The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

political leadership. By that time, what remained of the political movement was
powerless in the face of this familial and religious appropriation of Tabata’s biography.
Paternalism and patronage in the family and the school
The narration of I.B. Tabata’s life occurred through definite biographical relations as an
integral part of the unfolding of his life. Initially this narration built upon the
biographical reticence of adherence to collective leadership, which was claimed as a
central feature of the ‘New Road’ taken by the AAC, Anti‐CAD and the Unity
Movement during the 1940s and 1950s. We saw this biographic disavowal proclaimed in
Tabata’s correspondence with Mnguni, the editor of Inyaniso, as well as in his use of the
pseudonym for his published writing. Nevertheless, we also saw how the seeds of
Tabata’s individuation and biography were sewn by the acts of writing and authorship,
even when this occurred under pseudonyms. Later, when Tabata’s biography began to
take on an increasingly presidential character, his political activities were more and
more immersed in ongoing processes of narrative work. This biographic narration was a
form of representation that did not merely occur “after the event”, but within life itself,
creating an ongoing dynamic between life and narrative. 1 Here, we argue that the shift
from the code of collective leadership and selflessness to the politics of presidentialism
also emerged out of the lived relations of paternalism and patronage that characterised
Tabata’s political associations in the building of the political movement.
Paternalism and patronage also characterised Tabata’s correspondence with Mnguni
and Inyaniso in 1946. In the 1940s and 1950s, Tabata built up a network of activists in the
movement, particularly of young men, some of his own generation and others who were
younger. Most came from the eastern Cape and the Transkei, but there were also some
in other parts of the country, such as Johannesburg and Durban. This network
constituted his contacts and correspondents in different localities and in a variety of
structures such as voter associations, teacher associations, farmers associations, study
1 Stuart Hall (ed), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London: Sage
Publications, 1997), pp 5‐6. See also the discussion of biography and narrative in Chapter One.
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