Mandela's Dark Years

"A valuable addition to the literature on dream-life and Mandela’s life."—African Studies Quarterly

Inspired by one of Nelson Mandela’s recurring nightmares, Mandela’s Dark Years offers a political reading of dream-life. Sharon Sliwinski guides the reader through the psychology of apartheid, recasting dreaming as a vital form of resistance to political violence, away from a rational binary of thinking.

This short, provocative study blends political theory with clinical psychoanalysis, opening up a new space to consider the politics of reverie.  

Forerunners is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital works. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

Sharon Sliwinski is associate professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and a core member of the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She is author of Human Rights In Camera.