The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

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on charismatic leaders and dramatic events, while elements of working class, women’s and local histories are forced to the margins of the landscape. 94 Sites and institutions associated with the life and career of Martin Luther King, Jr have been given the most prominent place in the Civil Rights memorial landscape. From Atlanta, where he was born and where he ministered and Birmingham where he conducted a campaign against segregation in 1963 to Selma, where he led the Voting Rights March in 1965 and Memphis, where he was assassinated in 1968, King’s biography has been imprinted on the landscape of memory. In addition, civic infrastructure across the United States has been named in King’s honour and a national holiday marking his birthday has been inaugurated. According to Dwyer, this emphasis on “the primacy of the individual leader” was also gendered. King was often pictured alongside his male lieutenants, such as Abernathy, Young and Jackson, and little mention was made of his female advisors, such as Septima Clark and Ella Baker. Indeed the predominance of women in staffing and organising the civil rights movement and major campaigns, that has received some attention in recent scholarship, has not been reflected in the memorial landscape. Women instead, are “cast as local actors, whereas men are national and international ones”, creating notions that “an elite and mostly male leadership won civil rights at a national scale”, and that women, “while not invisible, are thoroughly localised and led”. 95 The ‘Great Man’ approach to the public history of the civil rights movement has not been without contest in the practice of memory work. At the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama has been a leading site at which hegemonic narrations of the civil rights movement have been contested. In its exhibition about the campaigns in Birmingham, biographic attention has been shifted away from King to Fred Shuttlesworth, the leader of the local organisation. The exhibition focuses on Shuttlesworth’s disagreement with King over the objectives of demonstrations, 94 Owen J Dwyer, ‘Interpreting the Civil Rights Movement: Place, Memory, and Conflict’, pp 160‐ 163. 95 Owen J Dwyer, ‘Interpreting the Civil Rights Movement’, pp 663‐664. 85
suggesting that use was merely made of King’s “star power” to draw international and national attention. While the lustre of Martin Luther King Jr might not have shone as brightly at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, this contest of biography was still located within a paradigm that focused on leadership, albeit between local and national ‘stages’. This approach was also one that portrayed the movement as “a series of key moments … under the orchestration of charismatic leaders” in an overarching teleological narrative of inevitable “regional transformation undertaken at seemingly preordained locales”. In response to criticism from local activists, the exhibition was extended to include the “mundane heroics” of the “footsoldiers of the movement”, with visitors able to access interviews with local activists in an oral history archive through interactive workstations. In addition, former local activists volunteer as exhibition guides enabling the emphasis on the “sweeping and fabulous” and the ‘Great Man’ to be further contested. 96 But the main site for commemorating “the places where Martin Luther King, Jr was born, lived, worked, worshipped and is buried”, established by Congress in 1980, is the King National Historic Site in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn, “the heart of Atlanta’s black community in the 1930s”. The national historic site, which is adjacent to the preservation district, has incorporated the Martin Luther King Jr Birth Home, restored to recreate “the childhood years of Sweet Auburn’s most famous resident”, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church, “important to the King family for four generations”. Tours of the site are conducted by the National Park Service, whose Visitor Centre on Auburn Avenue has exhibitions on King’s life and legacy in the Civil Rights struggle, a video programme and a programme of volunteer assistance to “meet and greet visitors from all over the nation and the world”, and to “help maintain archival records and artefacts”. 97 This is a site of commemoration, not criticism, dedicated to turning King’s ideas, “vision” and example into a heroic national legacy of teachings on civil rights activism and anti‐racist values. 96 Owen J Dwyer, ‘Interpreting the Civil Rights Movement’, pp 663‐666. 97 Martin Luther King, Jr National Historic Site, ‘I Have a Dream’ (Brochure and Map, 1997); ‘Capture the Dream’ (Brochure, n.d.); ‘Volunteers in Park Program’ (Pamphlet, n.d.). 86
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The Individual, Auto/biography and
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation
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committee members selected me to ta
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements
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Authorship, individuation and the b
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ABBREVIATIONS AAC All‐African Con
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INTRODUCTION The research for this
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transformation in the Eastern Cape?
