One King, two burials: The politics of funerals in South Africa's Transkei
Date
1990-10
Authors
Dennie, Garrey
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Abstract
King Sabata Jonguhlanga Dalindyebo, deposed Paramount Chief
of the Thembus, was buried twice. The first interment took place
on 20th April 1986; the second took place on 1st October, 1989.
The first interment was secretive, hasty and without salute - a
pauper's burial. The second was a visible organisation of grief,
a public performance, highly orchestrated, and supremely lavish -
a king's burial. The first interment attracted minimal media
comment; the second was a well chronicled affair receiving
significant attention from both the local and international media. This paper represents some musings upon the contrasting
burials of Chief Sabata Dalindyebo. Its primary aims are to
explore the kinds of contests which produced the different burial
rituals, [or lack thereof] and to subject the rituals themselves
to closer examination in a search for their meanings. The most
crucial argument advanced in this paper is that the struggles
which surrounded the control of the burials of the Thembu King
were urgent attempts to appropriate the dead body in a bid to
inscribe and to re-write specific political messages on the
corpse, and to erase others. Furthermore, the burial of
Dalindyebo provided a powerful platform from which these messages
could be disseminated to a larger audience.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented October, 1990
Keywords
Burial. South Africa, South Africa. Politics and government. 1978-1989