From sick old man to mythical hero

Abstract

In his autobiography, Conversations with Myself, Mandela spoke about his concern that the worldhad a false image of him as a saint and semi-god (Mandela, 2012). However, it can be noted thatMandela and the ANC carefully built up his symbolic power in the press and media to representhim as “some kind of Messiah” (Ottaway, 1993:11) who had led South Africa to freedom almostsingle-handedly, and in doing so cemented his ideals of liberation, peace and non-racialisationin the imagination of the world. However, as Mandela’s health deteriorated before his death, hisconstructed immortality was tested as society began to question if his legacy could live on withoutthe physical presence of ‘Mandela the man’. Consequently, this article examines the representationof Mandela in his few final years. In an examination of the Independent Online news repository in2010 and 2013, this research highlights how ‘Madiba’s Magic’ was a carefully constructed mediaimage and one that, during his long illness, forced South Africans, and the world, to recognise his‘humanness’. The paper concludes, however, by documenting the immense power of Mandela’slegacy as played out in the press, and how, after death, his carefully constructed legacy roseabove the damage of his prolonged illness, elevating him from a sick old man and reinforcing himas a mythical revolutionary.