The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

Anant Singh, who acquired the rights to adapt Long Walk To Freedom for the big screen.
Intending to spend $20‐million, Singh went on record as saying that he envisaged the film
to be in the mould of Richard Attenborough’s epic Gandhi. 212 Not surprisingly, it was not
easy even for the trendiest new South Africans to keep up with such an over‐concentration
of celluloid and Mandela image production. There was the danger that in the mind and in
memory, all these films would merge into one. Amusingly, one celebrity invited to the
“world premiere” of Menell and Gibson’s Mandela was convinced she was going to see
Sidney Poitier star in a film called The Long Walk to Freedom. 213
The claims made for biographies that they are ‘authoritative’, or ‘definitive’ and the
‘authentic voice’ of the autobiographical ‘I’ need to be understood as part of an attempt to
present ‘real lives’ and ‘authentic’ experiences to reading and viewing publics. These
notions also enable readers and viewers to feel that access to such authentic knowledge
gives them privileged and intimate encounters with real subjects. That this was deemed to
be possible in the case of Nelson Mandela in the mid‐to‐late 1990s meant access to the epic
‘real’ life story of the ultimate hero. His story of “hardship, resilience and ultimate
triumph”, especially as enshrined in Long Walk to Freedom, came to stand for the history of
the South African ‘nation’. It was a history of the “born leader”, 214 the father and the
nation rolled into one. This narrative was also inscribed into the museum.
The Nelson Mandela Museum, planned as part of the legacy project programme, began its
operations on 11 February 2000, the tenth anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from
imprisonment. It was envisaged that this museum would house the many awards and
gifts received by Mandela, and would also endeavour “to tell the story” of his life. 215 As a
museum, it was intended to be located in three sites in the Eastern Cape. At Umtata a
museum exhibition would be constructed in the renovated Bhunga (‘place of discussion’)
Building, while a site of memorial and contemplation would be created at Mvezo village
212 Anant Singh Profile, SABC 3, 27 February 1997; Sunday Times, 16 March 1997.
213 Sunday Times, 13 October 1996.
214 Back flap of dust cover, Long Walk To Freedom.
215 ‘Statement by Minister Mtshali on Legacy Projects: issued by the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science
and Technology’ ().
265