The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

in the sequence of six shot by Nzima was enlarged and put on display. In the Museum, a
series of “interleading spaces joined by ramps” was created to move visitors closer to
Nzima’s photograph. Large square windows above the ramps gave visitors views of some
of Soweto’s “significant sites”: Orlando Stadium, Orlando Police Station as well as several
schools. While panels of text gave “eye‐witness accounts and background viewpoints”,
much of the story of the day was presented on TV monitors, which relayed footage shot
by international television news crews. A “Death Register” in “one of the few walled‐in
rooms” recorded the names of children who died between June 1976 and the end of
1977. 141
Although Pieterson’s mother, Dorothy Molefi, expressed her pride that there was “a
museum for Hector” and that children would be “learning about him in history”, the
Museum was also about understanding the events of June 16 1976. 142 Although the
Museum was created in Pieterson’s name, near the corner of Vilakazi and Moema Streets,
where he had fallen, it recognised that another boy, Hastings Ndlovu, had actually been
“the first child shot on that fateful day”. Nevertheless, it was Nzima’s photograph that
“came to represent the tragedy of the day”. The Museum also faced a serious biographic
challenge in that the family did not possess “a single snapshot of their famous son”. All
the images in their possession had been lent to journalists at the time of Pieterson’s death
and were never returned. Pieterson’s sister, Antoinette Sithole, who had been
photographed by Nzima running alongside Makhubu and Pieterson, was employed by
the Museum to give guided tours to visitors. 143
141 ‘Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum: lest we forget’, City of Johannesburg, Department of
Marketing and Tourism, August 2002 (Brochure); Lucille Davie, ‘Hector: the famous child whose face
is unknown’, ; Caroline Hooper‐Box, ‘Selling history of
Soweto to residents part of drive to instil culture of domestic tourism’, Sunday Independent, 2
November 2003. Nzima’s iconic image was displayed outside the Museum in the memorial precinct.
142 Lucille Davie, ‘Hector: the famous child whose face is unknown’. The difficulties of mediating the
interests of families of the memorialised dead, whose memorials also involved a public interest, were
also reflected in disputes over the creation of memorials to the Gugulethu Seven and Trojan Horse
victims in Cape Town and to the Cradock Four. These were disputes over consultation, processes of
decision‐making and the appropriateness of memorial forms. See Nyame Goniwe, ‘Dealing with the
Past: A Memorial for the Cradock Four’, New South African Outlook, Vol.2, No. 3, Winter 2000 and
Gershwin Wannenburg, ‘Guguletu Seven insulted’, Sunday Times Metro, 29 October 2000.
143 Lucille Davie, ‘Hector: the famous child whose face is unknown’.
239