The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

South African public history. This took a variety of forms, aimed at diverse publics and
markets. Television became a visual arena for revealing histories of resistance previously
‘suppressed’ in the public terrain. Video histories of South Africa screened on prime time
television sought to reimage the visual codes of South African national history and rewrite
the script of the nation’s ‘transition to democracy’. With few exceptions, these
documentaries took conventional forms of talking heads, focused on the stories, deeds and
adventures of individual leaders, generated through the medium of oral history on
video. 11
In addition, video biographies of significant personalities and key leaders, concentrating
on the features of their leadership and their achievements in ‘lives of struggle’, were
screened on television on a regular basis. Most focused on leaders associated with the
ANC. Walter Sisulu, for instance, was constructed as a stalwart of struggle and “father of
the nation”, and Chief Albert Lutuli as a leader “of the country as a whole” in
documentary tributes, while Bram Fischer was presented as a beacon of non‐racialism
within Afrikanerdom. 12 Chris Hani’s life was memorialised for teenagers in an upbeat
television presentation geared towards transmitting lessons on leadership and
achievement. 13 Biographical videos of Chris Hani were also distributed to the public
through CNA alongside a National Geographic wildlife series and videos promoting Cape
Town to tourists. 14
11 See for example, Ulibambe Lingashoni ‐ Hold up the Sun ‐ The ANC and Popular Power in the Making,
Directed by Lesley Lawson, Series Director, Lawrence Dworkin, Produced by Afravision, 1993. The
first two episodes were initially screened on the pay‐channel, MNet and then aborted. Subsequently,
the series was screened in full on SABC TV. The producers described it (on the video cover) as ʺa
record of the resistance against apartheid by the masses of South Africans” which “reveal[ed] ... the
rich tapestry of South African historyʺ. Another example was the documentary programme, Our
Heroes (Produced for SABC2 by Phenyo Film and Television, n.d) which presented a history of
resistance centred on uMkhonto we Sizwe and dedicated to “heroes” who fought for freedom “in our
lifetime”. This programme was screened on Day of Reconciliation, 16 December 1997.
12 Walter Sisulu: Father of the Nation, Produced and Directed by Beate Lipman, Current Affairs Films for
Channel 1, SABC, 1996; Mayibuye Afrika: Chief Albert Lutuli ‐ his Story, Produced and Directed by
Charlotte Owen and Peter Corbett, 1993; The Life of Bram Fischer, Produced by Jill Engelbrecht and
Maryanne de Villiers, c. 1995.
13 Chris Hani: A Struggle, A Challenge (SABC, 1996).
14 One significant example is The Life and Times of Chris Hani (Afravision/Safritel, 1994). An interesting
exception was the biographic video of Govan Mbeki, Heart and Stone, made by Cape Town film maker,
Bridget Thompson, which departed from the framework of cliography to focus on Mbeki in relation to
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