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South African society provided the
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manifest dishonesty. Through a case
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genealogy of biographic mediation w
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tribute to Tabata that Taylor const
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CHAPTER ONE AUTO/BIOGRAPHY, NARRATI
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self‐constitution and the “styl
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intercourse entailed in this metaph
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1930s, with decreasing institutiona
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psychological characteristics” wh
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entextualised in diverse ways”, c
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While all mankind may be the subjec
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life’ and career as the focus hav
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development, a “narrative of inte
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denies the centrality of the subjec
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story, creating a ‘transferential
Page 47 and 48: een backward‐looking. Their commu
Page 49 and 50: [w]e need to attend to the historic
Page 51 and 52: enacted, lived in particular conjun
Page 53 and 54: ‘representivity’ would constitu
Page 55 and 56: through particular enunciative stra
Page 57 and 58: ones. 114 Modernity gave rise to li
Page 59 and 60: These, in turn, have a profound eff
Page 61 and 62: are also to be found in the ‘stor
Page 63 and 64: historian, personal and political,
Page 65 and 66: sites of the ‘memorial complex’
Page 67 and 68: These biographies of ‘great polit
Page 69 and 70: der Post family. 17 Even Bertolt Br
Page 71 and 72: While the limitations of Jones’ b
Page 73 and 74: and work had emphasised the serious
Page 75 and 76: accused Mother Teresa of promulgati
Page 77 and 78: Mother Teresa, “hoping some of he
Page 79 and 80: sainthood”, the amount of miracle
Page 81 and 82: This biographic world of saint vene
Page 83 and 84: dared to be that person”. She “
Page 85 and 86: and popular circuits of exchange an
Page 87 and 88: institutions that make up the exhib
Page 89 and 90: participation in annual heroic comm
Page 91 and 92: Biographic memorial productions hav
Page 93 and 94: myths, while radio and television p
Page 95 and 96: the monument was removed during the
Page 97: about the past, as “political eli
Page 101 and 102: and “The Annual Salute to Greatne
Page 103 and 104: the use of his image”. 106 Moreov
Page 105 and 106: In this radical biographic interpre
Page 107 and 108: In addition to this standard biogra
Page 109 and 110: National Civil Rights Museum in Mem
Page 111 and 112: Although Mao’s image had been use
Page 113 and 114: more varied … [and] far more exci
Page 115 and 116: esistance hero in general, of hope
Page 117 and 118: issues about image‐making and aut
Page 119 and 120: Lumumba who could stand in oppositi
Page 121 and 122: CHAPTER THREE RESISTANCE STUDIES AN
Page 123 and 124: in “a wide range of inventive pol
Page 125 and 126: marginalised, grassroots people [an
Page 127 and 128: Since the 1970s, the terrain of res
Page 129 and 130: In an obvious sense, these studies
Page 131 and 132: Under the conditions of deepening r
Page 133 and 134: Crucially, this feature found expre
Page 135 and 136: established through his professiona
Page 137 and 138: scepticism, 35 the use of this noti
Page 139 and 140: “glimpse into the inner mind of o
Page 141 and 142: Higgs and Steven Gish also followed
Page 143 and 144: understand the background, politica
Page 145 and 146: national and land questions” conc
Page 147 and 148: Higgs’ study was largely a chrono
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South Africans to protest against t
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In these traditional ‘masculinist
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1980s in South African scholarship,
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academic institutions involved in t
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struggles over municipal controls d
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that during the 1950s, a period see
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away from biographic images of cons
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orthography with “self‐appointe
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middle section had vacillated. Anot
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Biography has also been a vehicle f
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After collecting oral testimony fro
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and ‘jumping the fence’ led to
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whose value depended on their accur
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(probably Nkadimeng) in a resettlem
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determine the voice and style in wh
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memory into a written academic prod
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Biography for social history was a
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esistance history sought to provide
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and La Hausse were completed by sch
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consciousness, conversations, and/o
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A foray into biography in the work
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ceased to be the major site for the
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study did not go far enough in the
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continued political role”. It was
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In exploring these issues of image,
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While Clingman’s study has posed
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state they contested”, as the col
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focusing on the creation of systems
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and survival against the onslaught
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and reconciliation in South Africa.
