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WORK TITLE: The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela
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NATIONALITY: South African
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Harvard University, M.P.A., 2003.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and communications executive. Cape Argus, South Africa, political reporter, 1985-96; Pretoria News, South Africa, deputy editor, 1996-2000; District 7 Communications, Cape Town, South Africa, director, 2005—.
AWARDS:Neiman Fellowship and Mason Fellowship, Harvard University.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Dennis Cruywagen is a South African writer and communications executive. He is the director of District 7 Communications, in Cape Town, South Africa. Previously, Cruywagen worked as a deputy editor for Pretoria News and a political reporter for Cape Argus. He was awarded Harvard University’s Mason Fellowship and Neiman Fellowship and ultimately earned a master’s degree from the college.
Brothers in War and Peace
In 2014, Cruywagen released his first book, Brothers in War and Peace: Constand and Abraham Viljoen and the Birth of the New South Africa. In the volume, he profiles the South African twins, whose differing views on apartheid found them on opposing sides during the conflict in their nation during the early 1990s. Abraham opposed apartheid, while Constand became a leader in the movement to preserve it.
In an article he wrote on the South Africa Mail & Guardian Online, Cruywagen discussed Constand’s views on his decisions and reputation. He stated: “Although it is commonly held that time heals all wounds, certain words and accusations can cut so deep as to leave scars that not even the passing of years can heal. Being rejected and branded a traitor by fellow Afrikaners still burns Constand Viljoen. Few outside his inner circle suspected the strain he was under while with the Afrikaner Volksfront. When he got involved in 1993, it was because he had been asked to give strategic guidance to the volk; it was a task into which he threw his heart and soul.”
The Spiritual Mandela
Cruywagen is also the author of The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of South Africa’s Great Statesman, which was published in the United States under the title, The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela. In the book, Cruywagen begins by discussing Mandela’s family and early life. His father practiced the religion of his tribe, but his mother joined the Methodist Church when Mandela was a boy. That was his first experience with Christianity. Mandela’s father approved of his conversion to Christianity because it provided Mandela with the opportunity to attend good schools. Cruywagen explains that religion became even more important to Mandela when he was held as a political prisoner.
Michael Cart offered a favorable assessment of The Spiritual Mandela in Booklist. Cart asserted: “It is … illuminating and an essential addition to studies of Mandela’s life and work.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer described the volume as an “insightful investigation.” The same reviewer added: “Cruywagen’s well-researched book offers a clear account of how religion threaded through his life.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2018, Michael Cart, review of The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela, p. 17.
Publishers Weekly, April 23, 2018, review of The Spiritual Mandela, p. 80.
ONLINE
African Literary Agency website, http://africanliteraryagency.com/ (September 26, 2016), author profile.
South Africa Mail & Guardian Online, http://mg.co.za/ (August 22, 2014), article by author.
DENNIS CRUYWAGEN
screen-shot-2016-09-26-at-11-02-49-amDENNIS CRUYWAGEN is an acclaimed South African journalist and political commentator, as well as a former parliamentary spokesperson for the ANC. He is a recipient of a Nieman Fellowship and a Mason Fellowship at Harvard University and holds a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. His book on Abraham and Constand Viljoen, Brothers in War and Peace was published by Zebra Press in 2014.
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Dennis Cruywagen's latest book, The Spiritual Mandela, was released in the US in June 2018. Here is a reviews from Publishers Weekly.
