Justice Not Revenge – Examining the Concept of Revolutionary Justice, Mahmood Mamdani (2017) from The Mosaic Rooms on Vimeo.

Internationally renowned academic and author Mahmood Mamdani presents this year’s Edward W. Said London Lecture, examining the concept of revolutionary justice.

Mamdani will look at how South Africa’s transition from apartheid presents a critique of the lessons that have been drawn from the Nuremberg trials – the post-war judgment of Nazi war criminals – which have been incorporated into the contemporary human rights movement and International Criminal Court. He reflects on the question of justice in the postcolonial period, in the writings of Aimé Césaire on Haiti and of Nelson Mandela in southern Africa.

Followed by a Q&A session.

Mahmood Mamdani (b. 1946) is an internationally renowned academic and author. His work explores the intersection between politics and culture, including the history of civil war and genocide in Africa, the Cold War and the War on Terror and the theory of human rights. He is Herbert Lehmann Professor of Government at Columbia University, USA.

The annual Edward W. Said London Lecture series is supported by The Mosaic Rooms/A. M. Qattan Foundation and London Review of Books. Find out more about the series and previous speakers here.