of fellow Basotho during this era. It was also a great victory for the Russians, and informants wished to be associated with an event that reinforced their identity as champions of the Basotho and successful warriors. Philip Bonner notes a similar development in discussions of a 1940s clash between Basotho and Zulu in Benoni: “A host of other informants claim to have witnessed this latter episode. I am almost certain that for a number it was hearsay.”7
The collective memory phenomenon also emerges in the strikingly similar accounts of the Dube Hostel conflicts. Informants’ recitations of the beginning of the conflict in which a Russian named Malefane was castrated by Zulu men in the hostel’s shebeen has the feel of a story that has been many times in the telling. The same sort of mythologizing surfaced in testimony surrounding the famous leader Tseule Tsilo. Again, it is unlikely that all the men who claimed to have witnessed Tsilo’s feats and interacted with him could have done so. Rather than invalidating such testimony, these responses speak to the power of the myth of Tsilo. Once such developments are recognized, they can be used as windows to interpret the ideals and worldviews of informants instead of simply dismissing suspect statements and stories as falsehoods. As Allesandro Portelli argues, “Oral sources tell us not just what people did but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were doing, and what they now think they did.”8
Kathleen Blee’s experience gathering testimonies from former members of the Ku Klux Klan led her to consider how people from groups that have been publicly maligned consciously attempt to rehabilitate the group’s (and their individual) reputation during the interview process: “Meanings are created in social and political contexts; memory is not a solitary act. Thus it is not simply that narratives constructed by former Klan members to explain their role in one of history’s most vicious campaigns of intolerance and hatred are biased by their own political agendas and their desire to appear acceptable to an oral historian but also that informants’ memories have been shaped by subsequent public censure of this and later Klans.”9
Marashea informants are well aware of their public reputation as thugs and assassins, and some men went to great lengths to portray the Marashea, or at least their particular group, as a benign force that fought crime and dispensed justice in the townships and informal settlements. This was especially evident among active informants, who dismissed Marashea of the past as violent criminals. These men depicted the current Marashea as a business and mutual-aid association for migrant Basotho, denying that they or their fellow members engaged in criminal or other antisocial activities. To cite one example, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Russian leader BM denied that his group participated in the violent conflicts between Marashea and union supporters that took place in and around Harmony Gold Mine in 1990. When questioned, BM insisted that his followers had no stake in the conflict and that any Marashea who joined the fighting did so in their capacity as miners, not as Marashea.10 The testimony of active informants, who were unlikely to incriminate themselves and who had a more direct interest in the well-being and reputation of the current Marashea, has to be considered in this light. Sensitive information about the modern Marashea was more readily supplied by recently retired veterans who were active in the 1980s and 1990s. These men and women tended to be more candid and discussed aspects of their experiences that active Marashea were reluctant to divulge.
Retired informants’ reflections on their lives as Marashea differed. While a few women emphasized the excitement of being associated with the Russians, most spoke of the hardships and violence they endured. Some men expressed regret for the crimes they committed while others were boastful and unrepentant. The diversity of responses on many issues leads me to believe that the informants comprise a fairly representative cross-section of the Marashea, despite the underrepresentation of women and young, active male members.
Gathering oral testimonies from gang members who were regularly involved in criminal activities presented particular difficulties, the foremost being identifying informants and persuading them to participate in an interview. Second, because of the nature of their activities and the climate of repression that characterized their lives in South Africa, some informants were evasive or refused to discuss certain topics. I labor under no illusion that I have uncovered the definitive history of the Marashea. Many aspects of people’s lives as Marashea remain obscured for a host of reasons. The archival record is extremely limited in the scope and range of issues commented on and the collected testimony cannot possibly relate the entire story of the many thousands of people who have comprised the Marashea over the years. Perhaps most important, respondents revealed mere fractions of their experiences. Bearing these qualifications in mind, I believe this work provides an insight into the lives led by the women and men of the Marashea; the coping strategies they employed; the impact the association had in the townships, informal settlements, and mining hostels; and the autonomy that groups like the Marashea exercised within the structural constraints established by the apartheid state.
Acknowledgments
THIS BOOK WOULD NOT have materialized without the efforts of Tsepang Cekwane and Booi Mohapi. Along with conducting and transcribing interviews, Tsepang proved particularly adept at finding Marashea throughout Lesotho and in South African townships and informal settlements. His navigational skills saved me from getting lost more times than I can remember, and his enthusiasm for this project made him a pleasure to work with. We learned much about the Marashea together. Booi, assisted by his wife, Mampolokeng, completed a number of superb interviews. Teke Tseane lent valuable assistance at a time when interviews were hard to come by. Litabe Majoro, who studied the Marashea as a student at the National University of Lesotho, was kind enough to direct me to one of his informants and conduct an interview. The stories told by the men and women who related their lives as Marashea provide the foundation of this study.
Philip Bonner’s work inspired my research and, despite an extraordinarily demanding schedule, Phil generously gave his time, advice, and copies of interview transcripts. David Coplan also offered encouragement. I owe a special debt to Rosemary Burke, the Employment Bureau of Africa’s archivist. Rosemary helped me sift through files and took it upon herself to contact several people in the mining industry on my behalf. Kent McNamara graciously passed along numerous materials and discussed the Russians’ activities on the mines. I would like to express my appreciation to various staff at Harmony Gold Mine who took the time to speak with me. Thanks are due to Puseletso Salae, Raymond de Boiz, and Don Mattera, who all shared their experiences with the Marashea.
The research for this book was conducted while I was a visiting fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand’s now-defunct Institute for Advanced Social Research. I am grateful to Charles van Onselen and the IASR staff for hosting me at Wits. Barb and Herb Anstadt provided a home away from home in Johannesburg and have become our South African family.
At Dalhousie University, Jane Parpart and Phil Zachernuk nurtured the thesis that has eventually become a book. Their support, guidance, and friendship sustained me throughout my tenure as a graduate student. I thank them both.
Jean Allman’s patience in steering the manuscript through to publication is also greatly appreciated. I gratefully acknowledge funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for research in South Africa.
Finally, this book is dedicated, with all my love, to Theresa Ulicki.
Abbreviations
ANC—African National Congress
BCP—Basotho (Basutoland) Congress Party
BNP—Basotho (Basutoland) National Party
BOSS—Bureau of State Security
EPTC—Evaton People’s Transport Council
IFP—Inkatha Freedom Party
LLA—Lesotho Liberation Army
NP—National
