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Clarissa Woodberry
posted 5 September 2006

Nelson Mandela - African icon, world statesman and secular saint. Mandela's life has already been documented so extensively and in such detail that a potential biographer faces a daunting prospect to provide fresh insights and information. Tom Lodge's Mandela - A Critical Life attempts to do just that. It is certainly a striking title as 'Critical' and 'Mandela' are hardly words that one expects to see together. However, although this book is not as adulatory as some previous biographies of Mandela it is certainly not the revisionist account of Mandela's life that is suggested. The title appears to be a publisher's attempt to gain publicity rather than an accurate portrayal of the contents.

Mandela's story is familiar enough and his transformation from political prisoner to president has been extensively researched in this clear and analytical account of his remarkable life. Where Lodge differs from other biographers of Mandela is in the attention he pays to Mandela's background and childhood. Lodge attempts to show how the experiences of Mandela's childhood were particularly influential on his subsequent career - notably how the strict rules and social structures he experienced explain his politeness and political moderation in later life. It is interesting that what stands out about Mandela's childhood is how different it was from those of his contemporaries. Born into a clan of royal counsellors he had a privileged upbringing, and, as Lodge says, the 'absence in early life of intimidating or humiliating encounters with white people is significant, and, to an extent, distinguishes his childhood from many other black South African childhoods.'

Lodge is an expert on South African politics and, as such, he is well placed to write this biography. The state of South Africa in the early stages of apartheid and Mandela's rapid rise through the ANC are described in detail. The chapters on Mandela's three decades in prison are perhaps the best of the book. Lodge uses a particularly wide range of sources and he carefully combines the personal suffering of Mandela in prison with the political struggle that he was so heavily involved in.

Mandela's public image is carefully scrutinised but the title does not live up to its claims in that the author can find little to criticise. Mandela's simple lifestyle as president (he lived in a 'suburban but hardly palatial home' and donated a third of his salary to his charitable foundation) contrasts favourably with the lifestyles of many of his colleagues. The closest Lodge comes to being critical are in his attempts to remind us that Mandela is human and therefore subject to human failings; he says of Mandela's use of the royal 'we' in public statements that 'In all his modesty there is an ambiguity.' Lodge also offers another explanation for the understandably distrustful relationship between Mandela and de Klerk; citing de Klerk's 'lack of deference' as the primary reason.

For a biographer, Mandela's period in office is probably hardest to judge. Mandela was seventy-six when he became president and, apart from the first two years of his government, he was mainly a figurehead. Mandela is a global figure - the last chapter of the book is entitled 'embodying the nation' as that is exactly what Mandela did as president. Lodge is critical of the Mandela government's ineffective economic policies and the failure to take a tough line on corruption. However, Lodge rightly scrutinises the extent to which Mandela's 'personal agency' was responsible for his government policies. Lodge quotes Mandela's statement that 'you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, and sense of judgement until he has shown his colour, ruling the people, making laws…there's the test.' It is ironic that, of all politicians, Mandela will be least judged by his policies in office. As this book makes clear, what Mandela symbolised and the people he represented are more important than his achievements in office.