The Lessons of Propaganda: The Role of the Film Kalushi in (Re)Writing the Legacy of Solomon Mahlangu

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on one particularly striking example of the opportunities and dangers of using propaganda to narrate the armed struggle against apartheid: the feature film Kalushi, which dramatically depicts the life and death of the young Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. If Thabo Rametsi, acting as the protagonist, insists that Kalushi ought to be understood as a piece of propaganda, we should take him at his word. It is enough that he says so. Therefore, the question is simply: is the film effective? I have chosen to utilise short (anonymised) quotations from a dozen student essays as a ‘source’ for analysing the film. Written in fulfilment of the requirements for an introductory course on African History, these student essays are useful precisely because they are not written by experts. That is, when responding to Kalushi, the students are reacting to its storytelling, soundtrack, costumes, and so on – all of the basic tools for presenting propaganda through cinema. Analysing these essays in conjunction with scholarly books and articles on Mahlangu, this article engages Rametsi’s notions of positive propaganda as a provocation, raising a series of legitimate questions.