| South African political analyst will speak at the Humphrey Institute April 10 As South African President Thabo Mbeki's term comes to an end in 2009,
there is no clear successor waiting in the wings. One of South Africa's
leading political analysts Xolela Mangcu will talk about the future of South
African politics at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 10, in Cowles Auditorium. This program
is free and open to the public.
Mangcu has called for a revitalization of the traditions, politics, and practices
of broad democratic participation, cultural change, and community level activation.
He is often described as the intellectual heir to the famous anti-apartheid
leader Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement who died in jail
under suspicious circumstances in 1976.
Currently Mangcu is a visiting public scholar and director of the Centre for
Public Engagement at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He
also writes a weekly syndicated column for Business Day and is the assistant
editor of South Africa's Sunday Independent. Mangcu is the founder
and past executive director of the Steve Biko Foundation and former director
of the Division of Social Cohesion, Identity, and Leadership at the Human Sciences
Research Council, the main research body in South Africa. His forthcoming book,
Reflections on the Political Culture of Our Times: Race and Public Policy
in Contemporary South Africa, will be published in 2007.
Mangcu's lecture is co-sponsored by the Humphrey Institute, the College of
Liberal Arts, the Institute for Global Studies, the Institute for Advanced Studies,
and the University's American Studies Department.
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