This insightful investigation of an often downplayed side of politician and activist Nelson Mandela from South African journalist Cruywagen (Brothers in War and Peace) provides a nuanced understanding of how faith influenced the renowned civil rights activist. The book begins with rich biographical details, providing context to frame Cruywagen’s claim that spirituality (though perhaps not organized religion itself) guided Mandela. Born into a royal lineage, Mandela’s father followed traditional religious practices, and it was not until Mandela’s mother became a Methodist that he was exposed to Christianity. His farseeing father realized that for his son to succeed in colonized South Africa, Mandela would need a Western education. At the time, the only way for black South Africans in his area to access education was through the schools offered by Methodist missionaries, so Mandela converted. Religion again played a key role in his life when the apartheid government imprisoned him. Throughout his time on Robben Island, he was exposed to the teachings of various religions, as religious leaders were among the few visitors the isolated prisoners were allowed to see. Though Mandela was publicly circumspect about his religious views, Cruywagen’s well-researched book offers a clear account of how religion threaded through his life. (June)
The Spiritual Mandela
This book traces the spiritual aspect of Mandela's life, from his youth in a traditional Thembu village, to his education at Wesleyan and Methodist mission schools, to his time as an activist, his period on Robben Island and the years thereafter. It explores the way that he balanced Christianity with traditional African beliefs, and with his political views, and how he reconciled his own beliefs with the fact that religion had been used as a tool to oppress his people.
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Experience
District 7 Communications
Director
Company NameDistrict 7 Communications
Dates Employed2005 – Present Employment Duration13 yrs
Strategic communications; speech writing, crisis communication, planning political campaigns, media training
Author of the just released book: Brothers in War and Peace
Author
Company NameAuthor of the just released book: Brothers in War and Peace
Dates EmployedFeb 2011 – Jul 2014 Employment Duration3 yrs 6 mos
LocationSouth Africa
Brothers in War and Peace The Viljoen brothers and the birth of the new South Africa tells the story of twin brothers Abraham and Constand Viljoen and how they crossed their political divide to bring the white right wing into South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. They helped stave off a civil war,
Pretoria News
Deputy Editor
Company NamePretoria News
Dates Employed1996 – 2000 Employment Duration4 yrs
Cape Argus
Political Reporter
Company NameCape Argus
Dates Employed1985 – 1996 Employment Duration11 yrs
Had a great time reporting on extra parliamentary politics from 1985 until 1994
Education
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Degree NameMaster of Public Administration (MPA) Field Of StudyLeadership, Communications, Non-Profit Organization management GradeMPA
Dates attended or expected graduation 2002 – 2003
Harvard University
Harvard University
Degree NameNieman Fellow Field Of StudyConcentrated on Leadership and Media studies
Dates attended or expected graduation 1999 – 2000
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July 24, 2014, Merentia worked with Dennis but at different companies
Dennis is a professional in every sense of the word and delivers well ahead of time. No task is too small. It is indeed a pleasure to work with dedicated professionals such as him.
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April 5, 2014, Vivian worked with Dennis but at different companies
Dennis is qualified for any high profile job due to his educational background and working experience. I recommend him for any assignment or contract and even for parliament.
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QUOTED: "Although it is commonly held that time heals all wounds, certain words and accusations can cut so deep as to leave scars that not even the passing of years can heal. Being rejected and branded a traitor by fellow Afrikaners still burns Constand Viljoen. Few outside his inner circle suspected the strain he was under while with the Afrikaner Volksfront. When he got involved in 1993, it was because he had been asked to give strategic guidance to the volk; it was a task into which he threw his heart and soul."
Brothers in War and Peace: The war that could have been
Dennis Cruywagen 22 Aug 2014 00:00
War and peace: Twin brothers Constand and Abraham Viljoen.
War and peace: Twin brothers Constand and Abraham Viljoen.
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Although it is commonly held that time heals all wounds, certain words and accusations can cut so deep as to leave scars that not even the passing of years can heal.
Being rejected and branded a traitor by fellow Afrikaners still burns Constand Viljoen. Few outside his inner circle suspected the strain he was under while with the Afrikaner Volksfront. When he got involved in 1993, it was because he had been asked to give strategic guidance to the volk; it was a task into which he threw his heart and soul.
“For nine months we worked flat out on this [political, economic and propaganda strategy], also preparing the military strategy itself,” Viljoen said later. “I always said: ‘I may be preparing for a military option but I will decide whether and if it is the time to launch an offensive.’ I always said I was prepared to wage a war and was prepared to sacrifice lives if I regarded that as the only and last possibility.”
