Commemorating and Forgetting: Challenges for the New South Africa

Acknowledgments

The ideas that eventually led me to write this book began to take shape in the immediatepost-1994period,whentheoutcomeofthenegotiatedsettlement that brought an end to apartheid was far from certain. In earlier research and writing, I focused on the wars of maneuver and wars of position that accompanied the popular struggles against white minority rule and the final days of apartheid. The historical specificity of the end of apartheid and the transition to parliamentary democracy was that this political transformation was brought about by a negotiated settlement between two contending social forces that in neither case was able to keep its “side” in line with what each was willing to compromise in order to resolve the political impasse. In writing this book, I wanted to move away from a more formulaic, conventional treatment of the political transition that would assess the strengths and weaknesses of the democratic turn in the “new South Africa.” I decided instead to approach this highly volatile and unstable situation from a wholly different angle of vision. I was intrigued that political transitions typically mark a rather distinct break or rupture from the past, yet at the same time what came before is not so easily discarded, erased, and overcome. The spatial legacies of white minority rule remained deeply embedded in the social fabric of everyday life. I was also struck by the way that specific places (metaphorically, at least) seem to gather around themselves shared remembrances of events (and the persons who participated in them) drawn from the past. Put another way, I was fascinated by how sites of memory become acknowledgments 219 220 acknowledgments vehicles for always remembering and never forgetting. Collective memories of the past seem to linger on, mutating and adapting to new circumstances. This book was written in fits and starts over many years. I first began to visit the sites of memory that I describe in this book in 1998, when I held a temporary two-month position as senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Beginning in 1999, I helped to organize three Overseas Study Groups for Colgate University. The traveling associated with these Study Groups provided me with a great opportunity to visit, and revisit, various sites of memory scattered around South Africa. During this time, I accumulated a great many debts to individuals and institutions. At every juncture, I was assisted by local scholars, curators, and friendswhosegenerositymadethisbookpossible.Forsharinginsights,knowledge , resources, and hospitality, I would like to thank many people. In Cape Town, Keith Sparks and Clive Newman were invaluable in arranging places to visit. Ciraj Rassool and Leslie Witz provided useful insights at early stages of writing. Curators at the District Six Museum stand out for their dedication and commitment to the shared memory of a place erased under apartheidrule .InJohannesburg,PhilipHarrison,AlanMabin,CynthiaKros,Marie Huchzermeyer,ClaireBénit-Gbaffau,Mfaniseni(Fana)Sihlongonyane,Sarah Charlton,andMargotRubinofferedmuch-appreciatedassistanceandfriendship .Asalways,PatrickBondofferedaccommodationonnumerousoccasions. Loren Landau, Caroline Kihato, and Doug Tilton have been great traveling companions, who shared with humor and wit their insights into the curiosities of South Africa. I have benefited from the stimulating conversations with my colleagues at the University of Michigan, who are spread across such diverse fields as sociology, African studies, architecture, and urban planning. From the start, I recognized the importance of photographs in helping to visualize the places that I have described in words. I thank Niel Chen, Liz Ogbu, Antoinette Engel, Pierre-Jean Durieu, Joe Levy, Edward Schonsett, William Cobane, Sabine Marschall, Nicolas Brulliard, Wilma Cruise, and Adam Cruise for allowing me to use their photographs. Yet I have not relied on photographic images alone. I personally visited every major site of memory that I write about in this book. I selected photographs that I believe both help the reader visualize what I present in the text and contribute to an understanding of how shared memories are inscribed in place. acknowledgments 221 I thank Pieter Martin, my editor at the University of Minnesota Press, who encouraged me to submit the manuscript and made very helpful suggestions for reshaping and revising it. I acknowledge those at the University of Minnesota Press who provided technical support. Kristian Tvedten, editorial assistant at the Press, was incredibly generous with his time and energy in taking charge (at literally the last minute) of locating and obtaining permission to reprint many of the photographs in the book. I also thank one anonymous reader for the Press and...