Martha Evans is a lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town, where she completed her PhD thesis. She live and works in South Africa.

• TimelineXAbbreviations and AcronymsXList of FiguresXAcknowledgementsXxIntroductionXxMedia Events and South African National IdentityXx2.Events Envy: South Africa’s Exclusion from the Media Events of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80sXx3.The Shamanizing Ayatollah: Mandela and the Dismantling of ApartheidXx4. Disrupting the Centre: ‘Liveness’ and the Negotiation of Disaster During the TransitionXxThe Televised Birth of the Rainbow Nation: The Election and Mandela’s InaugurationXx6.Consolidation: South Africa’s Return to the Global Fold and the Making of MadibaXxConclusionXxReferencesXx

'An original exploration of the effects of apartheid South Africa's exclusion from worldwide televisual events (what I would call 'events envy') and a creative study of the role of live broadcasting in the post-apartheid era.' Elihu Katz, Trustee Professor of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor Emeritus, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 'Martha Evans has written a fascinating, thoroughly readable account of live television coverage of sport, politics and ceremonial occasions on South African television during the most turbulent years of its recent history. Her study of televised sport is a revelation, showing its divisive politics and vulnerability to disruption during apartheid and its momentary power to unite the "rainbow nation" as a newborn democracy in the 1990s. She carefully brings out the contested meanings of media events, both within South Africa and for the rest of the watching world. An important and original contribution to the study of global media events.' Paddy Scannell, Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan