The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

Nelson Mandela. The late 1980s and the early 1990s saw a veritable ‘scramble’ for Nelson
Mandela’s life as biographies in virtually every medium were produced. While Mandela
had acquired near‐Messianic status during his imprisonment, it was the “cultural
production of the Messianic Mandela” that became a fundamental feature of South Africa
after his release. 182 In the process, Nelson Mandela’s life history came to be inscribed into
the South Africa’s process of nation making as the seeming embodiment of its heritage
and immortal guarantor of its future.
Among the most prominent biographies of Mandela that were readily on hand in the
1990s were those by Fatima Meer and Mary Benson. 183 While both had first been
published in the 1980s (Meer’s in 1988 and Benson’s in 1986) as exercises in publicity
around Mandela’s imprisonment and the cause of the ANC, each had been republished a
few times, especially as Mandela’s life took on new value with his release. Long‐time ANC
publicist‐historian, Benson’s biography was ‘updated’ to include Mandela’s election as
president, and was republished in 1994. Both biographies were claimed as authentic.
Meer’s book claimed in its title to be the ‘Authorised Biography’, while former Drum
editor and early Congress biographic narrator, Anthony Sampson, referred to Benson’s
book as “the authoritative ... life story”. 184
This scramble for Mandela’s life in the mid‐1990s was to be seen in other mediums as well.
A number of photographic biographies were produced and older ones from previous
biographic treatments were dusted off. One which IDAF had produced to coincide with
his 70 th birthday and 25 year in prison was substantially revised and enlarged. 185 The
182 This began immediately on his release on 11 February 1990, in spite of his seeming indifference to
the assembled international media and his attempts to shake off the redemptive conception of him as
prophet. See the excellent essay by Rob Nixon, ‘Mandela, Messianism, and the Media’, in his book,
Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood: South African Culture and the World Beyond, London: Routledge, 1994,
pp 175‐192.
183 Mary Benson, Nelson Mandela, London: Penguin, 1986; Fatima Meer, Higher than Hope: The Authorised
Biography of Nelson Mandela, London: Penguin, 1990 (first published in Johannesburg by Skotaville in
1988).
184 Quotation on frontcover of Mary Benson, Nelson Mandela.
185 IDAF, Nelson Mandela ‐ His Life in the Struggle: A Pictorial History, London: IDAF, 1988. Another
biographical publication produced to commemorate Mandela’s 70th birthday in 1988, which made use
of photographs, was that put together by Alf Kumalo with an accompanying text by Es’kia Mphahlele.
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