Tài liệu The Deaths of Hintsa docx

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Published by HSRC Press

Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000, South Africa

www.hsrcpress.ac.za

First published 2009

ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-7969-2233-5

ISBN (pdf) 978-0-7969-2248-9

© 2009 Human Sciences Research Council

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not necessarily

relect the views or policies of the Human Sciences Research Council (‘the Council’)

or indicate that the Council endorses the views of the author. In quoting from this publication,

readers are advised to attribute the source of the information to the individual author concerned

and not to the Council.

Copyedited by Lee Smith

Typeset by Baseline Publishing Services

Cover by FUEL Design

Cover illustration from The Death of Hintsa by Hilary Graham, reproduced with kind permission

of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown

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For Kiera, to account for the absence;

Jaymathie and Jayantilal Lalu;

and Hansa Lalloo

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vi

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List of illustrations viii

Acknowledgements x

Introduction: thinking ahead 1

1 Colonial modes of evidence and the grammar of domination 31

2 Mistaken identity 65

3 The properties of facts (or how to read with a grain of salt) 101

4 Reading ‘Xhosa’ historiography 141

5 The border and the body: post-phenomenological relections

on the borders of apartheid 191

6 History after apartheid 219

Conclusion 253

Notes 270

Bibliography and archival sources 309

Index 329

Contents

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List of illustrations

Figure 1 The cover of the Frederick I’Ons exhibition catalogue; there is little

clarity on whether the igure portrayed is Hintsa or Nqeno 71

Figure 2 Charles Michell’s cartographic representation of the landscape in

which Hintsa was killed, published in 1835 83

Figure 3 Flight of the Fingoes [sic], by Charles Michell, 1836 84

Figure 4 Warriors Fleeing Across a River/The Death of Hintsa, by

Frederick I’Ons. n.d. 90

Figure 5a Portrait of Hintsa, by Charles Michell, 1835 98

Figure 5b Portrait of Hintsa, by George Pemba, 1937 98

Figure 6 The tragic death of Hintsa, triptych by Hilary Graham,

1990 222–223

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ix

Ah, Britain! Great Britain!

Great Britain of the endless sunshine!

You sent us truth, denied us the truth;

You sent us life, deprived us of life;

You sent us light, we sit in the dark,

Shivering, benighted in the bright noonday sun.

SEK Mqhayi, on the visit of the Prince of Wales to

South Africa in 1925, translated by AC Jordan

History always tells how we die, never how we live.

Roland Barthes, Michelet, 104

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x

Perhaps the most daunting task in completing this book is to recall the

many people who have had to endure its long incubation. If I mention

them by name, it is not so that they may be reminded of their complicity

in The Deaths of Hintsa but to thank them for their generosity, insight,

friendship and love over the years. To them I attribute my long-held desire

to substitute a politics of despair with a politics of setting to work on

postcolonial futures.

My irst foray into writing this book began under the watchful

eye of Allen Isaacman and Jean Allman at the University of Minnesota,

as a graduate student in African History and as a recipient of a MacArthur

Fellowship grant. The more detailed study of the story of Hintsa was initially

submitted as a doctoral dissertation under the title ‘In the Event of History’

to the University of Minnesota in 2003. Thanks to Allen Isaacman, Director

of the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Change, I was granted

an opportunity to interact with a group of thought-provoking historians of

Africa including Maanda Mulaudzi, Peter Sekibakiba Lekgoathi, Marissa

Moorman, Jacob Tropp, Heidi Gengenbach, Derek Peterson, Ana Gomez,

Alda Saute, Helena Pohlandt McCormick and Jesse Buche.

While at the University of Minnesota, John Mowitt, Qadri Ismail,

Ajay Skaria, David Roediger, Lisa Disch and Bud Duvall provided many

new and exciting directions for developing my thoughts on colonialism,

apartheid and postapartheid South Africa. John Mowitt and Qadri Ismail

gave new meaning to the idea of academic exchange, with Qadri especially

responsible for teaching me a thing or two. The members of the postcolonial

reading group fostered friendships conducive to the exploration of ideas.

