WARS OF RESISTANCE AGAINST COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM’ IN LIMPOPO PROVINCE

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! » 

CONTEXTUALIZATION

Introduction and rationale of the thesis Today Sekhukhune, Makhado, Ngungunhane, Malebogo, Makgoba and Mokopane are readily recalled as important figures of Limpopo Province‘s past history. They have become part of the province‘s collective memory. Through the Mandela government‘s legacy project that began in 1996, a select group of individual kings became recognized as historically significant and intrinsic to a conception of provincial/national identity. Their associative monumental imagery is essential to what Tony Bennett describes as ―nationing history‖ and ―historicizing the nation.‖ By the end of 2006 either figurative or abstract monuments to each of these heroic pantheons were visible at various places in the Limpopo province.
In 2004 the Limpopo Provincial Government appropriated a sum of R6m to erect monuments in the province to the following kings: Sekhukhune, Makhado, Ngungunhane, Malebogo, Mokopane and Makgoba. These were subsequently known as the Warrior Kings Monuments (WKM). The provincial Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC) through its heritage sub-directorate was empowered to select sites, commission sculptors to design and carry out the work, supervise the monuments‘ construction and finally the formal dedication of each monument. The DSAC and its team approached sculptors Harry Johnson, Phil Minnaar and André Otto on the basis of the sculptors‘ previous work to design and construct the monuments. Despite its cost, pre-eminent locations and to some extent high artistic merits, the WKM have not been, until now, the subject of a detailed investigation.
This thesis will examine the WKM by reconstructing the aesthetic, cultural and political contexts in which they were created. This study draws out the war discourses hidden inside the monuments‘ material resources and written inscriptions, describing and analysing the communicative resources used in the monument construction in order to reveal the discourses, hidden within them. Using the monuments in Limpopo, this thesis explores the multiple ways by which sculpture was appropriated in the construction of a new public historical consciousness in the years following the first democratic elections in South Africa.
The thesis will also raise questions about some inherent tensions that accompanied the project. The location (space) of monuments in Limpopo Province is not only a place of social public action; it has to be analysed also as a territory of groups. Limpopo‘s monuments to the kings are visible markings of such collectively stressed territory, according to the imagination of nationalistic ideology, that a territory specifically belongs to a certain ethnical group: the term ―public space‖ is connected with questions of affiliation and ̳othering‘. By all indications, these are political representations and staging in the area that belongs traditionally to the repertoire of (re)presentations of political power. Monuments, like road and place names, as well as ―political‖ or ―heroes‖ squares are important because they are in principle the most durable media of identity-political markings of public areas.
The main function of these markings is the manifestation and/or production of wanted forms of collective memory by material inscriptions into public space, the manufacturing of ―collective identity‖ and the marking of collectively claimed territory. The thesis will also examine commemorations and commemorative meanings in Limpopo Province. Christian Tileaga concedes that there is a struggle over what is the nature of the ̳object of commemoration‘ and meaning that is ascribed to it for and in the name of the ̳nation‘ and collective memory. 10 Commemoration as such has much to do with the field of preservation, especially the historic preservation of war ̳artefacts‘ in line with the ̳Wars of Resistance against Colonialism and Imperialism‘ theme. Diane Barthel points out that, ―[I]f war is politics continued by other means, preservation is also politics continued by other means. These ̳means‘ also revolve around the act of commemoration‖. Barthel perceives the act of commemoration as significantly important for a society, especially since war calls for sacrifice in the interest of the nation or its people.
Therefore, the commemoration of such sacrifices is meant to encourage future sacrifices to be made when the nation‘s leaders call for it in the interest of national survival and patriotism. With the above exposition in mind, speeches of the Premier of the Limpopo Province and others at the time of commemorations will also be analysed. Images of the past and recollected knowledge of the past (events) are conveyed and sustained within ritual performance of commemorative speeches. Commemorative political speeches are seen as being essential in bringing collective norms and values to a wider audience. The focus is on commemorative political speeches, commemorative addresses in particular. Such addresses are usually characterized as representative and epideictic (meant for effect or display).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• FOREWORD
• ABSTRACT
  CHAPTER ONE: CONTEXTUALIZATION
  • 1.1 Introduction and rationale of the thesis
  • 1.2 Relationship between liberation struggles and commemorations
  • 1.3 Monuments as social representations of Limpopo Province‘s history
  • 1.4 Constructing collective memory in Limpopo Province
  • 1.5 Context
  • 1.6 Aims and objectives
  • 1.7 Theoretical framework and methodology
  • 1.8 Literature review
  • 1.9 Chapter breakdown
• CHAPTER TWO: CONCEPTUALIZING WARRIOR KINGS COMMEMORATIVE MONUMENTS IN LIMPOPO PROVINCE
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Conceptualisation of the project
  • 2.3 Fields of memory: burial grounds or battlefields
  • 2.4 Sculpting
  • 2.5 Early challenges confronting the Project Team
  • 2.6 Symbolism
• CHAPTER THREE: ‘WARS OF RESISTANCE AGAINST COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM’ IN LIMPOPO PROVINCE – A COLLECTIVE?
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Kings and the ̳wars of resistance‘:
    • 3.2.1 Kgoši Mokopane
    • 3.2.2 Kgošikgolo Sekhukhune
    • 3.2.3 Khosikhulu Makhado
    • 3.2.4 Kgoši Makgoba
    • 3.2.5 Hosinkulu Ngungunhane
    • 3.2.6 Kgoši Malebogo
  • 3.3 The collective and the need for a memory
• CHAPTER FOUR: SCULPTURAL IMAGES OF THE WARRIOR KINGS MONUMENTS – AN ANALYSIS OF THE SCULPTORS’ DESIGNS
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Designs
  • 4.3 Positioning
  • 4.4 Location
  • 4.5 Warrior kings statues
    • 4.5.1 Kgošikgolo Sekhukhune‘s statue
    • 4.5.2 Khosikhulu Makhado‘s statue
    • 4.5.3 Kgoši Malebogo‘s statue
    • 4.5.4 Hosinkulu Ngungunhane‘s statue
    • 4.5.5 Kgoši Mokopane‘s memorial tombstone
    • 4.5.6 Kgoši Makgoba‘s statue
  • 4.6 The Ubuntu Memorial Monument
  • 4.7 Functions and form
• CHAPTER FIVE: ‘WARS OF RESISTANCE AGAINST COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM’ IN LIMPOPO PROVINCE – COLLECTIVE MEMORY OR SHARED EXPERIENCES?
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Constituting collective memories and shared experiences
  • 5.3 Collective inscriptions of shared experiences
  • 5.4 Political iconography in Limpopo Province
• CHAPTER SIX: UNVEILING AND DEDICATION OF WARRIOR KINGS MONUMENTS
  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 Timing of the commemorations
  • 6.3 Unveiling and dedication as political ritual
  • 6.4 Premier Sello Moloto‘s commemorative speeches as epideictic addresses
    • 6.4.1 Background to Premier Moloto‘s addresses
    • 6.4.2 Finding an acceptable perspective
    • 6.4.3 The speeches
    • 6.4.3.1 Speech during unveiling of Kgošikgolo Sekhukhune‘s statue
    • 6.4.3.2 Speech during unveiling of Khosikhulu Makhado‘s statue
    • 6.4.3.3 Speech during unveiling of Kgoši Malebogo‘s statue
    • 6.4.4 Analysis of the speeches
    • 6.4.4.1 Discussion
    • 6.4.4.2 Excerpts from the speeches
  • 6.5 Commemorative ceremonies
• CHAPTER SEVEN: FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION
  • SOURCES

GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT