This seminar examines the complex dialectics of memory politics in post-apartheid South Africa, interrogating how anti-colonial resistance narratives intersect with contemporary processes of nation-building and reconciliation. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from post-colonial theory, the lecture analyses how the liberation struggle has been institutionalized within South Africa's commemorative landscape. Particular attention is paid to the figure of Nelson Mandela, whose transformation from political prisoner to national leader represents a crucial site for understanding the articulation between personal and collective memory in post-colonial contexts. It also outlines how South Africa’s experience offers crucial insights into the broader dynamics of memory politics in societies transitioning from colonialism to democratic governance.


Bio note

Ayesha Omar is a British Academy International Fellow (2023) at the Department of Politics and International Studies (SOAS) and a Senior Lecturer in political theory in the Department of Political Studies (Wits). Whilst at SOAS she will be undertaking a 3-year research project on the Liberal Engagements of Black Intellectual History in South Africa. Ayesha’s research will be used in the development of an extensive book project for Cambridge University Press.

Ayesha has published various articles and book chapters in comparative political theory and intellectual history of South Africa. She has recently completed a monograph for the Cambridge University Press element series in Comparative Political Theory: The Pluralistic Frameworks of Ibn Rushd and Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im (forthcoming, January 2025), is currently co-editor on the two-volume series, the Cambridge History of African Political Thought, and the recently published volume Decolonisation: Revolution and Evolution with David Boucher (Wits University Press, 2023). Ayesha is an editor of Theoria: a Journal of Social and Political Theory and the secretary of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) political philosophy research committee. She is on the editorial board for the journal Global Intellectual History (T&F) and Politics (SAGE). In 2017, she received the Mail and Guardian 200 Young South African Award for her contributions to university teaching.