A Summary: To think as a boxer

Summarised by Juwayn Keane

Kurt Campbell’s essay “To Think as a Boxer” uses Marco Cianfanelli’s Johannesburg sculpture Shadow Boxing to explore how boxing became both a metaphor and a practice that shaped Nelson Mandela’s political life. The work draws on a famous 1950s photograph of Mandela sparring, but Campbell shows that the meaning runs far deeper than a striking pose.

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From Mandela’s own autobiography we know that boxing was never simply recreation. He described how the gym joined “mind and body” in a disciplined act of self-work. Training demanded resilience and focus, qualities Mandela believed served him not only in the ring but in the broad social world. He wrote that boxing kept him physically fit and filled his spare hours, but also offered relaxation and a way to “begin each new day” ready to face the trials of being a Black man in apartheid South Africa. For Mandela, the gym was a space of transcendence: a place to maintain a personality not defined by oppression.

Campbell develops this point by comparing Mandela’s political strategy to that of a skilled boxer. A professional fighter does not launch reckless attacks; he throws measured punches, testing an opponent’s strength and waiting for the right opening. Mandela adopted a similar approach in his decades-long struggle against apartheid. Mandela’s strategic patience seen in his years of underground organization, navigating against state-enforced racial segregation, the denial of voting rights to Black South Africans, forced removals, and the criminalization of political opposition mirrors  patience, careful observation, and precise action , qualities that could be called both “boxing clever” and a meditation in self-control. Victory for him required endurance and the tenacity that every good boxer must embrace.

The Shadow Boxing sculpture makes these connections visible. Located in front of Johannesburg’s Magistrate’s Court where Mandela once worked as a lawyer.  The official press statement explains it as “a symbolic reminder of the potential for disparity between Law and Justice and the need for transparency and accountability in the service of the rights of all citizens and residents. Mandela stands mid-jab, but the artwork is composed of thin steel pieces that form his image only when viewed from a certain angle. Campbell reads this as an invitation to “think as a boxer”: to recognize struggle as layered and strategic, demanding both physical presence and mental agility. The sculpture does not just commemorate past battles; it inspires viewers to imagine alternative futures and to meet today’s economic and social inequities ,many of which persist after apartheid with the same discipline and courage.

Boxing, in this telling, becomes a powerful symbol of the fight for equality, dignity, and human rights. Yet Campbell also cautions that public art can oversimplify. The boxing metaphor must not eclipse the political negotiations, community organizing, and moral complexity of Mandela’s life. Rather , to be understood as an interpretive lens of the struggle for justice's requirement for the balance of body and mind, defense and offense, patience and decisive action.

By linking Mandela’s training to his leadership, Campbell shows that Shadow Boxing is more than a memorial. It is a lesson in resilience and strategy, reminding us that to create change we too may need to “think as a boxer”measured in movement, steadfast in purpose, and unyielding in the long fight for freedom.