The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

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“its famous sons and daughters for achieving greatness under trying circumstances”. In 2002, its large, televised banquet held at the Sandton Convention Centre marked a meeting of black empowerment, celebrity chic and events management, putting a new elite face on the biographic narrative of triumph over adversity. The award of mini‐Hector Pieterson statuettes to the recipients signalled the appropriation of resistance history into this elite narrative. 178 Biographies of greatness, leadership, service and exemplary lives were also unleashed through the medium of the heroes’ competition. At the end of the 20 th Century, readers of the Sunday Times were invited to nominate persons as their “Hero of the Century” in a competition sponsored by Castle Lager and managed by advertising and marketing agency, Ogilvy and Mather. Over a few months, readers were invited to nominate their heroes in a range of categories that included the prestigious competition for the “Hero of the Struggle”. To help readers choose “the individual who best personifie[d] the struggle for democracy in South Africa”, the Sunday Times offered readers an alphabetised list of biographic suggestions. In selecting the winner, Nelson Mandela, one reader picked up a prize of R1 999, and another lucky reader stood to win R20 000, for correctly selecting the overall Hero of the Century from the different category winners. 179 In the tracks of all manner of millennial competitions to find the “man of the millennium”, “person of the century” and “history’s greatest maker”, South African newspapers, radio and television stations, provincial governments and corporate sponsors held their own campaigns to identify the ‘greatest South Africans’, the ‘woman of the year’ and even exemplary citizens of a “City of Angels”. 180 178 ‘How times have changed’ (editor’s comment), Pretoria News, 5 June 2002; ‘The Soweto Awards’, SABC 3, 8 June 2002. 179 See hybrid article‐advertisements in the Sunday Times, 2 May, 9 May and 30 May 1999. 180 Bonny Schoonakker, ‘Madiba: The millennium man’, Sunday Times Insight, 19 December 1999; Time, 31 December 1999 (Special Issue: Person of the Century); ‘Calling all Angels: City of Angels Nominations’ (Advertisement of campaign sponsored by the Cape Argus, South African Airways and ABSA), Tatler, 27 May 2004. In the latter campaign, persons sending in nominations were asked to “give a short synopsis of the nominee’s contribution to society” and why they thought the person “deserv[ed] to be honoured”. In 2001, the Eastern Cape Province held an award ceremony sponsored by insurance group Metopolitan to honour “23 sons and daughters of the Eastern Cape” who had “achieved in the fields of politics, the anti‐apartheid struggle, academics and business”. Nelson Mandela “took home the coveted ʺIcon of the Century” award, while the late Govan Mbeki was 255
In April 2003, the Nelson Mandela Foundation honoured 1500 “veterans who contributed to the liberation struggle” at a luncheon in Sandton that turned into “a day of singing, dancing and remembering”. The veterans from the ANC, PAC and AZAPO reminisced by viewing film footage of resisting crowds, as dancers dressed as school pupils entertained them in a performance reminiscent of the film Sarafina. During an afternoon when resistance memory and heroic biography merged with the glitz and glamour of entertainment, Jacob Zuma, Ronnie Kasrils and Stanley Magoba danced on stage with singers Abigail Kubeka and Yvonne Chaka Chaka to the delight of the guests. Flanked by two national flags, flags with the insignia of the liberation movements were carried on to the stage by children as President Thabo Mbeki lit a flame in celebration of almost ten years of democracy. 181 While all guests were reminded that this was also a time to remember fallen heroes like Tambo, Sobukwe, Biko and Hani, the veterans were saluted as “the living legends of our liberation struggle”. As a result of “their heroic deeds”, it was possible to “look back with pride and celebrate with unrestrained joy”. The celebratory biographic occasion was convened under the patronage of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which had become the principal mediating institution that produced, maintained and deployed political biography in the service of nation building. In the 1990s, Nelson Mandela’s biography, styled as a ‘long walk to freedom’, came to stand for the national narrative. The Nelson Mandela Foundation had inherited a genealogy of Mandela biographic production in which narrations of Mandela’s life had been deployed for different purposes. It is to this cultural history of Nelson Mandela’s biography that we must now turn. Nelson Mandela, auto/biography and the new nation Nowhere was the preoccupation with biography and the attributes of political leadership as a mode of understanding the past in the new South Africa so acute as in the case of named as the recipient of the Legend award for his efforts in the struggle against apartheid. See . 181 SABC 3 News, 6 April 2003; Cape Times, 7 April 2003. 256
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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
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unifier and a liberator of the mind
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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
Page 233 and 234: extended to other arenas of public
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 and 264: visual terms as part of a president
Page 265 and 266: especially one who had been a long
Page 267: applications had to make a biograph
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
Page 295 and 296: construction of Nelson Mandela has
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
Page 313 and 314: for the field of political biograph
Page 315 and 316: microfilm collection contained a su
Page 317 and 318: 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
Page 435 and 436:
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
Page 475 and 476:
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
Page 487 and 488:
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
Page 531 and 532:
Ilizwi leSizwe, Vol. 1, No 2, 18 Oc
Page 533 and 534:
(b) Other Videos Hell’s Angel: Mo
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(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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