The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

as a public organisation” from 1960 to 1985. 132 In an explanatory pamphlet released by
APDUSA (Natal) on the nature of the organisation, APDUSA was also given a very
particular history, which suggested that APDUSA had been “forced to end its activities”
by late 1963. In the early 1970s, there had been an attempt “to revive the organisation”
which had “failed” due to multiple arrests and detentions. 133 APDUSA (Natal) also
started a publishing programme, and sought to republish key historical texts that had
emanated from the Unity Movement fold. In 1986, it brought out a new edition of
Nosipho Majeke’s The Rôle of the Missionaries in Conquest, accompanied by a short
biographical article about Dora Taylor, and her use of the pen name. This was published
as part of a deliberate publishing programme called the “Unity Movement History
Series”. 134
There was a definite biographical element in this conception of the history of the Unity
Movement, one that sought an inclusive, reassembled approach to its ancestry and
legacy of leaders, and that ensured that no individual leader or elder would be singled
out for special veneration. This was biography as lesson, and not as a project of
presidentialism and political authority. Tabata, Goolam Gool, Kies, Jane Gool, Fataar,
Jayiya, Honono and Dudley were listed together in a reconciliatory approach as
“political giants of the liberatory movement” and as “members of the star‐studded
leadership of the Unity Movement”. 135 I.B. Tabata was not accorded any special status,
nor was any presidential position recognised. Instead, he was accorded a place
alongside other leaders of different factions, and was thus reincorporated into a
legendary collective leadership. In addition, the youth journal Ikhwezi explored the
132 ‘The New Unity Movement: What it Stands for’ (NUM Information sheet, 16 May 1990).
133 African People’s Democratic Union of Southern Africa (Natal), ‘What is APDUSA?’ (n.d.).
134 Nosipho Majeke (Dora Taylor), The Rôle of the Missionaries in Conquest, Cumberwood: APDUSA
(Natal), 1986.
135 APDUSA Views, April 1989 (Special Issue: A Tribute to Leo Sihlali), p 11. This increased attention to
biography is also apparent in the special anniversary bulletin issued in 1993 to commemorate the “50 th
year of struggle”. See Anniversary Bulletin: Unity Movement, 1943‐1993 – 50 th Year of Struggle (Cape Town
1993).
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