History Making and Present Day Politics - Stolten's African Studies ...

h i s t o r y m a k i n g a n d p r e s e n t d a y p o l i t i c s
Writing the history of the South African nation
Several of the articles in this collection refer to government approaches to
history making. Some of them also deal with “the national question” in one
form or another.
Immediately after 1994, many initial post-apartheid efforts were aimed at
using the past to mobilise collective enthusiasm for fundamental changes. 119
Concentrating on the common future of all South Africans, however, was the
way the South African government chose early in Nelson Mandela’s presidency.
120 Mandela actually called on South Africans to “forget the past”. 121
As social inequalities continued to develop, 122 this picture changed slightly.
Under Thabo Mbeki’s leadership, the past has been used to unify and regain
pride for the black majority, but more in the shape of heritage projects than in
the form of history writing. 123 As in many European nations in the era before
the developed welfare state, some kind of patriotic mobilisation seems to be
desirable for social stability. 124 In this scenario, full of contradictions, the notion
of the “Rainbow Nation” may have been toned down, because it failed to
assist in the emergence of a “New African Nation” and “New Patriotism”. 125
119. Freund, William M., “The Weight of History and the Prospect for Democratisation
in the Republic of South Africa”, Afrika Zamani, Camerun, 1994. Greenstein,
Ran, “The Study of South African Society: Towards a New Agenda for Comparative
Historical Inquiry”, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 641–652,
1994; Maharaj, Gitanjali, “The limit of historical knowledge: The subaltern and
South African historiography”, Current Writing, Vol. 8, No. 2, p. 1–12, 1996.
120. Kiguwa, S.N.W., “National Reconciliation and Nation Building: Reflections on the
TRC in Post-Apartheid South Africa”, paper presented at the conference “The TRC:
Commissioning the Past”, University of the Witwatersrand, June 1999.
121. Among other events: October 6 1994, Online News Hour, Public Broadcasting Service.
It could be said though that Mandela has expressed the opposite view on other
occasions.
122. Hendricks, Fred, Fault-Lines in South African Democracy. Continuing Crisis of Inequality
and Injustice, Discussion Paper, No. 22, The Nordic Africa Institute, 2003;
Leibbrandt, Murray, “Incomes in South Africa since the fall of apartheid”, NBER
working paper series, 11384, Cambridge, Mass., 2005.
123. See for instance, Thabo Mbeki, “Address at the occasion of the launch of Freedom
Park”, 16 June 2002.
124. Lettre d’un Franc, à son ami, “Upon the necessity of patriotism and unity for the
public welfare”, Paris, 1789, (BL: R.187.15.); Toyin, Nationalism and African Intellectuals,
University of Rochester Press, 2001.
125. On these notions: Closing Address by President Nelson Mandela, Debate on State of
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