Reciting Performative Memories: Spectral Photography at the Ntaba kaNdoda Monument and Mountain

Abstract

Abstract This article engages with the haunting experiences associated with the Ntaba kaNdoda monument, not as a re-enactment to recreate past events, but as an exercise in critical visual arts intervention. It further unpacks notions of memory and performative memorialisation in the former Ciskei. Ntaba kaNdoda is associated with Dr Lennox L. W. Sebe, former president of the Ciskei, who remains a figure in post-apartheid South Africa. This article is also a response to this majestic monument—its visual representation and its materiality—which enabled a particular performativity throughout my work. As part of my practice I recite performative memories at an abandoned monument, retracing and recalling overlaid memories through commemorative re-enactment. Mechtild Widrich's conception of performative monuments, Lucy Lippard's sense of place, and Pierre Nora's lieux de mémoire and milieux de mémoire inform the theoretical rationale of this article, expanding my research interest in the Ntaba kaNdoda memorial. I urge for a visual art practice that looks at the past to make sense of the present. I emphasise the importance of understanding how one encounters a commemorative marker such as the Ntaba kaNdoda monument when considering future memorials, especially when we engage with post-colonial commemorative markers, places, and photographic material.