Reprisals of modernity in black South African 'mission' writing

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 267-285

  Attwell, David ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0005832689     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/030570799108696     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. Ilanga Lase Natal, 26 February 1904, p. 4.
2. Revelation, 6: 5-8.
3. Ilanga, p. 4.
4. Following Hayden White's description of the genres of historical writing, Leon de Kock uses this phrase to describe the eschatology of the Stewart regime at Lovedale in the mid-Victorian period. L. De Kock, Civilising Barbarians: Missionary Narrative and African Textual Response in Nineteenth Century South Africa (Johannesburg and Alice, University of the Witwatersrand and Lovedale Press, 1996), pp. 64-104.
5. I refer here to Marks's analysis of Dube and A.W.G. Champion in The Ambiguities of Dependence in South Africa: Class, Nationalism and the State in Twentieth-century Natal (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1986) and La Hausse's work on 'second tier' Natal politicians, in P. La Hausse de Lalouvière, 'Ethnicity and History in the Careers of Two Zulu Nationalists: Petros Lamula (c. 1881-1948) and Lymon Maling (c. 1889-1936)', (PhD Dissertation University of the Witwatersrand, 1992).
6. I refer here to Marks's analysis of Dube and A.W.G. Champion in The Ambiguities of Dependence in South Africa: Class, Nationalism and the State in Twentieth-century Natal (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1986) and La Hausse's work on 'second tier' Natal politicians, in P. La Hausse de Lalouvière, 'Ethnicity and History in the Careers of Two Zulu Nationalists: Petros Lamula (c. 1881-1948) and Lymon Maling (c. 1889-1936)', (PhD Dissertation University of the Witwatersrand, 1992).
7. J. Hodgson, 'The Writings of a Young African Elite in the mid-190th Century: the Letters and Essays of Children of African Chiefs at Zonnebloem College', as cited in L. White and T. Couzens, 'Introduction', in L. White and T. Couzens (eds), Literature and Society in South Africa (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1984), p. 18.
8. Quoted in T. Couzens, 'Widening Horizons of African Literature: 1870-1900', in White and Couzens, Literature and Society, p. 73.
9. Isabel Hofmeyr points out to me that some of the missionary influence would have been quite ardently counter-modern. The libertarian undercurrent of Soga's lyric suggests that this was possible even amongst the Lovedale Calvinists. A test case for the Catholic influence would be B.W. Vilakazi, a product of Marianhill. Vilakazi (together with H.I.E. Dhlomo) will be the subject of another essay.
10. Although the term is used by historians to refer specifically to the products of Natal missions (who provided the nucleus for the emergence of Zulu nationalism) the essential features of what La Hausse calls the 'kholwa world view' of the nineteenth century seem relevant to mission products elsewhere in South Africa in the period. These features are a 'rhetorical attachment to the belief in "progress" and "improvement"', 'the belief in the practical efficacy of Christianity', 'the importance of unencumbered access to freehold land ownership and its commercial exploitation', and 'the right to legal and political equality in common with other colonial subjects of Queen Victoria'. Sec P. La Hausse de Lalouvière, 'Ethnicity and History', pp. 6-7. Within this typical outlook there were, of course, personal, regional and generational differences, and by the 1940s H.I.E. Dhlomo could deliver a stringent attack on the generation preceding him. Sec L. White and T. Couzens, 'Introduction ', Literature and Society, pp. 20-21.
11. Although the term is used by historians to refer specifically to the products of Natal missions (who provided the nucleus for the emergence of Zulu nationalism) the essential features of what La Hausse calls the 'kholwa world view' of the nineteenth century seem relevant to mission products elsewhere in South Africa in the period. These features are a 'rhetorical attachment to the belief in "progress" and "improvement"', 'the belief in the practical efficacy of Christianity', 'the importance of unencumbered access to freehold land ownership and its commercial exploitation', and 'the right to legal and political equality in common with other colonial subjects of Queen Victoria'. Sec P. La Hausse de Lalouvière, 'Ethnicity and History', pp. 6-7. Within this typical outlook there were, of course, personal, regional and generational differences, and by the 1940s H.I.E. Dhlomo could deliver a stringent attack on the generation preceding him. Sec L. White and T. Couzens, 'Introduction ', Literature and Society, pp. 20-21.
