Blaming the Believers? Counter-Narratives of the Marikana Massacre (2012) and the Cattle Killings (1856–1857)

The article suggests that forms of resistance may be so deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of collective actors that these are silent or unrecognizable at face value. Drawing upon selections of interviews in Marikana where 34 mineworkers were killed by the police on 16 August 2012 and my biographical project about Ayanda Mabulu, a controversial South African artist from the former Ciskei (who is deeply enmeshed in the oral traditions embodied in the “believers” of Nongqawuse), this article demonstrates the insidious way in which blame is cast onto those who have been defined as “black” or “native” people. In each case, those resisting were deemed irrational and driven by a need for self-destruction, even suicide. Similar to the dominant story of the maligned Xhosa teenage prophetess, Nongqawuse, who had a vision in April 1856 that the dead would arise and chase white people into the sea thus liberating the Xhosa from colonial power, the post-apartheid state arguably blames the people who resist and allegedly seek too much, too soon. The article suggests that the failure to gaze at the cattle killings through the eyes of the believers in Nongqawuse is equivalent to counting on the narratives of the state to explain the Marikana massacre.