Madiba shirt

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Wednesday, April 28, 2004 12:13 pm -0700 FRITZ JUENGLING
<juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US> wrote:

> Are you sure it was used in reference to him and not the other way around?
> Fritz

Do you mean, is his nickname after the shirt, rather than the shirt being
named after Mandela's nickname?  Positive.  Madiba is a Xhosa clan name,
and I believe he was called this before he got out of prison and could
choose his own shirts...(though Dict of SAE only has citations to 1990--but
this might be more about when it became ok to refer to him by an
affectionate nickname in the mainstream press).  His fashion sense was
often the topic of conversation in the start of his presidency--generally,
people liked him for setting his own fashion rules and finding a middle way
between western suits and traditional costume.

Incidentally, a very bizarre use of a Madiba shirt at:

<http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vn20040428022109849C6701
72&set_id=1>

Lynne


Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics

Department of Linguistics and English Language
Arts B133
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9QN
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