12. A.C. Jordan, Towards an African Literature: the Emergence of Literary Form in Xhosa (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973); A. Gérard, Four African Literatures: Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Amharic (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971); T. Couzens, The New African: a Study of the Life and Work of H.I.E. Dhlomo (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1985); and B. Willan, Sol Plaatje: A Biography (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1984).
13. A.C. Jordan, Towards an African Literature: the Emergence of Literary Form in Xhosa (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973); A. Gérard, Four African Literatures: Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Amharic (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971); T. Couzens, The New African: a Study of the Life and Work of H.I.E. Dhlomo (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1985); and B. Willan, Sol Plaatje: A Biography (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1984).
14. A.C. Jordan, Towards an African Literature: the Emergence of Literary Form in Xhosa (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973); A. Gérard, Four African Literatures: Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Amharic (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971); T. Couzens, The New African: a Study of the Life and Work of H.I.E. Dhlomo (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1985); and B. Willan, Sol Plaatje: A Biography (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1984).
15. A.C. Jordan, Towards an African Literature: the Emergence of Literary Form in Xhosa (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973); A. Gérard, Four African Literatures: Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Amharic (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1971); T. Couzens, The New African: a Study of the Life and Work of H.I.E. Dhlomo (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1985); and B. Willan, Sol Plaatje: A Biography (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1984).
16. W. Davies, 'New Writing in Africa', West Africa, 3508 (12 November, 1984), 2267. The ideological scheme is evident in different forms in U. Barnett, A Vision of Order: a Study of Black South African Literature in English (1914-1980) (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1983); P. Shava, A People's Voice: Black South African Writing in the Twentieth Century (London, Zed Books, 1989); and J. Watts, Black Writers from South Africa: Towards a Discourse of Liberation (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1989).
17. W. Davies, 'New Writing in Africa', West Africa, 3508 (12 November, 1984), 2267. The ideological scheme is evident in different forms in U. Barnett, A Vision of Order: a Study of Black South African Literature in English (1914-1980) (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1983); P. Shava, A People's Voice: Black South African Writing in the Twentieth Century (London, Zed Books, 1989); and J. Watts, Black Writers from South Africa: Towards a Discourse of Liberation (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1989).
18. W. Davies, 'New Writing in Africa', West Africa, 3508 (12 November, 1984), 2267. The ideological scheme is evident in different forms in U. Barnett, A Vision of Order: a Study of Black South African Literature in English (1914-1980) (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1983); P. Shava, A People's Voice: Black South African Writing in the Twentieth Century (London, Zed Books, 1989); and J. Watts, Black Writers from South Africa: Towards a Discourse of Liberation (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1989).
19. W. Davies, 'New Writing in Africa', West Africa, 3508 (12 November, 1984), 2267. The ideological scheme is evident in different forms in U. Barnett, A Vision of Order: a Study of Black South African Literature in English (1914-1980) (Cape Town, Maskew Miller Longman, 1983); P. Shava, A People's Voice: Black South African Writing in the Twentieth Century (London, Zed Books, 1989); and J. Watts, Black Writers from South Africa: Towards a Discourse of Liberation (New York, St. Martin's Press, 1989).
20. See J. Opland, 'The Isolation of the Xhosa Poet', in White and Couzens, Literature and Society, pp. 175-195.
21. Couzens, 'Widening Horizons', p. 61.
22. De Kock, Civilising Barbarians, pp. 105-140.
23. Ibid., p. 190.
24. Ilanga Lase Natal, 29 June 1906.
25. Of course, we should temper enthusiasm for this experimentalism with the recognition that the passage of any manuscript through the mission press was fraught with danger. There are well-documented cases of manuscripts being bowdlerised or having 'disappeared'. Sec J. Pcircs, 'The Lovedale Press: Literature for the Bantu Revisited', History in Africa, 6 (1979), p. 170. However, it would be equally unwise to assume that the published writing is not a reasonable reflection of the diction of those who produced it.
