- Paperback: 892 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers SA; illustrated edition edition (31 Oct 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1868421015
- ISBN-13: 978-1868421015
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 5.4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 971,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
What happens to a dream deferred? This question, from one of President Thabo Mbeki's favourite poems by Langston Hughes, provides the thread for this magisterial new biography. In the long shadow of Nelson Mandela, Mbeki has attempted to forge an identity for himself as the symbol of modern Africa. And yet, as he prepares to leave office in 2009, his legacy remains intensely contested. This book is both a work of deep scholarship and a gripping, highly readable story. By tracing the path of Mbeki's life, it sheds new light on his political personality and provides unprecedented insight into the dramatic role he has played in South African history. Mark Gevisser brings to life the voices and places that have made Thabo Mbeki - the frontier of the Eastern Cape; 'Swinging Britain' and neo-Stalinist Moscow in the sixties; the fraught world of African exile; and, the confusion of the transition. He examines the meaning of home and exile; of fatherhood and family. He tells the story of South Africa's black elite over a turbulent century - from 'black Englishmen' to revolutionaries to heads of state and Mbeki's own transition from doctrinaire communism to economic liberalism. He comes to grips with the current political turmoil by examining the history of a man who has carried, on his shoulders, the collective burden of a country seeking to realise a dream too long deferred.
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2 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Mbeki the Man
30 May 2011
Format:Paperback
This is a beast of a book, but nearly every one of the 800 pages is interesting and relevant to modern day South Africa. The parts I found most compelling included the chapters on Mbeki's time in London, his time in Lusaka, and his return (and early sidelining in Johannesburg). This is a terrific read that covers the former South African President better than anything that has been published -- or probably ever will be published. Flaws and all, Mbeki is one of Africa's most important leaders.
Epic, Bloated, Overwritten, Eloquent...
27 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback
...It's hard to sum up "The Dream Deferred" in a word or two. But whatever else it is, it is THE great South African political biography, a book that must be read by anyone interested in the history of the country. It is eloquent, fascinating and compulsively readable, in spite of its 800 pages.
The book succeeds in evoking the mystery and tragedy of Thabo Mbeki, a brilliant, failed man, groomed in exile to lead the ANC in power, yet ultimately brought down by...well, by WHAT exactly? By ego? A mania for power? Racial hyper-sensitivity? A lack of the common touch? The book doesn't answer the question. Its timing couldn't have been worse: conceived at the high point of Mbeki's power and published immediately prior to his downfall, "The Dream Deferred" lacks the benefit of hindsight and is too busy with high-concept "literary" themes like exile and homecoming to attend to "small" matters like utter political miscalculation. But even if it doesn't have the last word on Mbeki's career, the book raises great questions and is filled with arresting insights. It's highly recommended.
That said, readers looking for conventional political biography might be disappointed. The book is very much about Mbeki's life, not his times. It is high-brow journalism, not true scholarship. Just when the reader is expecting real history -- about the intricate negotiations to unban the ANC, say, or about the economic policies of post-apartheid South Africa -- the author backs off and delivers long meditations on Mbeki's tortured soul. Some of his interpretive gloss is profound, all of it is interesting -- even when it borders on pop-psychology -- but there is too much of it.
The book succeeds in evoking the mystery and tragedy of Thabo Mbeki, a brilliant, failed man, groomed in exile to lead the ANC in power, yet ultimately brought down by...well, by WHAT exactly? By ego? A mania for power? Racial hyper-sensitivity? A lack of the common touch? The book doesn't answer the question. Its timing couldn't have been worse: conceived at the high point of Mbeki's power and published immediately prior to his downfall, "The Dream Deferred" lacks the benefit of hindsight and is too busy with high-concept "literary" themes like exile and homecoming to attend to "small" matters like utter political miscalculation. But even if it doesn't have the last word on Mbeki's career, the book raises great questions and is filled with arresting insights. It's highly recommended.
That said, readers looking for conventional political biography might be disappointed. The book is very much about Mbeki's life, not his times. It is high-brow journalism, not true scholarship. Just when the reader is expecting real history -- about the intricate negotiations to unban the ANC, say, or about the economic policies of post-apartheid South Africa -- the author backs off and delivers long meditations on Mbeki's tortured soul. Some of his interpretive gloss is profound, all of it is interesting -- even when it borders on pop-psychology -- but there is too much of it.
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