Education http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/3429/...
and 2011 Mail & Guardian’s book of Women Introductory essay , Being a Woman in South Africa http://bow2011.mg.co.za/essays/on-bei....
She co-edited Outcasts – a collection of short stories from Africa and Asia with Indian writer Rohini Chowdhury in 2012. Wanner is one of 66 writers in the world (with Wole Soyinka, Jeanette Winterson, and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, among others) to write a contemporary response to the Bible. The works were staged in London theatres and at Westminister Abbey in October 2011. 66 Books: 21st Century Writers Speak to the King James Version Bible’s proceeds benefit disadvantaged art students.
Wanner co-authored A Prisoner’s Home (2010), a biography on the first Mandela house 8115 Vilakazi Street with award-winning South African photographer Alf Kumalo as well as L’Esprit du Sport (2010) with French photographer Amelie Debray.
She is the founder of ReadSA - a writer-initiated campaign to get South Africans reading more African literature with a particular emphasis on donating locally-written books to school libraries (and where unavailable, start libraries) and was in the inaugural writing team for first South African radio soapie in English, SAFM’s Radio Vuka.
She has been a regular participant at the prime literary events in South Africa, Time of the Writer, Franschhoek Literary Festival and Cape Town Book Fair and has also participated in literary festivals in England (London Book Fair), Denmark, Germany (BIGSAS Festival of African Literature), Zimbabwe (Intwasa Arts Festival), Algeria (Algiers Book Fair), Norway and Ghana (Pan African Literary Festival). In addition to this, she has conducted workshops for young writers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Denmark, Germany and Western Kenya.
Wanner has contributed articles to Observer, Forbes Africa, New Statesman, O, Elle, The Guardian, Africa Review, Mail & Guardian, Marie Claire, Real, Juice, Afropolitan, OpenSpace, Wordsetc, Baobab, Sunday Independent, City Press, & Sunday Times.
As an essayist she has written The Politics of Race, Class, and Identity in Education http://www.guernicamag.com/blog/3429/...
and 2011 Mail & Guardian’s book of Women Introductory essay , Being a Woman in South Africa http://bow2011.mg.co.za/essays/on-bei....
She co-edited Outcasts – a collection of short stories from Africa and Asia with Indian writer Rohini Chowdhury in 2012. Wanner is one of 66 writers in the world (with Wole Soyinka, Jeanette Winterson, and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, among others) to write a contemporary response to the Bible. The works were staged in London theatres and at Westminister Abbey in October 2011. 66 Books: 21st Century Writers Speak to the King James Version Bible’s proceeds benefit disadvantaged art students.
Wanner co-authored A Prisoner’s Home (2010), a biography on the first Mandela house 8115 Vilakazi Street with award-winning South African photographer Alf Kumalo as well as L’Esprit du Sport (2010) with French photographer Amelie Debray.
She is the founder of ReadSA - a writer-initiated campaign to get South Africans reading more African literature with a particular emphasis on donating locally-written books to school libraries (and where unavailable, start libraries) and was in the inaugural writing team for first South African radio soapie in English, SAFM’s Radio Vuka.
She has been a regular participant at the prime literary events in South Africa, Time of the Writer, Franschhoek Literary Festival and Cape Town Book Fair and has also participated in literary festivals in England (London Book Fair), Denmark, Germany (BIGSAS Festival of African Literature), Zimbabwe (Intwasa Arts Festival), Algeria (Algiers Book Fair), Norway and Ghana (Pan African Literary Festival). In addition to this, she has conducted workshops for young writers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Denmark, Germany and Western Kenya.
Wanner has contributed articles to Observer, Forbes Africa, New Statesman, O, Elle, The Guardian, Africa Review, Mail & Guardian, Marie Claire, Real, Juice, Afropolitan, OpenSpace, Wordsetc, Baobab, Sunday Independent, City Press, & Sunday Times.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 15, 2022
Making a fiction out of the last few months of freedom for Nelson Mandela, this book fits in well with the series of derring-do-filled biographies, even if here the action is more on the espionage side than the military of other volumes. We start with the end of one court success for Nelson and thirty colleagues, when charges of sedition and so on get thrown out. But from then on Mandela must be underground – barely seeing his family at all, acting as a cog where relevant for the ANC's work, and facing the inefficacy of his disguises in the power of all the 'wanted' posters with his face on.
Being a stickler for the truth it's good to see that Mandela was allowed to become leader of a paramilitary terrorist group in the armed variant of the ANC before he was caught – his bombing friends were not all squeaky clean. But the book also shows the complete idiocy of the white powers that be – having a mixed-race police force, and never once getting an actual translation of the black chants and songs when the ANC met in public. This does seem to imply the Apartheid regime had about four policemen for the country, but if the lapses in white understanding are brought about from racial ignorance then they had it all coming. This gives us quite the intimate look to Mandela's times, and the greater picture for the whole struggle, just as is common with other books under this brand. I did think the amount of made-up dialogue a sticking point here, and repeat the comment the 128pp form was better than this 144pp one. But for a busy history book bringing it all right on home, this gets the thumbs up, in true ANC style.
Being a stickler for the truth it's good to see that Mandela was allowed to become leader of a paramilitary terrorist group in the armed variant of the ANC before he was caught – his bombing friends were not all squeaky clean. But the book also shows the complete idiocy of the white powers that be – having a mixed-race police force, and never once getting an actual translation of the black chants and songs when the ANC met in public. This does seem to imply the Apartheid regime had about four policemen for the country, but if the lapses in white understanding are brought about from racial ignorance then they had it all coming. This gives us quite the intimate look to Mandela's times, and the greater picture for the whole struggle, just as is common with other books under this brand. I did think the amount of made-up dialogue a sticking point here, and repeat the comment the 128pp form was better than this 144pp one. But for a busy history book bringing it all right on home, this gets the thumbs up, in true ANC style.
November 4, 2022
Zukiswa did really tell the fight against apartheid beautifully
September 19, 2024
A fine blend of history, creativity, and storytelling.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews