The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

eliance, self‐respect and self‐esteem”. It was the embracing of self‐reliance that enabled
you to “rewrite the script of your life”, and that enabled the autonomy of community in its
creative assets and choices of action. In this vein, the SBF also initiated a ‘Culture, Values
and Community’ programme, which sought to organise social history writing
programmes and youth arts festivals as a means of developing a youth intellectual culture.
This would ensure that “Biko’s children” would be able to realise their objectives. 285
In Biko’s name, the SBF conducted an overt public programme in biographic narration as
a means of fostering social development. As a public scholar in his own right, SBF’s
executive director, Xolela Mangcu, ensured that the argument for greater public
biographical attention on Biko was taken to other public culture platforms such as a
weekly newspaper column he wrote from 2001‐2003. More than being merely a “Biko
publicist”, Mangcu and the SBF also took up the cause of Robert Sobukwe’s legacy,
seeking to retrieve this “political and intellectual ancestor” from “the basements of …
university libraries” to “place him at the centre of our public life”. More generally, in his
work as a public intellectual, Mangcu propounded an entire project of political biography,
of dedicated heroes’ days, of public memorials, and of heroic biography as a catalyst for
leadership development. 286 As engaged as Mangcu’s biographic ideas were, this was
political biography in a conventional form, framed as historical recovery and leadership
lesson. 287
285 Zakes Mda, Second Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, UCT, 13 September 2001; Xolela Mangcu,
introductory remarks at Second Steve Biko Memorial Lecture, UCT, 13 September 2001. Jointly
managed by Xolela Mangcu and Biko’s son, Nkosinathi, the SBF seemed to originate in a research
grant given to Mangcu and Nkosinathi Biko to write a biography of Steve Biko. What started as a
quest for a biography turned into a multi‐pronged biographical foundation. See Xolela Mangcu, ‘In
search of Steve Biko, an activist for all times’, Sunday Times, 23 April 2000.
286 See a range of combative, engaging articles by Xolela Mangcu in his series, ‘Second Take’ published
in The Sunday Independent between 2001 and 2003. The quotes are from two of his pieces, ‘Proud Biko
Publicist gears up for Sobukwe anniversary year’ (29 December 2002), and ‘At this time we need to
learn from the giant that is Sobukwe’ (16 March 2003).
287 Celebration was a little more difficult since the narrative of trauma associated with Biko’s memory
had not culminated in any sense of reconciliation. But it was not surprising that Mangcu and the SBF
attracted criticism after one of the memorial lecture events for “speak[ing] of Biko for a whole night
without referring to the organisations he led, organisations that fought to make his name what it is
today” (Mathatha Tsedu, ‘A reminder to rekindle a true memory of Africa’s heritage’, Sunday Times, 21
September 2003).
290