The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

There are biographic exposés of Winnie Madikizela Mandela (as she became known
after her divorce), which attempt to trace her ‘descent’ into becoming “an apologist
for some of the worst excesses of black South Africa’s armed struggle”, 11 or which
implicate her in the murder or attempted murder of political activists, thus casting
doubt over her biographic status as “mother of the nation”. 12 Another example of
this kind of biography is the study of Mao’s life by Zhisui Li. 13 In this book the
author, who had been Maoʹs personal physician for 22 years, revealed details about
Maoʹs unhygienic personal habits as well as his supposed ravenous sexual appetite
that led to the seduction of “thousands” of peasant women out of a belief in the
“mystical healing power” of sex. 14
In the public domain, the field of biography continues to throw up contests over the
historical facts of lives, and over the truths of their chronological narratives. The death of
Laurens van der Post, “African explorer, … celebrity guru”, and “philosopher‐in‐
attendance to Britain’s political governors and cadet royalty” saw the “whistle … blown
on his career” 15 in a biography, 16 which ironically had been commissioned by the Van
11 Emma Gilbey, The Lady: The Life and Times of Winnie Mandela, London: Vintage, 1994, back cover.
12 Fred Bridgland, Katiza’s Journey: Beneath the Surface of South Africa’s Shame (Sidgwick & Jackson,
London; AMP‐PVD, Wilrijk, 1997). This is a biography of Katiza Cebukhulu, an alleged member of
the Mandela Football Club, as told to Bridgland, a narrative about Katiza’s journey from being
taken from poverty and crime into Winnie Madikizela Mandela’s patronage, only to find himself
witnessing her alleged murder of youth activist Stompie Sepei. Cebukhulu had been Madikizela‐
Mandela’s co‐accused in her kidnapping trial of Sepei, but had disappeared on the eve of the court
proceedings. After claiming that he had been abducted by the ANC to prevent him from testifying,
he was found in a Zambian jail by British former Liberal Party MP, Emma Nicholson, under
whose protection he went into hiding under an assumed name. It is interesting to note that
Nicholson wrote the foreword to Bridgland’s book. However, see the website , representing a loose network of Afrocentric thinkers, for whom Bridgland’s
book represents an example of the character assassination of “Brothers and Sisters past, present
and future, who have dedicated their lives to our struggle for liberation”. The representatives of
Globalafrica bemoan having to “endure the indignity of watching almost helplessly, as our
greatest heroes are vilified and crucified in the Global European (White) media” (). For a discussion of the ‘fall’ of Winnie Madikizela Mandela in
relation to the narrations of Nelson Mandela’s biography, see Chapter Four.
13 Zhisui Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, London: Arrow, 1996. This book claims that historian
Hugh Trevor‐Roper has described its author as “the Tacitus of modern China”.
14 Zhisui Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, dust cover.
15 Stephen Gray, ‘A dithering fibber’, in Mail and Guardian, 16‐22 November 2001; Tom Lodge, ‘Van
der Post – adventurer, hero, Jungian – and a nasty piece of work’, in Sunday Independent, 14
October 2001.
55