The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

pioneers of African unity” on his way to delivering the state of the nation address in
Parliament. Posters of Jomo Kenyatta, Leopold Senghor, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame
Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere were among those displayed as “a way of appreciating their
gallantry and … heroic feats”, which benefited “not only their countries but Africa and the
world at large”. 164
The conferring of national orders on community leaders, struggle veterans and “icons of
the anti‐apartheid struggle”, both living and dead, ensured that heroic biographies of
resistance were incorporated into the ceremonies of government. In 1999, Nelson Mandela
conferred the Order of the Southern Cross (gold), then South Africa’s highest honour, on
the late ANC presidents Albert Luthuli and Oliver Tambo. Govan Mbeki, Steve Biko and
other veterans of the struggle were given awards “for meritorious service in the general
public interest”. A few years later, a transformed system of national orders had been
created, including one in Luthuli’s name, the Order of Luthuli, which recognised
“contributions to the struggle for democracy, nation building, human rights, justice, peace
and conflict resolution in Africa”. In 2004, Cissy Gool and Charlotte Maxeke were
honoured posthumously in a ceremony that recounted their political achievements as
service to society. Other posthumous awards went to Alfred Nzo, Archibald Gumede and
Matthew Goniwe. 165
To ensure that deceased leaders would not face any “danger” that their “role … would be
underplayed or forgotten, political parties and organisations ensured that regular
ceremonies of biographic maintenance and other forms of memory work were instituted.
A commemoration held at Joe Slovo’s grave by members of the SACP in 2004 was geared
at building a memory of “South Africa’s most celebrated communist”. In arranging the
exhumation of Anton Lembede’s remains from Newclare cemetery and their ceremonial
reburial at his home in Mbumbulu in KwaZulu‐Natal in 2002, the ANCYL narrated
Lembede’s biography into the memory of the democratic political order. In 1999, The
ANC conducted its birthday celebrations by projecting Thabo Mbeki, its president, in
164 Daily News, 6 February 2004.
165 Cape Argus, 11 June 1999; Cape Times, 4 February 2004; Cape Times, 2 December 2003.
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