The Mandela University Press, which has been years in the making and received its approval from the University’s executive management committee in 2021, is the first university press in the Eastern Cape. It adds to the other seven scholarly presses in the country, based within and outside universities.
The Press will build on the identity of the University and its distinctiveness, critically working with the idea of what it means to bear the name of former president, Nelson Mandela, and to fulfil the promises that were made by the institution at the moment of renaming and rebranding in July 2017, and since.
Nelson Mandela University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sibongile Muthwa, described the launch of the Mandela University Press as a historic milestone along the road to achieving Mandela University.
“The establishment of the Mandela University Press ̶ our long-held aspiration ̶ is a tangible step in our efforts of recentring Africa’s knowledge project. The Mandela University Press is committed to working with partners beyond the confines of the institution and to generating books, materials and works that will advance and further the goals of knowledge creation, as well as affirmation and resurfacing of genres that engage with the diversity of human experience and creativity; including those that history has pushed to the margins.”
Mandela University Chancellor Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said the Mandela University Press aims to tell the tell the story of African intellectual scholarship while generating more.
“The launch of the MUP states boldly to its peers nationally and globally, that this is a university that is firmly focused on the fullness of scholarship – on the works of scholarship and the fruits of scholarship – and on a level of engagement and inclusivity that gives expression to Mandela University’s strategic aspirations,” she said.
The Press operations will be housed in the University and it will publish peer reviewed and other works with the aim of popularising knowledge, contributing to a reading culture and to document the rich histories and lives of marginalised people and places. It aims to publish books by academics, writers, communities, artists, etc. from the Eastern Cape, and elsewhere.
Following its formal approval in 2021, the University entered into a contract with African Sun Media (ASM) in 2022, as its chosen partner in providing the actual production services and capacity. The ASM services afford the University the pathway to publish under the Mandela University Press imprint, without incurring the costs of setting up the publishing house infrastructure.
African Sun Media chief executive Nirode Bramdaw said: “In this partnership, we are remedying a historical imbalance and taking ownership of local knowledge production.”
The book, Achieving Nelson Mandela University? was available and on sale at the launch, along with other titles published in association with the Mandela University Press.
The book explores the origins, evolution and future trajectory of the University through contributions of a cross-section of writers from diverse backgrounds, situating the institution within the contemporary historical moment from which it emerged and examines its subsequent evolution.