Monika Mehta (for teaching me how to cut), Andrew Kinkaid, Guang Lei,

Joel Wainwright and Adam Sitze (for teaching me how not to cut) have,

unbeknown to them, been present at every stage of the writing even as I

Acknowledgements

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xi

deposited myself far across the Atlantic Ocean in a little-known place called

the University of the Western Cape (UWC).

The History Department and the Centre for Humanities Research

(CHR) at UWC provided the most enabling environment for the development

of new ideas and critique. The staf and students of the History Department

ofered unconditional support for my research through the years. Leslie Witz,

Ciraj Rassool, Patricia Hayes, Nicky Rousseau, Brent Harris, Gary Minkley

(now at Fort Hare University) and Andrew Bank made a special efort to read

my work and comment on it. I hope this book is an acceptable response to

their many questions and queries, and that will be seen as a contribution

to the ongoing innovative research in UWC’s History Department. Thanks

are also due to Uma Mesthrie, Martin Legassick and Terri Barnes for

their encouragement over the years. The Centre for Humanities Research

South African Contemporary History and Humanities seminar provided a

privileged space for critical readings of my work. In the last years of writing,

I was encouraged by many irst-year and honours history students who

took the time to engage with the ideas of this book. I would like to single

out Riedwaan Moosagee, Thozama April, Vuyani Booi, Peter Jon Grove,

Noel Solani, Virgil Slade, Maurits van Bever Donker, Shanaaz Galant and

Khayalethu Mdudumane for their interest in my work and for journeying

with me to the site of Hintsa’s killing on the Nqabara River. The fellows

in the Programme on the Study of the Humanities in Africa (PSHA) at

UWC were a source of encouragement in pressing me to substantiate my

argument for the need for a subaltern studies in South Africa. I would like

to thank speciically Paolo Israel, Annachiara Forte, Jade Gibson, Heidi

Grunebaum, Crystal Jannecke, Rachelle Chadwick, Annette Hofman, Jill

Weintroub, Maurits van Bever Donker, Zulfa Abrahams, Mduduzi Xakaza,

Charles Kabwete, Lizzy Attree and Billiard Lishiko for their generosity and

friendship. Finally, Leslie Witz, Susan Newton-King and Andrew Bank

ofered to take over my teaching to enable me to retreat for a sabbatical to

Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where I put the inishing touches to

the book.

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xii

A fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Public Institutions

at Emory University provided the much-needed intellectual stimulus

for ine-tuning the formulations of the book. Ivan Karp and Cory Kratz

are responsible for more than they can imagine, including much of the

discussion on the discourse of anthropology in the eastern Cape. Both

ofered encouragement, support and unconditional friendship at a very

crucial time in the making of the book. Helen Mofett provided me with

signiicant editorial comment and engaged with the text during my

fellowship at Emory. I would also like to thank Durba Mitra, Sunandan

Nedumpaly, Ajit Chittambalam, Shailaja Paik and Swargajyoti Gohain who

invited me to be a participant in their Subaltern Studies class at Emory

University, and Clifton Crais and Pamela Scully for the many conversations.

The research for this book was supported by the National Research

Foundation-funded project on the Heritage Disciplines based at UWC. I

would like to thank Leslie Witz and Ciraj Rassool for inding a place for

my research in the overall project that they lead. The PSHA provided a

research platform for the development of the argument. Garry Rosenberg,

Utando Baduza, Mary Ralphs, Karen Bruns, Fairuz Parker and Lee Smith

at the HSRC Press gave me support and guidance in inalising this book. I

would also like to thank the many librarians and archivists both here and

in the United States for their generous assistance, especially Simphiwe

Yako, Graham Goddard and Mariki Victor (Mayibuye Centre, UWC);

Sandy Roweldt (formerly at the Cory Library and subsequently at the

African Studies Library at the University of Cape Town); Michelle Pickover

(William Cullen Church of the Province of SA Collection, University of

Witwatersrand); Zweli Vena, Victor Gacula and Sally Schramm (Cory

Library); friends at the District Six Museum and the staf at the Albany

Museum, Grahamstown, State Archives and Manuscripts Division; and the

South African Library in Cape Town (especially Najwa Hendrickse).

