Lindiwe Myeza: Unfreezing the walking voice

Christina Landman

Research Institute for Theology and Religion, University of South Africa, Pretoria

ABSTRACT

Lindiwe Myeza walks with stories. These include stories about working hand in hand with the great Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist Beyers Naudé and caring spiritually and practically for the youth after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. The most powerful stories relate to the literacy training Myeza conducted to teach the illiterate to read and write and understand their own human dignity. These stories are told here through the changing lenses and shifting identities that are common to oral history. Therefore, this raises the question of how, methodologically, these "walking voices can be frozen into a story that deals respectfully with the interviewee and her past. Three methodological approaches are employed, which are mutually inclusive. Firstly, ownership of the story is given to the interviewee on the grounds of the indigenous knowledge she presents in her stories and in terms of the vulnerability she displays in revealing her life story. Secondly, contextual and cultural bridging is achieved by being sensitive to the social location of both the interviewer and the interviewee. Finally, the story is moved towards the healing of society.

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Works consulted

Published material

Denis, Philippe & Ntsimande, Radikobo (eds) 2008. Oral history in a wounded country. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications.         [ Links ]

Grele, Ronald [1975] 1985. Envelopes of sound: the art of oral history. Chicago, Illinois: Precedent Publishing.

Institute for Justice and Reconciliation 2009. Making apartheid history: an oral history resource guide. Cape Town.         [ Links ]

Interviews

Lindiwe Myeza, 12 January and 18 August 2012.         [ Links ]

Mandla Makhanya, 5 June 2012.         [ Links ]

Veronica McKay, 7 June 2012.         [ Links ]

Elizabeth Mokotong, 7 June 2012.         [ Links ]

Simangaliso Kumalo, 19 June 2012.         [ Links ]