He held on to the option of war, hoping to use it to extract more concessions from the ANC. But when he made his momentous decision to put his party’s name on South Africa’s first democratic ballot paper, men such as [Conservative Party leader] Ferdi Hartzenberg gave him the cold shoulder. “Some of them called me a traitor because they somehow thought I was in a position to keep the old South Africa standing,” he said.
While his character was being ripped apart and his reputation sullied by his erstwhile comrades, Viljoen felt increasing pressure from the ANC.
At the time, Viljoen still had his dream of a volkstaat, a place where Afrikaners could live according to their own culture and be independent. It was a view that did not fit in with the ANC’s determination to end race-based structures in South Africa.
With hindsight it is easy to see that the ANC never had any intention of granting Viljoen his volkstaat. Their goal from the beginning had been to trap the general into taking part in the election. How else could he show how much support he had except through the ballot? The negotiators had smiled affably and praised him, but ultimately sought to outmanoeuvre him.
But Viljoen would not have been the leader he was if he had not had a sharpened intuition when it came to traps. Viljoen’s suspicions that he was being cheated at the negotiating table were exacerbated when various others told him that the ANC would con him.
Uneasy, filled with a growing disquiet and doubtful of the liberation movement’s real intentions, for his own protection and as a guarantee of the ANC’s commitment, he called for a written agreement that would recognise the Afrikaners’ wish for self-determination and sanction the establishment of a volkstaatraad to examine the possibility of establishing an Afrikaner enclave. To bind the ANC, he insisted the accord be signed before the election.
The agreement was ready by April 12 1994 but the ANC kept postponing the signing ceremony, thereby adding to Viljoen’s stress. Frantic and losing confidence in the liberation movement, he began to think they were playing him for a fool, pushing him closer to April 27, when he would have no other alternative but to accept that the election was happening and that he was not going to get anything from the ANC. His credibility and integrity were on the line.
He eventually snapped under the mounting pressure and reverted to threats. Angry, he went to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to deliver a message to Pik Botha: Was the National Party government aware of the heavy emotions running through Afrikaner veins? These emotions could lead to a bloodbath if Afrikaners stood their ground. Already some were preparing themselves for such an outcome by stockpiling canned food.
Botha countered that he could hardly believe Afrikaners would take up arms against a democratically elected government. Dissatisfied, Viljoen left, but not before warning the government to tread softly.
On April 16, 11 days before the election, the crisis had not yet been resolved. Viljoen was at his wits’ end with the ANC’s apparent inability to sign off on the accord.
This time he had been pushed far enough and was ready to take up arms. “I have to let the dogs loose, the ANC is difficult,” he told his wife Ristie. Even as he spoke the words, he recalled his promise to [United States ambassador Princeton] Lyman that he would see him before he resorted to any military action.
Viljoen phoned Lyman, recalling their conversation of December 1993: “You remember, between you and me, we had a gentleman’s agreement. We met quite often and you said, ‘Before you do anything, promise me you will first come to me.’ And I said ‘Yes, I will do so’ and you remember we used that eventually ... I came to you and said: ‘I’m going to let the dogs loose,’ and you said: ‘Give me half an hour.’”
Lyman had been around long enough to know that the election would be sabotaged. He took action immediately, calling [ANC leader]Thabo Mbeki’s office and explaining that Viljoen believed he had been betrayed. All their hard work at the negotiating table was in jeopardy.
The gravity of the situation sank in. Finally.
Yusuf Saloojee, the man who had taken Lyman’s call, phoned back within minutes. The accord would make provision for a volkstaatraad, which would be appointed after the election to investigate the feasibility of an Afrikaner volkstaat. It would be signed at the Union Buildings on Saturday April 23, three days before the election.
The general had been serious about going to war. “As a matter of fact I had the war machine ready,” he said later. “The final decision not to go to war was taken just after April 23 1994.”
During his application for amnesty on May 16 1997, Viljoen told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that during the election phase in 1994 there were many who had plans to use violence. His followers, however, were in a commanding position as far as military capacity was concerned. They were ready to die for their cause. But he thought about the situation rationally. He was haunted by the devastating effects that the Anglo-Boer War had had on Afrikaners, and therefore decided against war, even though his decision disappointed many of his followers.