Early versions of Chapters 1 and 5 appeared in History and Theory, Vol.

39, No. 4, December 2000 and in the South African Historical Journal, 55,

2006 respectively. They are included with permission; and Hilary Graham,

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xiii

Bobo Pemba and the staf of the Albany Museum (History) granted me

permission to reproduce the images that appear in the book.

Friendship is the basis for all writing and hospitality, its condition.

Unfortunately, writing may also inlict untold damage on friendships.

Vivienne Lalu endured most of the fallout of this project. I am truly sorry

for the harm it has caused but would like to acknowledge her steadfast

commitment over the years. Others who graciously sufered my writing and

obsessions along the way include Ajay, Kilpena, Nikhil and Rahoul Lalu,

Ameet, Nital, Meha and Amisha Lalloo, Deepak, Primal, Natver and Badresh

Patel, Jim Johnson, Latha Varadarajan, Noeleen Murray, Nic Shepherd,

Abdullah Omar, William and Sophia Mentor, Manju Soni, Carolyn Hamilton,

Mxolisi Hintsa, Ramesh Bhikha, Dhiraj, Tara and Reshma Kassanjee, Ratilal,

Pushpa and Hansa Lalloo, Amy Bell-Mulaudzi, Suren Pillay, Kamal Bhagwan,

Saliem Patel, Fazel Ernest, Ruth Loewenthal and members of my extended

family. I am grateful for all they have done to support this book.

A book that is written over many years invariably leads to friendships

across continents and across urban and rural divides. Colleagues at the Basler

Afrika Bibliographien, Basel, Switzerland, especially Giorgio Miescher, Lorena

Rizzo, Patrick Harries and Dag Henrichson invited me to present some of the

arguments of the present book and encouraged me to think beyond borders

and boundaries. Similarly, I have made many friends in the Tsholora and

Mbhashe in the eastern Cape, amongst whom I wish to single out Kuzile Juza,

Sylvia Mahlala, Mda Mda, Nomathotho Njuqwana and Joe Savu. Mostly, the

residents who have won rights to the Dwesa Cwebe Reserve following a land

restitution process deserve my unconditional gratitude. I hope that our many

conversations, agreements and disagreements have helped to make sense of

the predicament of the rural eastern Cape.

This book is dedicated to Kiera Lalu. At the very least, I hope it

may serve to meaningfully account for my absence. As for answering her

searching question on whether this book will end up in a museum, we will

have to wait and see. It is also dedicated to Jaymathie Lalu, Hansa Lalloo, and

my father, Jayantilal Lalu, for all you have done and much, much more.

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xiv

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1

Two years inTo The TransiTion to democratic rule in South Africa, a

little-known healer–diviner, Nicholas Tilana Gcaleka, stumbled onto the

stage of history. On 29 February 1996, just over 160 years after the fateful

shooting of the Xhosa king, Hintsa, by British colonial forces on the banks of

the Nqabara River in the eastern Cape in southern Africa, local newspapers

reported widely on Nicholas Gcaleka’s return to South Africa with ‘Hintsa’s

skull’, which he had found in Scotland. Guided by a dream in which his

ancestors supposedly made an appearance in the form of a hurricane

spirit, Gcaleka had undertaken his mission with the hope that the return

of Hintsa’s skull would usher in an era of peace in a new democratic South

Africa. The rampant violence and corruption that plagued the new South

Africa, he proclaimed, was because the soul of Hintsa ‘was blowing all over

the world with no place to settle’.2

Judging from the responses to the alleged discovery of Hintsa’s skull,

it seemed highly unlikely that Gcaleka’s dream would be allowed to become a

reality. In newspaper accounts, some journalists used the opportunity ofered

by the supposed discovery of Hintsa’s skull to cast light on the demand

for the repatriation of bodily remains taken in the period of European

Introduction: thinking ahead

Wherever colonisation is a fact, the indigenous culture begins to rot and among

the ruins something begins to be born which is condemned to exist on the margin

allowed it by the European culture.1

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