MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Colin Bundy to launch Govan Mbeki biography in Port Elizabeth

By

Internationally renowned academic Professor Colin Bundy, who recently retired as the first Principal of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford, will be launching his biography of anti-apartheid legend and ANC stalwart Govan Mbeki at the Red Location Museum on Wednesday night 18 July from 17:30.

Generally the outlines of Mbeki’s life are fairly well-known; author Colin Bundy goes beyond that outline by presenting a book drawing on lengthy interviews with Mbeki and paying particular attention to his ideas, expressed in journalism, pamphlets, essays and books written over half a century, establishing why Mbeki was seen by many as a true compatriot and pure-blooded democrat. Bundy goes further and directs attention to the short-comings and contradictions of ‘struggle’ politics as well as its advances. He also explores controversial aspects of Mbeki’s personality and career: his reputation as a hard-liner, the personal and psychological price paid for militancy, and his role in the tensions within the ANC leadership on Robben Island, especially between himself and Nelson Mandela.

Colin Bundy is best known as a member of a generation of historians whose work substantially reinterpreted South African history. Best known for his Rise and Fall of a South African Peasantry, he has written extensively on South African history and politics. In recent years Professor Bundy has written on aspects of higher education.

Colin Bundy’s public service in South Africa included chairing the UNESCO National Commission; being a member of the Council of the Robben Island Museum and of the Board of the HSRC; and chairing the board of the Workers College in Cape Town. In the UK he served as a member of the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission and is a trustee of the Canon Collins Trust. Locally, he is President of the Oxford Centre of the National Trust and the Oxford branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Flickr profileMy Pinterest profile

Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.