Every memorial involves revision. Here in South Africa, the celebration of ten years of democracy has been the occasion for an orgy of historical reconstruction. The state-run SABC has been running documentaries on the history of political parties, for instance. It’s a telling of history from the corridors of power that hears the protests and resistance in fields and townships only as a distant murmur. Through the echo chamber of decontextualised parliamentary politics, the legitimacy of the SA government itself is being peddled in these cosy misrememberings. As a friend said yesterday, “think about any of the number of things that people did to free Mandela. Everyone did something, a strike, a march, a walkout, something. Now they’re being told that Mandela freed them. This isn’t history. It’s theft.