This lively, engaging and witty collection of lectures brings together the renowned African and African-American scholars - Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr and Wole Soyinka - to reflect on the public meaning of the iconic Nelson Mandela. Any one of these authors would have been a pleasure to read in his own right, but to have all three of them enjoined in this common intellectual effort is an enlightening experience. In this one book, you will find the profound philosophical and political interpretations of Cornel West, the storytelling genius and witticism of Henry Louis Gates Jr, and the wisdom of Africa's grand man of letters and the first person of African descent to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka. Graced with a Foreword by former chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, ""The Meaning of Mandela"" should be required reading in philosophy and politics departments, a feature in the boardroom and an essential part of your carry-on luggage.