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accustomed to clear hierarchies bet
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South African public history. This
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unifier and a liberator of the mind
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these ways, the Mayibuye Centre was
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together, these booklets attempted
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Biography also provided the basis o
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As part of these transformations, M
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leader, Bill Andrews. 58 Written fr
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It is this biographic impetus which
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the post‐apartheid present, and t
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Ngcelwane, whose family had had bee
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of softnesses and roughnesses” of
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extended to other arenas of public
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These images of the Business Day re
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once stood in central Pretoria, was
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declared a national monument on 12
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University’s Mark Haywood felt th
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Ministry of Water Affairs and Fores
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to the present. This project would
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was missed to develop a complex her
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contemplation and celebration were
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Morris Isaacson High School, Regina
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The Museum was really inaugurated,
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through biographic presentation. Bu
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2003. Thabo Mbeki expressed the poi
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In contrast, Ronnie Kasrils, Modise
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narratives and moral trajectories o
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visual terms as part of a president
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especially one who had been a long
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applications had to make a biograph
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In April 2003, the Nelson Mandela F
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ooklet was organised as a chronolog
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single sitting”. 191 However, it
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In 1999, Anthony Sampson, who had b
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eating breakfast and even shaving a
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(Mandela’s birth place), on the b
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“triumph of the human spirit”,
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sought to contest the tendency for
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deepening in Robben Island’s cult
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follow the advice of Anthony Sampso
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was asked to speak about the accuse
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new conditions of exile was the con
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importance of relations of cultural
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construction of Nelson Mandela has
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iography in public and commercial s
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artist, Jacob Khumalo, who had exhi
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epresentatives on the Nelson Mandel
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eliance, self‐respect and self‐
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PART TWO BEYOND MODERNIST HISTORY:
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marginality. Among the materials in
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Gradually, in drips and drabs, the
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While Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape
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for the field of political biograph
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microfilm collection contained a su
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and Karis may have received from Ta
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and reserve dwellers, arguing that
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Indeed, in this genealogy, the most
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and was conducted as part of a wide
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In making these assessments, Hirson
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policy that had envisaged redivided
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formation of APDUSA in January 1961
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“effectively … smashed within t
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opportunities that presented themse
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and verbal performances, which have
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political leadership was exercised
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CHAPTER SIX FROM COLLECTIVE LEADERS
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special protest meetings in convene
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upture was coming to a head, when h
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principles”. 18 Another aspect of
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included on the back cover of such
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political training did not take pla
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pertinent to the themes of this cha
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cause, rather than the leader”. T
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341
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343
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345
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347
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asic passport‐type pen picture sa
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their prominent placement in public
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353
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of individualised leadership may ha
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political positions which rejected
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interesting that Taylor’s first w
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handwriting, which had been prepare
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ehabilitation. 96 This did not stop