26. H. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London, Routledge, 1994), p. 151.
27. D.D.T. Jabavu, Bantu Literature: Classification and Reviews (Alice, Lovedale, 1921) and The Influence of English on Bantu Literature (Alice, Lovedale, 1943).
28. D.D.T. Jabavu, Bantu Literature: Classification and Reviews (Alice, Lovedale, 1921) and The Influence of English on Bantu Literature (Alice, Lovedale, 1943).
29. R.H.W. Shepherd, Lovedale and Literature for the Bantu (Alice, Lovedale Press, 1945), p. 75.
30. Sec H. Scheub, 'Zulu Oral Tradition and Literature,' in B.W. Andrzcjewski, S. Pilaszewicz and W. Tyloch (eds), Literatures in African Languages: Theoretical Issues and Sample Surveys (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 493.
31. P. Ricocur. Time and Narrative, Vol. 1, Trans. Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pcllaucr (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. 3.
32. I. Hofmeyr, 'We Spend Our Lives as a Tale that is Told': Oral Historical Narrative in a South African Chiefdom (Johannesburg, University of the Witwatcrsrand Press, 1993), pp. 180-181.
33. C. Muller, '"Written" into the Book of Life: Nazarite Women's Performance Inscribed as Spiritual Text in lbandla lamaNazaretha', Research in African Literatures, 28, 1 (Spring 1997), p. 4.
34. M. Fuze, The Black People and Whence They Came: a Zulu View, 1922, Trans. H.C. Lugg (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1979), p. viii.
35. Fuze, The Black People, p. 151.
36. Ibid., p. viii.
37. P. Osborne, 'Modernity is a Qualitative, not Chronological, Category: Notes on the Dialectics of Differential Historical Time', in F. Barker, P. Hulme and M. Iversen (eds), Postmodernism and the Re-reading of Modernity (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1992), pp. 32-33.
38. Jordan, Towards an African Literature, p. 64.
39. From T. Couzens and N.W. Visser (cds), H.I.E. Dhlomo: Collected Works (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1985), p. 32.
40. Ilanga Lase Natal, 18 May 1906. Tim Couzens attributes this poem to Robert Grendon, in 'Robert Grendon: Irish Traders, Cricket Scores and Paul Kruger's Dreams', English in Africa, 15, 2 (October 1988), pp. 78-80.
41. Ilanga Lase Natal, 18 May 1906. Tim Couzens attributes this poem to Robert Grendon, in 'Robert Grendon: Irish Traders, Cricket Scores and Paul Kruger's Dreams', English in Africa, 15, 2 (October 1988), pp. 78-80.
42. A. Touraine, Critique of Modernity, Trans. David Maccy (Oxford, Blackwell, 1995), p. 230.
43. J. Hodgson, 'The Genius of Ntsikana: Traditional Images and the Process of Change in Early Xhosa Literature', in White and Couzens, Literature and Society, pp. 24-27.
44. Jordan, Towards an African Literature, p. 51
45. J.K. Bokwe, Ntsikana: the Story of an African Convert, 2nd edn (Alice, Lovcdale Press, 1914), pp. 5-6.
46. Bokwe, Ntsikana, p. 4.
47. Ibid., p. 31.
48. Tourainc, Critique of Modernity, p. 375.
49. J.J.R. Jolobe, 'UThuthula', in Umyezo, Bantu Treasury Series, No. 2, 1936 (Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand Press, 1974), p. 85; Thuthula', in Poems of an African, Trans. by the author (Alice, Lovedale Press, 1946), p. 9.
