Slumming It

I do not understand the fuss about the fact that Mandela rang Buckingham Palace with the words, "Hello, Elizabeth, how's the Duke?"

He was much posher than either the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas or the Battenbergs. He was showing noblesse oblige by speaking to them at all. Say what you like about Communists, but they are never, ever common.

Just as "Dalai" is a family name, so that only a member of the House of Dalai may become the Dalai Lama, so "Madiba" is the name of Mandela's Thembu Xhosa clan.

May only a Madiba be Comrade Madiba? Might there now be a new one, automatically, by right of succession? Or is there some kind of election among eligible persons? Perhaps another Xhosa Thembu Madiba prince could be elected Comrade Madiba by the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party?

Either way, what fealty does the global movement that coalesced around the late Comrade Madiba owe to his successor? This really is how these things start.

That's the Revolution for you. And it is very definitely being televised.