Posted on October 27, 2010
For many years, the struggle for liberation was defined as a 'path' to freedom and the intersection of these paths was a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. Physically in the post apartheid state these are symbolised by luminaries such as Beyers Naude, Joe Slovo, Christ Hani and Nelson Mandela to mention but a few. Now, when one travels from the Union buildings in Pretoria (Tshwane) to the international airport, Mandela drive is the key road that leads one out of the city to towards Oliver Tambo International Airport. Many of us receive invitations to annual lectures delivered in honour of people such as Ruth First, Steve Biko or Chris Hani. We hear of the work done by foundations estabished to honour or continue the life's work of people such as Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada. Our bookshelves house publications that tell aspects of the life stories of people such as the Carnesons, Trevor Manuel, Thabo Mbeki or Ronnie Kasrils.
These names that mark the landscape of our national memory point in two different directions, the will to remember or commemorate, and the need to leave a legacy or make a mark. As we celebrate and honour those who won the battle to make the ideal of democracy a reality, we are directly and indirectly asserting their right to be remembered and acknowledged for their sacrifice and achievements in leading the struggle for liberation.
Operating in an international environment that did not understand the 'we' and valued individual acheivements, Oliver Tambo and the ANC in the 1970s took the decision to poppularise the campaign for the release of political prisoners by using the name of Nelson Mandela as a symbol of that struggle. The use of the Mandela name had to be carefully managed to avoid the 'cult of personality' in the liberation movement since this had might potentially reverse the organisation's long held philosophy of collectivism. Mandela's name and image were soon synonymous with the struggle for liberation, achieving iconic status internationally. When Mandela's autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" was published in 1994 it was received as an inspiring story of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, standing for the collective past.
Commenting on Mandela's acute awareness of his iconic status, Anthony Sampson writes, 'He guarded against the personality cult which bedevilled so many young African states; he was careful to avoid the word, 'I'.' (Anthony Sampson, Mandela the Authorised Biography, 1999, page 412). Like Mandela, Thabo Mbeki resisted what he referred to as the 'noxious phenomenon of the personality cult', positioning himself as a servant of the organisation (see Thabo Mbeki's letter of 31 October 2008 to Jacob Zuma)
It should be stated that the concept of 'we' rather than 'I' seeks to preserve the memory of the national democratic struggle rather than a memory of an individual who may be infalible and when analysed may be found to have too many shortcommings that may have a negative impact on the morality of the liberation struggle. By focusing on the 'we' the aim is to focus people's memories on the ideals of the liberation struggle and what it sought to achieve. Thus Maurice Halbwachs would write, 'we preserve memories of each epoch in our lives, and these are continualy reproduced; through them, as by a continual relationship, a sense of our identity is perpertuated.' (Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory: The Heritage of Sociology).
The bourgeoning of auto/biographies in the 1990s were often about, rather than by the individuals whose stories were told. In the same era, leaders, national and local, were acknowledged through a frenzy of renaming of municipalities, hospitals, schools, public buildings, stadiums, airports, roads, public facilities and institutions that carry the name of one or other struggle stalwarts, but not their memories.
It is this desire to reflect on ourselves and remember our past achievements that we engage in various forms of memory work. The recent upsurge in initiatives commemorating individual achievements through annual lectures, it could be argued, is one of the ways in which society wishes to reflect on itself through looking at others. The establishment of foundations, it could also be argued is the result of a similar push to ensure that a diversity of voices and multiple projects that are advanced for the same goal as was done through the multiple organisations that pushed for a non-racial society. The question that we might to ask is whether these intiatives are a welcome breath of fresh air in the current socio-political climate, or whether they advance factional battles and/or individual agendas?
Whatever our answers may be, the new initiatives lay claim to memory space, and have the potential to open up the business of memory by broadening, deepening and enriching the narrative of our times and fulfilling a historical mission.
Jo-Anne Duggan is Director of the Archival Platform. Noel Solani, of the Nelson Mandela Museum is a member of the Archival Platform Steering Committee
