A Select Bibliography of South African Autobiography (original) (raw)
Related papers
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Politikon, 2019
Drawing on my experience of writing an account of Chota Motala, a Pietermaritzburg-based medical doctor and anti-apartheid activist, this article considers some of the historiographical and methodological challenges of writing biography in general, and South African political biographies in particular. On a general level, this includes whether biography is 'inferior' history, an 'illusion', and whether it can be written in a linear manner. Specific to my study, this article considers the theoretical and contextual issues relating to South African political biography; the role of the sources in shaping the narrative; the subjective process of writing a biography; and the variance in interpreting the character of Motala and his contribution in the political sphere.
African Studies Biography in post-apartheid South Africa: A call for awkwardness
African Studies, 2019
Biography (with autobiography) has become the most popular type of non-fiction in South Africa, but the recent expansion of works has not inspired commentary. Here we describe four ‘constellations’ of biographies: political biographies of the individual-as-leader; social history biographies of the individual-as-exemplar; literary biographies of the individual-as-vessel-of-self; and critical studies biographies of the individual-as-fragmented-subject. Reviewing the politics of biography in South Africa and the nature of the project, we conclude that biography is an inescapably awkward enterprise, because of the intimate and fraught politics between author and subject, author and sources about the subject’s internal life, and author and audiences. Together with the authors in this Special Issue, we hold that it is generative to face the inevitable difficulties of biography and that it is not a failing to expose them to view.
PhD Thesis in full, 2002
This thesis is about understanding social change and the role of, and influence upon, agency in ‘making history’. In which an overview of the contemporary South African liberation struggle, and the first term of the African National Congress (ANC) government between 1994 and 1999, is juxtaposed with primary life history data of a group of former Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) activists, elected to government in 1994. It examines and analyses what their political participation means in practice and how this affects them and the inter-dependent interaction between individuals and the organisations of which they are members. The comprehension of these relationships, the basic ingredients of which are structural explanation and intentional understanding are situated in the debates around structure and agency and their inter-relationship. Drawing on ‘Marxist’ epistemology it shows how notions of class, conflict, exploitation etc facilitates an understanding of these relationships and the concomitant social relations. As agency and political ideas are an irreducible element of social change, these concepts, taken together with an historical outline of the ANC and the political beliefs that inform activists, aid our understanding of how structure and agency interacts and relates to activists experiences. Drawing on primary interviews, it also compares their experiences with that of more critical and contemporary COSATU activists, to establish if and how they differ and if the activists, turned politicians, have changed their views and ideas from those they were associated with before they went into government. In the process, it shows how these activists have come a long way in terms of what they have experienced and their political and ideological development – that in ‘making history’ they have changed in the process. It shows how they became organised and ideologically committed activists shaped to varying degrees by the mix of nationalist and socialist ideas and rhetoric, reflecting the politics of the ANC leadership and the constituent parts of its multi-class organisation, and how this continues to influence their political development.
2016
Introduction 1 Chapter One: Theoretical and methodological frameworks in knowledge production 25 This study, therefore, asks the following questions, among others: to what extent have different political systems given Matiwane's voice a 'platform' or silenced him, and why? Are there continuities or discontinuities in his representation? Are there trends in Matiwane's representation compared to the narratives of his contemporaries? What are the underlying reasons behind such trends, if any? What were the ambiguities embedded in their struggles? This analysis is applied to the material and collections held by the family, state archives and D.C.O. Matiwane Museum and Memorial Park. The last two are more 8 On the issues of biography and archives, see John Randolph, 'On the Biography of the Bakunin Family Archive', in A Burton (ed.
A History of the Present A Biography of Indian South Africans, 1994–2018
Oxford University Press, 2019
Through the long 20th century, Indian South Africans lived under the whip of settler colonialism and white minority rule, which saw the passing of a slew of legislation that circumscribed their freedom of movement, threatened repatriation, and denied them citizenship, all the while herding them into racially segregated townships. This volume chronicles the broad outlines of this history. Taking the story into the present, it provides an analysis of how they have responded to changes wrought by the remarkable collapse of apartheid and the first democratic elections in 1994. Drawing upon archival records, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, this book examines the ways in which Indian South Africans define themselves and the world around them, and how they are defined by others. It tells of the incredible journey of Indian South Africans, many of whom are of the fourth and fifth generation, towards being recognized as citizens in the land of their birth and how, while often attracted by and seeking to explore their roots in India, they continue to dig deeper roots on African soil.