The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

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which will help us remember the past, honour the dead, acknowledge the victims and their families and further the cause of reconciliation”. 168 Deponents were informed that the submission of the statement could, if they agreed, also be delivered at a public hearing and may also result in their name appearing in the final commission report. 169 The construction and performance of biographies of terror on terms set by legislation, policy and practice were thus central features of the workings of the TRC. The biographic testimonies provided by ‘ordinary people’ were inserted by the TRC process into a national narrative of great leaders and key events of resistance to apartheid. This resulted in the “simultaneous exhumation and burial of history”, creating a paradox that lay “at the heart” of the TRC’s workings and public representations. 170 After a long delay in attending to reparations following the submission of the TRC report, government finally decided to provide a once‐off grant of R30 000 to those “survivors” who had gone through the TRC process and who had been designated by the TRC as victims. In making this decision it was reiterated that “no one can attach monetary value to life and suffering”. Government also accepted the TRC’s recommendations on symbolic reparations as part of “a comprehensive response”. To this end, it drew attention to the legacy project of Freedom Park, where a garden of remembrance, memorial and museum would be created in Pretoria as the “main project in this regard”. South Africans were also asked to ensure that “the memories of liberators such as Oliver Tambo, Chris Hani, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe and Steve Biko live[d] on in the minds of generations to come”. 171 The submission of land claims in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act No 22 of 1994 also had a biographic character and required the construction of life history. A claimant, 168 ‘Statement concerning Gross Violations of Human Rights’. 169 ‘Statement concerning Gross Violations of Human Rights’. 170 Ciraj Rassool, Leslie Witz and Gary Minkley, ‘Burying and Memorialising the Body of Truth: The TRC and National Heritage’, in Wilmot James and Linda van de Vijver (eds), After the TRC: Reflections on Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa (Cape Town: David Philip, 2000), pp 116, 123. 171 ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission Handbook’, Government Communications, July 1993. This document, presenting Government’s response to the TRC Report, was distributed in Post Offices in all official languages. 251
especially one who had been a long‐term tenant, needed to submit “a mini‐family history essay” as part of the “comprehensive background statements” that had to be lodged with a completed claim form. The Land Claims Commissioner recommended that aspects that needed to be framed in the biography of forced removal were: “life before ‘forced removal’”, “life at the time of the Group’s interference” and “life since forced resettlement”. In addition to any documentary evidence that claimants might have, such as rental receipts, municipal accounts, clinic cards or certificates of occupation, they were also advised that the submission of “oral testimony” was also permissible. The Act made it possible for claimants to submit oral evidence as well as evidence that a court might regard as hearsay. The claimant’s narrated life history would therefore “place on public record for the benefit of future generations what actually transpired when the Group Areas Board intervened in the old way of life”. 172 In a number of cases, biography re‐emerged at later stages of the land claims process, particularly at the stage of its culmination in the successful handover of houses. In District Six, the handover of homes to the first two returnees Dan Ndzabela and Ebrahim Murat occurred in a victorious civic ceremony, which saw the return in narrative terms as a victory over adversity, and as an opportunity to rebuild community. The handover of keys by former president Nelson Mandela in February 2004 occurred on a day that constituted a grand biographic occasion. Ndzabela and Murat told an assembled audience gathered in the ‘Homecoming Centre’ of their District Six pasts, their subsequent township lives and their hopes for the future. These narratives were repeated in a brochure produced by the District Six Museum. The struggle of Ndzabela and Murat to return was presented as “both a personal and political journey marking the spirit and dignity of the dispossessed, and their quest to be reunited with the land they lost”. Mandela presented them with their keys in front of homes adorned with specially 172 ‘Ex‐tenants who were victims of removals under the Group Areas Act have land restitution rights too!!’ (Office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner, Western and Northern Cape, 4 June 1996). 252
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The Individual, Auto/biography and
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation
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committee members selected me to ta
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements
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Authorship, individuation and the b
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ABBREVIATIONS AAC All‐African Con
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INTRODUCTION The research for this
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transformation in the Eastern Cape?
