Biography (with autobiography) has become the most popular type of non-fiction in South Africa, but the recent expansion of works has not inspired commentary. Here we describe four 'constellations' of biographies: political biographies of the individual-as-leader; social history biographies of the individual-as-exemplar; literary biographies of the individual-as-ve...

Washington Okumu (1936-2016) is now largely forgotten, but he had had a burst of fame as the mediator that brought the Inkatha Freedom Party back into South Africa's democratic elections of 1994. This article concerns his professional life until 1988. In addition to reconstructing his life, it comments on the awkward challenges of this biography. Interviews with Ok...