The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance: Reflections on the Legacy of the Rivonia TrialFifty years before his death in 2013, Nelson Mandela stood before Justice de Wet in Pretoria's Palace of Justice and delivered one of the most spectacular and liberating statements ever made from a dock. In what came to be regarded as "the trial that changed South Africa", Mandela summed up the spirit of the liberation struggle and the moral basis for the post-Apartheid society. In this blistering critique of Apartheid and its perversion of justice, Mandela transforms the law into a sword and shield. He invokes it while undermining it, uses it while subverting it, and claims it while defeating it. Wise and strategic, Mandela skilfully reimagines the courtroom as a site of visibility and hearing, opening up a political space within the legal. This volume returns to the Rivonia courtroom to engage with Mandela's masterful performance of resistance and the dramatic core of that transformative event. Cutting across a wide-range of critical theories and discourses, contributors reflect on the personal, spatial, temporal, performative, and literary dimensions of that constitutive event. By redefining the spaces, institutions and discourses of law, contributors present a fresh perspective that re-sets the margins of what can be thought and said in the courtroom. |
Contents
1 | |
2 In the Name of Mandela | 21 |
Reflections onTwo Rivonia Renegades | 37 |
A Law and Literature Approach to Rivonia | 63 |
South Africa Political Trials 19561964 | 81 |
Domination Resistance and Transformation | 123 |
The Treason Trial and Rivonia Trial as Political Trials | 149 |
Seven Reflectionsand a Postscript on Derridas Mandela | 171 |
Courtroom Performance asand Critique | 213 |
11 What is Revealed by the Absence of a Reply? Courtesy Pedagogy and the Spectre of Unanswered Letters in Mandelas Trial | 241 |
The Rivonia Trial and Pretoria | 263 |
The 1974 CapeTrial of André Brinks Kennis van die Aand | 283 |
Coloniality Performance and Gender in the Courtroom and Beyond | 305 |
Aesthetics and Power in the Gandhi Murder Trial | 323 |
343 | |
Performative Genealogies in the Courtroom | 189 |
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The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance: Reflections on the Legacy of the ... Dr Awol Allo Limited preview - 2015 |
The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance: Reflections on the Legacy of the ... Dr Awol Allo Limited preview - 2015 |
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accused action admiration African Afrikaner Albertyn anti-apartheid apartheid Apartheid law argues Biko Bram Fischer Brink censures chapter civic myths Clingman communism communist concept constitutional context court courtroom critical race critique cultural defendants democracy democratic Diemont discourse domination fact force Foucault Freedom Charter Gandhi Murder Trial George Bizos Godse Ibid iconic ideology Incitement Trial institutions Jacques Derrida Joel Joffe Johannesburg judge justice language law’s laws of reflection lawscape leaders letter liberation literary literature London Lorena means moral Nelson Mandela normative novel opposition oppression performative police political trials post-apartheid Pretoria prison prosecution question racial racism radical rainbow nation Red Fort relations repertoire reply revolutionary Rivonia trial role sabotage show trial significant social society South Africa space spatial speech state’s statement Steyn story strategy struggle symbolic traditional transformation Treason Trial Truth and Reconciliation University Press violence Walk to Freedom witnesses words