| Summary/Abstract |
There is a stark contrast between Nelson Mandela the freedom fighter and the young man who grew up in rural Transkei without a ‘hunger to be free’. Until entering Johannesburg in 1941, he generally did not recognise or resist white oppression. Mandela was destined to be counsellor to the future abaThembu king, not a leader himself. Nevertheless, he encountered discordant notes, suggesting that he could not be a man as long as Africans were a conquered people. His consequent transition to manhood remained unresolved until his involvement in the defiance of the apartheid regime, which signified the attainment of his manhood that had been denied to him in earlier life.
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