Human history has been shaped by processes of asking questions, and historical imagery, visions of cultural history that connected the past and present are essential elements for recollection of erased and censored memories.
The central node of my broader investigation into the disappearance of Boikie “Majestic” Tlhapi is predicated therefore on finding a conciliatory closure for family members, but also for the community that shaped his political awareness.
As a narrative vessel, Tlhapi’s life is a reminder that in order for transparency to take the fore society need effectively respond to complex and evolving questions of his death. As a filmmaker it has been an awakening journey of an inclusive discourse that I am to foster regarding the untruths and erasures of people in the not so distant past of white supremacist oppression of black people in South Africa.
Deeply rooted in memory and history, offering a powerful and experimental approach that encourages reflection on significant yet under-explored social histories, this article speaks against historical cliches that contuse contemporary perspectives of the past, deforming and reforming them for subaltern purposes of censor and erasure.
Ikageng is a place dense with often tragic stories and the story of Boikie Tlhapi, an activist who was “disappeared” by apartheid police, is indeed a sore spot for many people within the community, over and above his death - death as exile without return - that continues to haunt the family.
There is now an inquest opened through The Foundation For Human rights, which aims to uncover the culprits in the deaths and disappearances f over 20 activists. This process has also affected certain processes regarding the research and development of the documentary.
The identified protagonist, Mr. George Mbathu has now been summonsed to appear in court by the NPA, and the court hearing are scheduled for April. He will stand together with Mr. Johan Venter, a former Station Commander who miraculously is still alive and residing in Potchefstroom.
And as the family anticipates recalling and speaking about the gruelling memory of their kin’s death, they have now requested that the director wait until the court case is underway, thus allowing for the film to follow the actual process of prosecuting suspects and finding compensation for the families concerned.
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Boike’s life undeniably survived shifting political conditions marked by cycles of blatant brutality by the apartheid police force, persecution, collapse of familial unions and the disintegration of social structures. He witnessed the hard hand of supremacy slap the wits from his parents, and as an avid scholar and reader, his plight he saw mirrored in many literary works of revolutionary thinkers who continue to inspire the activists of today.
It is this light that I, Paul Khahliso Matela Zisiwe, propose an annual Boikie Tlhapi Memorial Lecture to be held in Ikageng, to commemorate the man’s spirit and intellectual propensity which fuelled his revolutionary ideologies and political acumen. This lecture will trace the loss, trauma and recovery of our collective memory of the stalwart.
As a curious storyteller whose practice investigates material histories, socio-political and psychological issues, my research methodology to tell the story of Boikie Tlhapi entailed alternative forms of documentation (phone cameras, voice recorders and digital cameras) that highlight often-overlooked narratives surrounding places and objects, giving space to concealed voices and knowledge.
Re-assembling various documentaries in their style, the process itself reconfigures elements of the research into different modes of storytelling. Despite grappling with vast archives and narratives that reveal the complex pasts of political injustices, the research sparks urgent conversations about loss and displacement in black historical heritage while giving space to voices that often go unheard.
Taking the interviews conducted, their stories prompt reflection on historical omissions, collective memory and shape contemporary dialogue on how we can redress the past from a contemporary vantage point of socialised racism and endemic denial of white privilege by perpetrator of atrocities against black communities.
Two years of research, carried out in close collaboration with the family and close relatives and Boikie’s peers, has allowed for the production of a short documentary film, questioning the institutionalized narratives of South Africas historiography, particularly those concerning its past characterised by apartheid and racist policies, placing Boikie the activist as an emblem of resilience in the face of brutal white supremacy.
Therefore, the feature documentary film envisioned after the completion of the research and development phase is dedicated to the people who perished in their attempts to fight oppression in search of freedom. It composes its melody of memories with a series of intimate narratives from those who lived along the fallen heroes, leaving lasting emotional traces.
And knowing how memory shapes not only (national) identities but also our understanding of history itself, it becomes incumbent to engage with painful remnants of the past navigating the interplay between those erased personal and collective identities.
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Foregrounding personal narratives and memories, this researched filmic project became an ongoing exploration of Boikie’s multifaceted life, blurring the boundaries between documentary and experimental film through the use of abstract and poetic overlays.
With interviews, one tends to negotiate unresolvable differences that seem endless without miniaturizing the psychic magnitude of the pain of loss, traversing psychic boundaries that limit the movement of ideas about the past and its effects on the present. The film is therefore another in the growing oeuvre of documentary films that question validity of histories and the lived experiences of black people under apartheid rule.
Together, these pieces form a rich and layered portrait of a young man who had secret political ideological leaning, involved in clandestine activities about which not even his closest kin were privy.
Was his garment construction business a decoy or a gesture of dissidence, driven by a refusal to accept the given political realities of dependence on white colonial masters?
Boikie is an epitome of a very deeply disciplined ideologue, from the reverent vein of Pan-Africanist political worldview, emboldened by an immense integrity and loyalty in covert situation. And trait this is proven true in fact by being the only one who dies on the day of the arrest.
And the circumstances as revealed through various voices, sets disappearance as a condition to reconsider the identity and beckons us to question how can we reimagine and critically investigate our current situations or positions to construct and manifest new approaches to resistance.
The presence of his absence is felt intimately by Boikie’s now ailing mother, who over the years has partially lost her hearing and speech, thus rendering her mute to even voice her discontent with the dragging saga of justice for bis murdered son. Therefore, the purpose of this research documentary film is to celebrate the man and his legacy that has yet to be brought to the fore, grounded on the fertile soil of Tlokwe’s valleys deeply intertwined with his personal and political life.
Boikie’s political and activist identity oscillates between hyper-presence and invisibility even today, when perceived from a lens of self-enrichment that is rampant among former comrades, and by exploring the landscape of his demise, we can locate our growing anxieties of crises within a world where colonial and political legacies are fused with the consciousness of our current moment and past events that are hidden beneath rock and sheets of dust.
Through Boikie’s story, whispers of lives caught in the dark and their refusal to settle, calls out from disappeared souls, guiding us toward our dim, shadowy collective conscience.
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