In a historical text, illuminating Alf Kumalo's photographic essay, Mandela: Echoes of an Era (1990), Es'kia Mphahlele situates Nelson Mandela historically in a context that enabled him to undertake his specific configuration of the national project: "Mandela's political career flourished and attained full maturity in the fifties: an era for the politics of accomodation. He was eased out of a near-exclusive passionate nationalism by his constant contact with Indian, 'Coloured' and white political movements and individuals. . . . Who is this man, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the dignity of whose silence transcends the vociferous pettiness of his white jailers in positions of ultimate power. . . . But here is a man who has become at once the symbol of a people in chains, the agony of the sacrifice and the sustained inexorable energy of the people to survive their shackles" (p.34-47). With the possible exception the Eighties, the Fifties was the most fascinating South African decade in the 20th century. In both decades Nelson Mandela played a vital role, in one as a great historical icon while in prison, in the other as a brilliant strategist and political leader. It was in the 1950s, the era of the Sophiatown Renaissance, initiated by the cultural efflorescence of the Drum writers, of which Mphahlele himself was one of its principal exponents, that Mandela exemplified his political practice. The success of the Defiance Campaign of 1952 was partly due to his political practice as President-General of the ANC in the Transvaal province. It was in the context of the Defiance Campaign that Mandela transformed his exclusive black nationalist ideology into the inclusive African nationalism. This transformation led to the total break between Nelson Mandela and Jordan Kush Ngubane, both of whom had been, with others, the founding members of the ANC Youth League in 1943-44, which was predicated on the black nationalism of Anton Lembede. As editor of Inkundla ya Bantu in the 1940s, Jordan Ngubane had re-orientated it into being an intellectual forum of the Youth Leaguers' black nationalism. Since he was under a banning order, Mandela participated in the Congress of the People of 1955 from the underground. His participation in these historic events, facilitated his combining theory and practice, for he began in earnest to write political essays and historical analyses in Liberation, a journal which reflected the progressive unitary ideology of the Congress of the People. A sampling of some of the writings should give us a fascinating perspective on his take on this astonishing decade. In a trenchant political analysis, "In Our Lifetime", Mandela made the following observation: "The adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the People at Kliptown in June of last year was widely recognised both at home an abroad as an event of major political significance in the life of this country. . . . Never before has any document or conference been so widely acclaimed and discussed by the democratic movement in South Africa. Never before has any document or conference constituted such a serious and formidable challenge to the racial and anti-popular policies of the country. For the first time in the history of our country the democratic forces irrespective of race, ideological conviction, party affiliation or religious belief have renounced and discarded racialism in all its ramifications, clearly defined their aims and objects and united in a common programme of action. The Charter is more than a mere list of demands for democratic reforms. It is a revolutionary document precisely because the changes it envisages cannot be won without breaking up the economic and political set-up of present South Africa" (Liberation, no. 19, June 1956, emphasis in the original). In a text written earlier, which could be taken as indicating Mandela's shift from regressive black nationalism to progressive African nationalism, he had this to say: "The struggle for democracy in South Africa is growing stronger every day. The political organisations of the oppressed people are forging stronger ties between themselves and the masses. A high degree of political understanding has been achieved. The people have become more conscious of their strength and they cry defiance to the racial policies of the Government. In the past, we talked of the struggle of the African people, the Indian struggle and the struggle of the Coloured people. There was co-ordination neither among these groups nor with those white progressives who fought for equality. But today the people have come to realise the urgent necessity of mobilising, through their respective organisations, all democrats, black and white, to resist and conquer reaction by united front" ("Towards Democratic Unity", Liberation, no. 6, November 1953). These formulations were part of Mandela's defense of the strategy of the Defiance Campaign of 1952 which had been questioned by I. B. Tabata, who was the leader of Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM), and Jordan Ngubane, who was in the process of making a complete break with ANC and shifting towards the Liberal Party. A few years earlier I. B. Tabata had written an open letter to Nelson Mandela, one of the extraordinary documents of the late 1940s, in which he argued that the modernity of the ANC Youth League was incompatible with that of its parent organization, the ANC: "Let me state from the outset that I do not support the idea of organising the people for the sake of organisation. People can be organised for good or evil. This on the face of it may seem a childish platitude. But my experience has taught me---as you too, must have perceived if you have pondered over it---that it is absolutely nevessary for every individual to ask himself the question: What purpose does this or that organisation serve? It is not what the members say or think about an organisation that matters. It is not even a question of the good intentions of the leaders. What is of paramount importance is the programme and principles of the organisation. To put it another way, it is not the subjective good-will of the leaders that matters, but the objective function of the organisation, what effect it has on society. In other words, the question to ask is: Whose interests does the organisation serve objectively? This is the only correct approach to the discussion on the present organisations. I ask you yo use this test. Apply it to yourself and the organisation to which you belong. . . . Finally, let me mention one aspect of your position which I feel you have not considered. You and all your fellow-members of the Youth Leagueare talking with two voices at one and the same time.As members of the Youth League you speak the language of the modern intellectual---progressive, independent, rejecting inferiority. But as members of the African National Congress your language is the very negation of all these things" ('Letter ["On the Organisations of the African People'], from I. B. Tabata to Nelson Mandela, June 16, 1948", in From Protest to Challenge, vol. 2 [of 5 volumes], ed., Thomas Karis and Gwendolen M. Carter, 1973, pp.362-368). These intellectual and political duels of the late 1940s and early 1950s necessitate several understandings and reformulations. Firstly, that the Sophiatown Renaissance should not be read only as a cultural movement, but also as a political process. Secondly, as a consequence of this, the Sophiatown Renaissance should not only be constituted as a stylistic mode at the level of aesthetics, but also as a historical period. Lastly, the understanding of the Sophiatown Renaissance as a historical inclusiveness inevitably encompasses Nelson Mandela as one of its leading members.