Dialogues of Memory, Heritage and Transformation: Re-membering Contested Identities and Spaces in Postcolonial South African and Zimbabwean White Writings

Abstract

The protean and contested symbols of Zimbabwean literature remain the land and invented heroes, including a hagiographic iconisation of shrines, best seen in the Zimbabwe ruins, the Zimbabwe Bird and the national heroes’ acre. In South African white writings, the symbolic topos has been dominated by prison walls, the hangman’s noose, Robben Island and, in the post-apartheid era, Saartjie Baartman and the imagined rainbow generated through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The horrors of apartheid are ideographically embodied in Coetzee’s tongueless protagonist, Foe. In both locales, white writings – fictive renditions and auto/biographical – have invited critically legitimated constructs of coherence. This article contends that answers to our present postcolonial crises inhere in the multiplicity of voices, not monological narratives. Diversity, and therefore polyphony, is valued for its ability to suggest multiple ways of seeing and belonging to national imaginaries; its ability to suggest answers to the postcolonial problematic related to memory, heritage and transformation. This article explores how the meanings of cultural objects often display shifting appropriations that garner either symbolic or ephemeral qualities, demonstrating the ability of those in power at different historical junctures to determine and confer minted meanings. In turn, this anxiety and re-membering of space and symbol has a bearing on ownership claims, and gives rise to a choreographed heritage discourse.

Opsomming

Die simbole van die Zimbabwese literatuur, alhoewel dikwels bevraagteken, is steeds dié van fantasie helde, insluitend oordrewe  ikonisering van monumente, soos gesien kan word in die Zimbabwe ruïnes, die Zimbabwe Voël asook die nasionale helde akker. In Suid-Afrikaanse wit literatuur, word die simboliese onderwerpe gedomineer deur tronkmure, die galg, Robben Eiland en in die  post-apartheid era is dit Saartjie Baartman en die voorgestelde reënboognasie, uitgedink deur die Waarheids- en Versoeningskommissie (WVK). Die gruweldade van apartheid word ideologies begrond in Coetzee se tonglose karakter, Foe. In beide lokale, wit literatuurstukke – fiktiewe en outo/biografiese weergawes – is kritiese, regmatige, samebindende konstrukte teenwooordig. Hierdie artikel beveg die antwoorde vir ons huidige post-koloniale krises, bevat in veelvoudige stemme en nie narratiewe as monoloë nie. Diversiteit, en daarom ook polyfonie, is waardevol ten opsigte van die vermoë om veelvoudige maniere aan te beveel om uitkyke oor “behoort aan”, sowel as “nasionale drome” aan te spreek; die vermoë om antwoorde ten opsigte van die problematiese post-koloniale geheue, erfenis en transformasie voor te stel. Hierdie artikel ondersoek verder die betekenis van kulturele simbole, wat dikwels die veranderde aannames van kultuurobjekte ten toon stel, met soms vervlietende kwaliteite, wat demonstreer hoe mense in magsposisies verskillende historiese tydperke gebruik om betekenisse te bepaal en bespreek. Hierdie angstige her-onthou van spasie en simboliek beïnvloed hoe eienaarskap beleef word en veroorsaak ‘n diskoers oor erfenis.