Memory in haunted times: a roundtable discussion of Zulu love letter

Abstract

This roundtable is curation of broad-ranging and multidisciplinary reflections on the continuing relevance of Zulu Love Letter, fifteen years after its release. The connecting strand in all the reflections is how the film invites us to ponder on the enduring legacies and the disturbing specters of apartheid, especially in these tumultuous times characterized by all sorts of political, economic, gender, xenophobic and ableist violence. The recurring concern in all the contributions is how to make sense of these specters of apartheid that linger in the post-apartheid landscape. While some of the reflections in the roundtable show how Zulu Love Letter forces us to rethink our assumptions about reconciliation in South Africa, others point to the recalcitrant presence of the past inscribed on individual bodies and in rebellious mournings. Some reflections also touch on the cinematic qualities of the film in order to locate it within the genre of counter cinema, especially on account of its remarkable tendency to disrupt linearity. The copious use of flashbacks–or interludes–in the film helps to foreground the argument about haunting in post-apartheid South Africa. In all, we reflect on the making, reception, public life as well as the revived intellectual interest in the film. We note how, since the calls for fees must fall and decolonization, the film appears to be interpolated in inter-generational reassessments of the gains and losses of the post-apartheid period in South Africa.