The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

asic passport‐type pen picture satisfied this need. This was the image of Tabata chosen
by local ADC committees around the United States, and was widely circulated in
advertisements of his speaking engagements. This they chose from the “Pictures of
Tabata for publicity use”, which had been included in information packs sent out by the
ADC Executive Secretary along with Tabata’s itinerary (Figure 8). 53
It is not certain when in the 1960s the conscious programme of constructing Tabata as a
‘presidential’ political leader through visual representation began as an element of
projecting the Unity Movement as a liberation movement. On his first visit to England in
May 1962, where he went after his secret “trek through Africa”, Tabata was certainly
photographed, perhaps more to mark a personal reunion. 54 A portrait photograph taken
of Tabata in 1963 in England was later used on a book cover. 55 Indeed, Tabata began to
be photographed in conscious and definitive ways to convey a sense of confidence,
certainty and authority that belied any previous visualising reticence. The programme of
imaging Tabata was stepped up from about 1965, especially when the need for publicity
and visual projection began to make itself felt through the ADC. From at least 1966,
publications of the Unity Movement and APDUSA in Lusaka began to include posed
portraits of Tabata, accompanied by the description, “President of Unity Movement of
South Africa and President of APDUSA”. 56 These portraits were often full‐page, and
53 Robert H Langston to Friends (Circular Letter), 23 September 1965, Alexander Defense Committee
Records, 1962‐1971, SML Microform, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University. This was the
photograph used to advertise Tabata’s speaking engagements in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago,
San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle between October and December 1965. The tour began with
receptions and meetings in New York, and Tabata also spoke in Philadelphia, Mikwaukee and
Washington, DC. A visit to New York at the end was also advertised, but Tabata had to rush back to
Lusaka in January 1966.
54 There is a photograph in the Tabata Collection (BC 925) with this wording as part of its official
caption. Tabata arrived in England on 25 May 1962, 2¾ months after Dora Taylor had left Cape Town
for England via Johannesburg and Ndola, where she spent five weeks with her daughter Sheila
Belshaw. Tabata spent more than five months in England attempting to solicit support for the NEUM’s
struggle from socialist and African countries before making his way back to South Africa via Algeria,
Italy, Yugoslavia and other African countries, where he spent time assessing possibilities of support.
55 There are at least six portrait photograph in the Tabata Collection (BC 925), one of which is marked
‘1963 – England (used on a cover)’.
56 See full‐page portrait before page one of Apdusa (Special Edition), Vol II, No 5, Sept‐Oct 1966,
Alexander Defense Committee Records, 1962‐1971, SML Microform, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale
University.
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