A few years later, in an interview with Hilton Hamann, Viljoen said that a large portion of his forces disintegrated when he decided not to go to war. He had planned to use a so-called thick arrow — one big operation — followed by a thin arrow, the type of warfare waged by the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
Both strategies collapsed when he chose the election over war.
“I don’t regret the decision, but maybe I should say give me another five years then I’ll tell you whether I regret it, because the situation in politics doesn’t change that quickly and whether I made the right or wrong decision may only come out in another five or 10 years,” he told Hamann. “Things in South Africa might turn like that in Zimbabwe — then I would certainly regret it.”
In August 2013, 13 years after Hamann’s book was published, I asked the general again: Do you regret your decision?
“You know, I thought today that we made a mistake in 1910 when South Africa became a union,” he told me. “We did not take the realities of people’s emotions into consideration. We made the same flop in 1994. I was involved in 1994. I think I should have fought harder. I often think we should have gone to war.”
Brothers in War and Peace is published by Zebra Press. Cruywagen, Glenn Moss (New Radicals, Jacana) and M&G news editor Charles Leonard will be in conversation on Saturday August 30, 11.30am to 1pm
QUOTED: "It is ... illuminating and an essential addition to studies of Mandela's life and work."
8/13/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Print Marked Items
The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and
Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela
Michael Cart
Booklist.
114.16 (Apr. 15, 2018): p17.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela.
By Dennis Cruywagen.
June 2018. 240p. Imagine!, $24.99 (9781623545307). 968.065092.
Though South African journalist Cruywagen acknowledges that the life of Nelson Mandela has been
examined by others in exhaustive detail, he argues that one important aspect of the iconic leader's life has
been largely ignored: his deep spirituality and the Methodist beliefs he inherited from his mother and
learned in more detail through being educated in Methodist schools. One reason for this absence has been
Mandela's own reluctance to discuss such issues publicly, thinking as he did that acts of worship and
spirituality are private matters. Cruywagen changes that in this spiritual biography. With his focus on
spirituality and religious beliefs, the author tends to skate over the surface of Mandela's early life. It's not
until Mandela has begun his 27 years in prison that Cruywagen undertakes his detailed examination of the
leader's spiritual life. Though the book, originally published in South Africa, may occasionally presume too
much knowledge on the part of its American readers, it is nevertheless illuminating and an essential
addition to studies of Mandela's life and work.--Michael Cart
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Cart, Michael. "The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela." Booklist, 15
Apr. 2018, p. 17. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537268034/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=943dd7cf. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537268034
QUOTED: "insightful investigation."
"Cruywagen's well-researched book offers a clear account of how religion threaded through his life."
8/13/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and
Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela
Publishers Weekly.
265.17 (Apr. 23, 2018): p80+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela
Dennis Cruywagen. Imagine, $24.99 (224p)
ISBN 978-1-62354-530-7
This insightful investigation of an often downplayed side of politician and activist Nelson Mandela from
South African journalist Cruywagen (Brothers in War and Peace) provides a nuanced understanding of how
faith influenced the renowned civil rights activist. The book begins with rich biographical details, providing
context to frame Cruywagen's claim that spirituality (though perhaps not organized religion itself) guided
Mandela. Born into a royal lineage, Mandela's father followed traditional religious practices, and it was not
until Mandela's mother became a Methodist that he was exposed to Christianity. His farseeing father
realized that for his son to succeed in colonized South Africa, Mandela would need a Western education. At
the time, the only way for black South Africans in his area to access education was through the schools
offered by Methodist missionaries, so Mandela converted. Religion again played a key role in his life when
the apartheid government imprisoned him. Throughout his time on Robben Island, he was exposed to the
teachings of various religions, as religious leaders were among the few visitors the isolated prisoners were
allowed to see. Though Mandela was publicly circumspect about his religious views, Cruywagen's wellresearched
book offers a clear account of how religion threaded through his life. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Spiritual Mandela: Faith and Religion in the Life of Nelson Mandela." Publishers Weekly, 23 Apr.
2018, p. 80+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532948/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=113642d8. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532948