Truth or lies? selective memories, imagings, and representations of chief albert john luthuli in recent political discourses

History and Theory

Volumn 39, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 69-85

  Sithole, Jabulani ^a   Mkhize, Sibongiseni ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34248095865     PISSN: 00182656     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/0018-2656.00146     Document Type: Review

References (58)

1. R. Cook, "Awake, the Beloved Country: A Comparative Perspective on the Visionary Leadership of Martin Luther King Junior and Albert Luthuli," South African Historical Journal 36 (May 1997), 113-135
2. And G. Pillay, Voices of Liberation-Albert Luthuli, Volume 1 (Pretoria, 1993)
3. Only Maré's and Hamilton's 1987 work on Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Inkatha has analyzed how Inkatha used Luthuli to further its political objectives. G. Maré and G. Hamilton, An Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and South Africa (Johannesburg, 1987), 41, and 137-139
4. T. A. Nuttall and K. Luckett, "Teaching and Learning History as an Academic Discourse," South African Historical Journal 33 (November 1995), 94-95
5. We draw insights for this article from biographies and autobiographies of the leaders of the ANC, SACP, and Inkatha. The first is the biography of Moses Kotane, the longest-serving general secretary of the SACP. It was written by Brian Bunting, a member of the SACP's Central Committee (B. Bunting, Moses Kotane: South African Revolutionary, A Political Biography [London, 1975])
6. The second set of sources are the biographies of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Chief Minister of the KwaZulu bantustan and the president of the homeland-based movement, Inkatha, since 1975. They are Ben Temkin, Gatsha Buthelezi-Zulu Statesman: A Biography (Cape Town, 1976)
7. Wessel De Kock, Usuthu! Ciy Peace! Inkatha and the Fight for a Just South Africa (Cape Town, 1986)
8. And J. S. Smith, Buthelezi: The Biography (Melville, S.A., 1988)
9. The third is a critical biography of Buthelezi that was written by a member of the ANC named Mzala (Mzala, Gatsha Buthelezi: Chief with a Double Agenda [London and Atlantic Highlands, N.J., 1988])
10. The fourth is Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Boston, 1994)
11. which he co-authored with Richard Stengel of Time magazine. It was published within the context of negotiations over the future of South Africa. Finally, we will take a look at Joe Slovo's posthumously published autobiography, Slovo: The Unfinished Autobiography (London, 1995)
12. We contrast the representations of Luthuli made in these biographies with the self-made images which emerged in his autobiography in 1961 (A. J. Lutuli, Let My People Go: The Autobiography of the Great South African Leader [Glasgow, 1961 ], 139). Luthuli wrote this autobiography with the help of a priest named Charles Hooper and his wife Sheila Hooper, who had undertaken to be his amanuenses. It was published in the context of growing government repression, which was characterized by the banning of the ANC and SACP, and against the background of the award of the Peace Prize to Luthuli
13. P. Rule et al., Nokukhanya: Mother of Light (Braamfontein, 1993), 143
14. Reports of General van den Bergh's press release, Ilanga (12 August 1967)
15. Document 122, "Chief Albert Lutuli: A Tribute to the Late President General of the African National Congress," in South African Communists Speak (London, 1981), 357-362.
16. For more on this, see "Report of the Trial of Dr. Pascal Ngakane," Contact (July 1962)
17. De Kock, Usuthu!, 72
18. And V. Shubin, ANC: A View From Moscow (Bellville, S.A., 1999), 17-53
19. For examples of the debate, see Document 24, "Wreckers at Work," Editorial of Liberation (18 April 1956), in South Africa's Radical Tradition: A Documentary History, Volume Two 1934-1964, ed. A. Drew (Cape Town, 1997), 124-130
20. And David Evans, "Liberal Leader Jordan Ngubane," Contact (28 January 1961).
21. Van den Bergh's press release, Ilanga (12 August 1967). Document 122, "Chief Albert Lutuli: A Tribute," in South African Communists Speak, 361.
22. See Ilanga (19 August 1967)
23. "Chief Albert Lutuli: A Tribute," in South African Communists Speak, 360
24. A. Lerumo, Fifty Fighting Years: The Communist Party of South Africa [1971] (London, 1987)
25. Bunting, Moses Kotane, 268-269.
26. Mare and Hamilton, An Appetite for Power, chapter 2
27. D. Golan, "Inkatha and its Use of the Zulu Past," History in Africa 18 (1991), 113-136
28. And P. Forsyth, "The Past in the Service of the Present: The Political Use of History by Chief M. G. Buthelezi, 1951-1991," South African Historical Journal 26 (1992), 74-92
29. Forsyth, "The Past in the Service of the Present," 75.
30. Maré and Hamilton, An Appetite for Power, 137.
31. From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882-1990, ed. Thomas Karis and Gail M. Gerhart, 5 vols. (Stanford, 1972), V, 257
32. And see Smith, Buthelezi: The Biography, 121 and 126.
33. Mzala, Gatsha Buthelezi, 81, 86-87.
34. Karis and Gerhart, ed. , From Protest to Challenge, V, 255
35. O. R. Tambo, "Buthelezi and Inkatha," in Preparing for Power: Tambo Speaks, ed. A. Tambo (London, 1987), 146
36. Karis and Gerhart, ed. , From Protest to Challenge, V, 271
37. Sunday Tribune (4 November 1979)
38. And Natal Mercury (5 November 1979)
39. th Freedom Day Meeting," Sechaba (September 1980), 6
40. And Karis and Gerhart, ed. , From Protest to Challenge, V, 274
41. Reports in Ilanga (2-4 September 1982)
42. Ilanga (2-4 September 1982)
43. And Buthelezi, "Address at a Prayer Meeting," Groutville, 29 August 1982
44. Star (16 September 1982)
45. Forsyth, "The Past in the Service of the Present," 87.
46. Mare and Hamilton, An Appetite for Power, 138.
47. O. Dhlomo, "Inkatha and the ANC," Leadership South Africa 3, no. 1 (1984), 47
48. Buthelezi, "Interview with Murray," Leadership South Africa 4, no. 4 (1985), 26.
49. Smith, Buthelezi, 113
50. De Kock, Usuthu!, 41
51. Smith, Buthelezi, 47
52. Mzala, Gatsha Buthelezi, 65-66.
53. Luthuli, Let My People Go, chapter 19
54. Rule et al. , Nokukhanya, 131-133
55. "Lutuli Speaks," http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/lutuli
56. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 125.
57. Slovo, Slovo: The Unfinished Autobiography, 147.
58. Smith, Buthelezi, 113-119.