SOCIOLOGY, BIOLOGY OR PHILOSOPHY OF A WARRIOR? REFLECTIONS ON JAN SMUTS, GUERRILLA–BEING AND A POLITICS OF CHOICES

Abstract

This article could have been titled “Feeling our way into the mind of a man formed in guerrilla war more than a century ago.” South Africa produced arguably three statesmen of international stature. These are Shaka-Zulu (militarist, conqueror and Jacobin nation-builder), Jan Smuts (guerilla, military leader, statesman and philosopher) and Nelson Mandela (leader of the struggle for liberation from white minority rule and renowned reconciliatory statesman). Within their own historical epochs these men became known far outside the territory of their birth and carved their names into international history and political discourse.