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ooted in the past”, he suggested,
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During 1949 and 1950, amid mounting
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“colour and strength” were impo
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Elsewhere on the left, Tabata’s b
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occurred in which Tabata was subjec
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Tabata, as an individual, bore a po
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making them “more careful about w
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teachers qualified to speak on matt
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Education for Barbarism marked Taba
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fulfil the same function” as ‘T
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state of anonymity to their true st
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of persecution and state harassment
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While Tabata’s presidency may hav
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final choice between the subterfuge
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circulated as the embodiment of its
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CHAPTER SEVEN DORA TAYLOR AND THE N
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Soon after Tabata arrived in Cape T
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historical understandings, Taylor
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was “tolerably easy”. In fact,
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her text had been “written in its
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the eastern Cape about which she wr
Page 421 and 422:
While she was writing The Rôle of
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out of the strains and pressures of
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who were involved in the movement c
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moved into Gool’s newly rented ho
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off by expressing his “envy” of
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They had a full life and she a full
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emotional and sexual desires as the
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Fashioning Tabata’s biography Vir
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continued to rework and re‐edit T
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us”. Goolam Gool, he had argued,
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political practice”. Tabata assur
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Nine that the AAC and Unity Movemen
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authored pamphlets aimed at “clar
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production of I.B. Tabata made a mi
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political work in the movement, in
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political leadership. By that time,
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unleashing different forms of biogr
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their political exchanges. 9 Later,
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where “fierce debates and discuss
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education as well as mechanisms of
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identification”. This identity cl
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need for leadership”. Tabata invi
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Likewise, concepts of strategic val
Page 467 and 468:
was also invited to join along with
Page 469 and 470:
fundamental and genuine manner and
Page 471 and 472:
them. Sihlali’s presidentship of
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expressed had been “essentially h
Page 475 and 476:
By the 1950s, increased internal bl
Page 477 and 478:
way of their own greatness?” 76 A
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“suspended” from the movement,
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Thereafter, Alexander and his comra
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“mounting to a climax”. Jane Go
Page 485 and 486:
From around 1960, leaders of the Un
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The movement’s ‘architect’ al
Page 489 and 490:
with the other liberation movements
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The ADC was a means of Tabata “ri
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ureaucratic abuse and of trying to
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econstituted APDUSA represented an
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NUM. They found instead a hostility
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significance of deceased ‘heroes
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A man … surrounded by a sea of pe
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and Alie and Ursula Fataar had assi
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491
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in “his contribution” to the li
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Almost unexpectedly, at his funeral
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497
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community of Lesseyton interred one
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The final entry of Tabata’s body
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heritage sites and collections. I w
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discovered heritage constructions o
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national heritage, even when those
Page 523 and 524:
elevant information from my researc
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disrespectful. And the fact that th
Page 527 and 528:
what I offer here is more than a st
Page 529 and 530:
(e) Central Archives Depot, Pretori
Page 531 and 532:
Ilizwi leSizwe, Vol. 1, No 2, 18 Oc
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(b) Other Videos Hell’s Angel: Mo
Page 535 and 536:
(f) CD‐Roms Nelson Mandela: The s
Page 537 and 538:
Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museu
Page 539 and 540:
7. INTERVIEWS AND RECORDINGS OF SPE
Page 541 and 542:
William Beinart and Colin Bundy, Hi
Page 543 and 544:
Stephen Clingman, The Novels of Nad
Page 545 and 546:
Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Tra
Page 547 and 548:
Dominic LaCapra, Writing History, W
Page 549 and 550:
David Morley and Ken Worpole (eds),
Page 551 and 552:
James D Sexton (ed), Son of Tecum U
Page 553 and 554:
Susan G Wynne (Compiler), South Afr
Page 555 and 556:
Elizabeth S Cohen, ‘Court Testimo
Page 557 and 558:
Brian Elliot, ‘Biography, Family
Page 559 and 560:
Baruch Hirson, ‘Ruth Schechter: F
Page 561 and 562:
Desiree Lewis, ‘Winnie Mandela: T
Page 563 and 564:
Bill Nasson, ‘A Sharecropper’s
Page 565 and 566:
Hilary Sapire, ‘African Political
Page 567 and 568:
Dora Taylor, ‘They Speak of Afric
Page 569 and 570:
Kwame Anthony Appiah, ‘Cosmopolit
Page 571 and 572:
Twentieth Century’, Paper present
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