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South African society provided the
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manifest dishonesty. Through a case
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genealogy of biographic mediation w
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tribute to Tabata that Taylor const
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CHAPTER ONE AUTO/BIOGRAPHY, NARRATI
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self‐constitution and the “styl
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intercourse entailed in this metaph
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1930s, with decreasing institutiona
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psychological characteristics” wh
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entextualised in diverse ways”, c
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While all mankind may be the subjec
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life’ and career as the focus hav
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development, a “narrative of inte
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denies the centrality of the subjec
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story, creating a ‘transferential
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een backward‐looking. Their commu
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[w]e need to attend to the historic
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enacted, lived in particular conjun
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‘representivity’ would constitu
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through particular enunciative stra
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ones. 114 Modernity gave rise to li
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These, in turn, have a profound eff
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are also to be found in the ‘stor
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historian, personal and political,
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sites of the ‘memorial complex’
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These biographies of ‘great polit
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der Post family. 17 Even Bertolt Br
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While the limitations of Jones’ b
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and work had emphasised the serious
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accused Mother Teresa of promulgati
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Mother Teresa, “hoping some of he
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sainthood”, the amount of miracle
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This biographic world of saint vene
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dared to be that person”. She “
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and popular circuits of exchange an
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institutions that make up the exhib
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participation in annual heroic comm
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Biographic memorial productions hav
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myths, while radio and television p
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the monument was removed during the
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about the past, as “political eli
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suggesting that use was merely made
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and “The Annual Salute to Greatne
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the use of his image”. 106 Moreov
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In this radical biographic interpre
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In addition to this standard biogra
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National Civil Rights Museum in Mem
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Although Mao’s image had been use
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more varied … [and] far more exci
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esistance hero in general, of hope
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issues about image‐making and aut
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Lumumba who could stand in oppositi
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CHAPTER THREE RESISTANCE STUDIES AN
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in “a wide range of inventive pol
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marginalised, grassroots people [an
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Since the 1970s, the terrain of res
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In an obvious sense, these studies
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Under the conditions of deepening r
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Crucially, this feature found expre
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established through his professiona
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scepticism, 35 the use of this noti
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“glimpse into the inner mind of o
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Higgs and Steven Gish also followed
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understand the background, politica
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national and land questions” conc
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Higgs’ study was largely a chrono
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South Africans to protest against t
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In these traditional ‘masculinist
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1980s in South African scholarship,
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academic institutions involved in t
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struggles over municipal controls d
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that during the 1950s, a period see
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away from biographic images of cons
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orthography with “self‐appointe
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middle section had vacillated. Anot
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Biography has also been a vehicle f
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After collecting oral testimony fro
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and ‘jumping the fence’ led to
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whose value depended on their accur
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(probably Nkadimeng) in a resettlem
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determine the voice and style in wh
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memory into a written academic prod
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Biography for social history was a
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esistance history sought to provide
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and La Hausse were completed by sch
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consciousness, conversations, and/o
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A foray into biography in the work
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ceased to be the major site for the
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study did not go far enough in the
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continued political role”. It was
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In exploring these issues of image,
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While Clingman’s study has posed
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state they contested”, as the col
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focusing on the creation of systems
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and survival against the onslaught
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and reconciliation in South Africa.
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accustomed to clear hierarchies bet
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South African public history. This
Page 213 and 214: unifier and a liberator of the mind
Page 215 and 216: these ways, the Mayibuye Centre was
Page 217 and 218: together, these booklets attempted
Page 219 and 220: Biography also provided the basis o
Page 221 and 222: As part of these transformations, M
Page 223 and 224: leader, Bill Andrews. 58 Written fr
Page 225 and 226: It is this biographic impetus which
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Page 229 and 230: Ngcelwane, whose family had had bee
Page 231 and 232: of softnesses and roughnesses” of
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Page 235 and 236: These images of the Business Day re
Page 237 and 238: once stood in central Pretoria, was
Page 239 and 240: declared a national monument on 12
Page 241 and 242: University’s Mark Haywood felt th
Page 243 and 244: Ministry of Water Affairs and Fores
Page 245 and 246: to the present. This project would
Page 247 and 248: was missed to develop a complex her
Page 249 and 250: contemplation and celebration were
Page 251 and 252: Morris Isaacson High School, Regina
Page 253 and 254: The Museum was really inaugurated,
Page 255 and 256: through biographic presentation. Bu
Page 257 and 258: 2003. Thabo Mbeki expressed the poi
Page 259 and 260: In contrast, Ronnie Kasrils, Modise
Page 261 and 262: narratives and moral trajectories o
Page 263: visual terms as part of a president
Page 267 and 268: applications had to make a biograph
Page 269 and 270: In April 2003, the Nelson Mandela F
Page 271 and 272: ooklet was organised as a chronolog
Page 273 and 274: single sitting”. 191 However, it
Page 275 and 276: In 1999, Anthony Sampson, who had b
Page 277 and 278: eating breakfast and even shaving a
Page 279 and 280: (Mandela’s birth place), on the b
Page 281 and 282: “triumph of the human spirit”,
Page 283 and 284: sought to contest the tendency for
Page 285 and 286: deepening in Robben Island’s cult
Page 287 and 288: follow the advice of Anthony Sampso
Page 289 and 290: was asked to speak about the accuse
Page 291 and 292: new conditions of exile was the con
Page 293 and 294: importance of relations of cultural
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Page 297 and 298: iography in public and commercial s
