The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

contemplation and celebration were to be encouraged as part of the process of nation
making. 131
Alongside “sensory samples of ethnic diversity” and “visual traces of apartheid’s
deprivations”, township tours also offered visits to resistance memorials and heritage
sites, many of which were biographic in nature. In KwaZulu‐Natal, ‘Tours of
Remembrance’ offered “a historical and cultural journey” through the province. Amid
tours which offered an experience of “the contrasts” and “paradoxes” of Durban as well as
a visit to Cato Manor, “once a bustling settlement of Indians and Africans”, visitors were
encouraged to undertake historical tours of Gandhi’s Phoenix settlement at Bhambayi and
visits to the Ohlange Institute, founded in 1901 by John Langalibalele Dube, first president
of the ANC. 132 The Mamelodi Heritage Tour, planned in 2000 started at Solomon
Mahlangu Freedom Square, which incorporated a sculpture unveiled in 1991 to
commemorate Mahlangu’s life. Visitors were also encouraged to visit the Stanza Bopape
Memorial, “another hero of the struggle” who had been killed in 1988 at the hands of
security forces. 133
From the 1990s, the “crowning achievement” of all township tours, however, was Soweto,
where the struggle against apartheid had been “reignited in the 1970s”. Amid encounters
with the physical features of Soweto’s “repetitive urban sprawl”, tourists were
encouraged to visit sites that affirmed its “media‐created resistance pedigree”. Sites
became part of heritage routes, and these were themed as part of Soweto’s “destination
culture”. In 1998, tourists were “bussed on a ‘March to Freedom’” from the Hector
131 Ciraj Rassool, ‘The Rise of Heritage’, pp 6‐7.
132 ‘Tours of Remembrance: A Historical and Cultural Journey through KwaZulu Natal’, Bishopsgate,
n.d. (brochure). There were also other township tours of the Inanda area of Durban, which focused on
biographic sites of heritage. See the descriptions of “Inanda Heritage Route” and “The Legacy of
Mahatma Gandhi” in ‘A Guide to Township and Cultural Tourism in the Kingdom of the Zulu, South
Africa’, Durban: Tourism Kwazulu‐Natal, 2002 (Brochure). On 9 November 2003, I went on a tour of
sites in the Inanda area associated with leaders such as Gandhi, Shembe, A.W.G Champion, Pixley ka
Isaka Seme and John L. Dube. This tour was also ‘biographical’ in that it stressed the significance of
sites such as the Phoenix settlement and the Ohlange Institute in the formation of persons.
Interestingly, Langa Dube, grandson of John L. Dube, conducted the tour.
133 ‘Mamelodi Heritage Route: Pretoria’s “Mother of Melodies”’, Pretoria: Pretoria City Council, 2000
(Brochure).
236