So. African Eases Three-Year Ban on Mandela Life Story
South African censors Friday relaxed a three-year ban on a biography of jailed black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela.
Mary Benson’s “Nelson Mandela,” censored immediately after publication in 1986, will be available for study at university libraries but should not be released for purchase or lending, the Publications Committee ruled.
Benson, a leading white critic of Pretoria’s apartheid policies, went into exile in 1966. Her work includes biographies, novels and plays about South Africa’s black nationalist leaders and movements.
Mandela, jailed for life in June, 1964, for plotting to overthrow white rule, is a worldwide symbol of opposition to apartheid.
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