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FORGETTING APARTHEID: HISTORY, CULTURE AND THE BODY OF A NUN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2016

Leslie J. Bank  and
Benedict Carton
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Abstract

In 1952, the African National Congress (ANC) initiated its Defiance Campaign, opposing apartheid laws through organized civil disobedience and African nationalism. On Sunday 9 November, the city of East London became a site of political mobilization when 1,500 Xhosa-speaking ANC sympathizers peacefully protested in Bantu Square, the hub of a township named Duncan Village. Police arrived and fired on the crowd, igniting ‘spontaneous riots’. An Afrikaner salesman and an Irish nun were killed in the ensuing unrest. Rumours circulated that a mob ate the white woman; troop reinforcements then fanned into the township to wage a retaliatory war, shooting and bayoneting their victims. Upwards of 200 Africans may have died but only nine fatalities were recorded. If the revised toll is credible, the bloodshed exceeds that of Sharpeville, the worst one-day massacre in apartheid South Africa. Oral sources explain why the slaughter in Duncan Village is not widely known. Township residents secretly carted the dead to rural graves, fearing to report their losses as people mourned the tragic slaying of the nun named Sister Aidan. Today, ANC rulers of East London seem content to silence the memory of a mass killing reputedly spawned by chaos and cannibalism. At the centre of this incident is Sr Aidan's mutilation for the purpose of making muthi, a shocking incident that dominates the story of violence on Black Sunday. Using archival documents and oral histories, and incorporating the methodologies of Jennifer Cole, Donald Donham and Veena Das, this article reconstructs a narrative of ‘critical events’ surrounding the nun's muthi murder. The scrutinized witness testimonies relay how township residents framed their fierce encounters with a symbolic (white person) and ubiquitous (militarized police) enemy. Oral sources reject the notion that an aimless ‘riot’ occurred on 9 November. Instead, they reflect on cultural enactments of purposeful violence through scripted assaults and muthi ritual. Ultimately, they view the fatal attack on Sr Aidan as an evolving customary act of defensive retribution and symbolic warning, submerging truths in apartheid and hindering reconciliations in democracy.

Résumé

En 1952, l'ANC (African National Congress) lançait sa campagne de défiance (Defiance Campaign) contre les lois d'apartheid à travers un mouvement de désobéissance civile organisée et de nationalisme africain. Le dimanche 9 novembre, la ville d'East London devint un lieu de mobilisation politique lorsque 1 500 sympathisants de l'ANC, de langue xhosa, organisèrent une manifestation pacifique à Bantu Square, au cœur de la township Duncan Village. Arrivée sur les lieux, la police a tiré sur la foule, déclenchant des « émeutes spontanées ». Un vendeur afrikaner et une religieuse irlandaise furent tués lors des troubles qui suivirent. Des rumeurs ont alors circulé selon lesquelles la femme blanche avait été mangée par des émeutiers ; des renforts de troupes déployés sur toute la township se livrèrent à des opérations de représailles, faisant des victimes à coup de fusil et de baïonnette. Jusqu'à 200 Africains ont pu avoir péri, mais seuls neuf décès furent officiellement enregistrés. Si l'on s'en tient au bilan révisé, ce massacre excède celui de Sharpeville, le pire qu'ait connu en une journée l'Afrique du Sud sous l'apartheid. Des sources orales expliquent pourquoi le carnage de Duncan Village n'est pas bien connu. Les résidents de cette township ont enterré les morts dans le secret à l'extérieur de la ville, craignant de déclarer leurs défunts alors que l'on pleurait la mort de Sœur Aidan, la religieuse tragiquement assassinée. Aujourd'hui, les membres de l'ANC qui dirigent East London semblent se contenter de garder le silence sur la mémoire d'un massacre que l'on dit engendré par le chaos et le cannibalisme. Cet incident a pour élément central la mutilation de Sœur Aidan aux fins de pratiquer le muthi, un incident choquant qui domine l'histoire de la violence du Black Sunday. Cet article, en se servant de documents d'archives et d'histoires orales, et en intégrant les méthodologies de Jennifer Cole, Donald Donham et Veena Das, reconstruit un récit d'« événements critiques » qui ont entouré le meurtre muthi de la religieuse. L'examen minutieux des témoignages révèle comment les résidents de la township expriment leurs ardents démêlés avec un ennemi symbolique (personne blanche) et omniprésent (police armée). Des sources orales rejettent la notion d'une « émeute » sans but ce 9 novembre. Elles songent au contraire à des expressions culturelles d'une violence intentionnelle à travers des attaques scénarisées et le rituel du muthi. En définitive, elles considèrent l'attaque mortelle contre Sœur Aidan comme un acte coutumier évolutif de châtiment défensif et d'avertissement symbolique, immergeant la vérité dans les profondeurs de l'apartheid et entravant la réconciliation en démocratie.

Type
Writing and Forgetting History
Information
Africa , Volume 86 , Issue 3 , August 2016 , pp. 472 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2016 

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