Page 299 and 300: artist, Jacob Khumalo, who had exhi
Page 301 and 302: epresentatives on the Nelson Mandel
Page 303 and 304: eliance, self‐respect and self‐
Page 305 and 306: PART TWO BEYOND MODERNIST HISTORY:
Page 307 and 308: marginality. Among the materials in
Page 309 and 310: Gradually, in drips and drabs, the
Page 311 and 312: While Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape
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microfilm collection contained a su
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and Karis may have received from Ta
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and reserve dwellers, arguing that
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Indeed, in this genealogy, the most
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and was conducted as part of a wide
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In making these assessments, Hirson
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policy that had envisaged redivided
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formation of APDUSA in January 1961
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“effectively … smashed within t
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opportunities that presented themse
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and verbal performances, which have
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political leadership was exercised
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CHAPTER SIX FROM COLLECTIVE LEADERS
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special protest meetings in convene
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upture was coming to a head, when h
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principles”. 18 Another aspect of
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included on the back cover of such
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political training did not take pla
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pertinent to the themes of this cha
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cause, rather than the leader”. T
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341
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343
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345
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347
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asic passport‐type pen picture sa
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their prominent placement in public
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353
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of individualised leadership may ha
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political positions which rejected
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interesting that Taylor’s first w
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handwriting, which had been prepare
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ehabilitation. 96 This did not stop
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ooted in the past”, he suggested,
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During 1949 and 1950, amid mounting
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“colour and strength” were impo
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Elsewhere on the left, Tabata’s b
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occurred in which Tabata was subjec
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Tabata, as an individual, bore a po
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making them “more careful about w
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teachers qualified to speak on matt
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Education for Barbarism marked Taba
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fulfil the same function” as ‘T
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state of anonymity to their true st
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of persecution and state harassment
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While Tabata’s presidency may hav
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final choice between the subterfuge
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circulated as the embodiment of its
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CHAPTER SEVEN DORA TAYLOR AND THE N
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Soon after Tabata arrived in Cape T
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historical understandings, Taylor
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was “tolerably easy”. In fact,
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her text had been “written in its
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the eastern Cape about which she wr
Page 421 and 422:
While she was writing The Rôle of
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out of the strains and pressures of
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who were involved in the movement c
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moved into Gool’s newly rented ho
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off by expressing his “envy” of
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They had a full life and she a full
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emotional and sexual desires as the
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Fashioning Tabata’s biography Vir
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continued to rework and re‐edit T
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us”. Goolam Gool, he had argued,
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political practice”. Tabata assur
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Nine that the AAC and Unity Movemen
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authored pamphlets aimed at “clar
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production of I.B. Tabata made a mi
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political work in the movement, in
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political leadership. By that time,
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unleashing different forms of biogr
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their political exchanges. 9 Later,
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where “fierce debates and discuss
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education as well as mechanisms of
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identification”. This identity cl
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need for leadership”. Tabata invi
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Likewise, concepts of strategic val
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was also invited to join along with
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fundamental and genuine manner and
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them. Sihlali’s presidentship of
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expressed had been “essentially h
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By the 1950s, increased internal bl
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way of their own greatness?” 76 A
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“suspended” from the movement,
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Thereafter, Alexander and his comra
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“mounting to a climax”. Jane Go
Page 485 and 486:
From around 1960, leaders of the Un
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The movement’s ‘architect’ al
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with the other liberation movements
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The ADC was a means of Tabata “ri
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ureaucratic abuse and of trying to
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econstituted APDUSA represented an
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NUM. They found instead a hostility
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significance of deceased ‘heroes
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A man … surrounded by a sea of pe
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and Alie and Ursula Fataar had assi
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491
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in “his contribution” to the li
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Almost unexpectedly, at his funeral
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497
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community of Lesseyton interred one
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The final entry of Tabata’s body
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heritage sites and collections. I w
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discovered heritage constructions o
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national heritage, even when those
Page 523 and 524:
elevant information from my researc
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disrespectful. And the fact that th
Page 527 and 528:
what I offer here is more than a st
Page 529 and 530:
(e) Central Archives Depot, Pretori
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Ilizwi leSizwe, Vol. 1, No 2, 18 Oc
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(b) Other Videos Hell’s Angel: Mo
Page 535 and 536:
(f) CD‐Roms Nelson Mandela: The s
Page 537 and 538:
Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museu
Page 539 and 540:
7. INTERVIEWS AND RECORDINGS OF SPE
Page 541 and 542:
William Beinart and Colin Bundy, Hi
Page 543 and 544:
Stephen Clingman, The Novels of Nad
Page 545 and 546:
Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Tra
Page 547 and 548:
Dominic LaCapra, Writing History, W
Page 549 and 550:
David Morley and Ken Worpole (eds),
Page 551 and 552:
James D Sexton (ed), Son of Tecum U
Page 553 and 554:
Susan G Wynne (Compiler), South Afr
Page 555 and 556:
Elizabeth S Cohen, ‘Court Testimo
Page 557 and 558:
Brian Elliot, ‘Biography, Family
Page 559 and 560:
Baruch Hirson, ‘Ruth Schechter: F
Page 561 and 562:
Desiree Lewis, ‘Winnie Mandela: T
Page 563 and 564:
Bill Nasson, ‘A Sharecropper’s
Page 565 and 566:
Hilary Sapire, ‘African Political
Page 567 and 568:
Dora Taylor, ‘They Speak of Afric
Page 569 and 570:
Kwame Anthony Appiah, ‘Cosmopolit
Page 571 and 572:
Twentieth Century’, Paper present
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