The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

development”, and “uplifting affected communities by creating sustainable employment
opportunities”. The project also aimed to contribute to youth development, leadership
training and the development of cultural tourism”. 217
This was not the first time that Nelson Mandela’s life became the focus of national heritage
in a new museum in post‐apartheid South Africa. The biographical narrative of Nelson
Mandela’s ‘long walk to freedom’ had driven the Robben Island Museum (RIM) since its
inception in 1997. This museum, which came into being after the closure of Robben Island
as a prison, had been created as the post‐apartheid state’s first national museum and the
pre‐eminent heritage site of the new nation. 218 Robben Island was re‐envisioned as the
birthplace of the new nation as part of the “national quest for reconciliation”. 219 Robben
Island was also listed as a World Heritage Site in September 1997. From the beginning, the
central feature of museum visits was the encounter with Mandela’s biography at his cell in
B‐Section, where he had spent 17 years. 220 In addition, visits to the lime quarry served to
confirm the constructed history of Robben Island as the space of survival and the
217 ‘Nelson Mandela Museum: Exhibition Brief and Proposal’ (Exhibition Committee Discussion
Document). See also press releases and speeches by Ben Ngubane, then Minister of Arts, Culture,
Science and Technology cited in Kwezi ka Mpumlwana, Gerard Corsane, Juanita Pastor‐Makhurane
and Ciraj Rassool, ‘Inclusion and the power of representation: South African museums and the
cultural politics of social transformation’, in Richard Sandell (ed), Museums, Society, Inequality (London:
Routledge, 2002), pp 252‐3.
218 Robben Island was declared a National Monument in May 1996 and was formally handed over to
the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology as a declared cultural institution later that
year. The operations of the Robben Island Museum began on 1 January 1997 and Nelson Mandela
officially launched the Robben Island Museum as “the first major new Heritage Institution of a
Democratic South Africa” on Heritage Day, 24 September 1997. The official launch took place against a
backdrop of giant portraits of male heroes of the liberation struggle, Mbeki, Mandela, Sobukwe and
Sisulu, with the centre spot reserved for Steve Biko who had emerged as a symbol of national unity.
See Robben Island (Special Heritage Day Edition), Volume 1, September 1997; Cape Times, 25 September
1997.
219 Speeches by André Odendaal and Mike Rademeyer at the opening of the Robben Island Exhibition
and Information Centre, 8 June 1996; Cape Times, 6 June 1996; Interview with André Odendaal, Cape at
Six, SABC 2, 30 January 1997.
220 Cape Times, 25 September 1997. From early in its operations, RIM advertised and promoted tours to
the Island through a replica of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell. One such display occurred in a Cape
Town shopping mall, and encouraged visitors to “spend some time inside Nelson Mandela’s cell”
(Actual Size of the Cell that was Home to Nelson Mandela for 18 Years, Cardboard Installation, Cavendish
Square, Cape Town, January 1997).
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