50. J.J.R. Jolobe, 'UThuthula', in Umyezo, Bantu Treasury Series, No. 2, 1936 (Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand Press, 1974), p. 85; Thuthula', in Poems of an African, Trans. by the author (Alice, Lovedale Press, 1946), p. 9.
51. J. Peires, The House of Phalo: a History of the Xhosa People in the Days of Their Independence (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1981), p. 59; D. Moodie (ed), The Record: a Series of Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Africa, 1838 (Cape Town and Amsterdam, Balkema, 1959), vol. 1., pp. 15-16.
52. J. Peires, The House of Phalo: a History of the Xhosa People in the Days of Their Independence (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1981), p. 59; D. Moodie (ed), The Record: a Series of Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Africa, 1838 (Cape Town and Amsterdam, Balkema, 1959), vol. 1., pp. 15-16.
53. Jolobe, 'Thuthula', p. 25.
54. J.A. Chalmers, Tiyo Soga: a Page of South African Mission Work (Edinburgh, Andrew Elliot, 1877).
55. Jordan, Towards an African Literature, p. 75.
56. Couzens and Visser (eds), H.I.E. Dhlomo. Collected Works, p. 19.
57. Ibid., p. 19.
58. These paradigms do not rise and fall in series - clearly, they co-exist over long periods of time.
59. R.R.R. Dhlomo, An African Tragedy (Alice, Lovcdalc Press, 1930), p. 25.
60. Ibid., p. 26.
61. D. Attwell, 'Mofolo's Chaka and the Bambatha Rebellion', Research in African Literatures, 18, 1 (Spring 1987), pp. 52-55.
62. S. Marks, Reluctant Rebellion: the 1906-08 Disturbances in Natal (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970), p. xix.
63. E. Mphahlele, The African Image (London, Faber and Faber, 1962), p. 210.
64. Gérard, Four African Literatures, pp. 125-126.
65. K. Ayivor, 'Thomas Mopoku Mofolo's "Inverted Epic Hero": a Reading of Mofolo's Chaka as an African Epic Folktale', Research in African Literatures, 28, 1 (Spring 1997), p. 54.
66. D.P. Kunene, 'Introduction', T. Mofolo, Chaka, 1925, Trans. D.P. Kunene (London, Heinemann, 1981), pp. xv. Isobel Hofmeyr suggests to me that the generic jostling in this passage is clearer in the original, where 'histori' (a school-derived notion of history) comes up against 'tshomo' (tale) and 'nnete' (truth, what happened).
67. Mofolo, Chaka, p. 2.
68. Ibid., p. 8.
69. Ibid., p. 23.
70. Mofolo, The African Image, p. 15.
71. Gérard, Four African Literatures, p. 125.
72. Mphahlele, The African Image, p. 210.
73. C. Marlowe, Dr Faustus (London, New Mermaids, 1965).
74. Mofolo, The African Image, p. 167.
75. A.E. Voss, 'Sol Plaatje, the Eighteenth Century, and South African Cultural Memory', English in Africa, 21, 1&2 (July 1994), pp. 68-72; S. Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa, 1916 (Athens, Ohio University Press, 1991).
76. A.E. Voss, 'Sol Plaatje, the Eighteenth Century, and South African Cultural Memory', English in Africa, 21, 1&2 (July 1994), pp. 68-72; S. Plaatje, Native Life in South Africa, 1916 (Athens, Ohio University Press, 1991).
77. B. Willan, Sol Plaatje: a Biography (Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1984), p. 349.
78. S. Plaatje, Mhudi, 1930 (Johannesburg, Donker, 1989), p. 88.
79. Ibid., p. 89.
80. Willan, Sol Plaatje, p. 357.
81. Plaatjc, Mhudi, p. 197.
82. Voss, 'Sol Plaatje', p. 72.
83. D. Attwell, 'Intimate Enmity in the Journal of Tiyo Soga', Critical Inquiry, 23, 3 (Spring 1997), p. 562.
84. Jordan, Towards an African Literature, pp. 107-108.
85. Ibid., pp. 110-111.
86. Gérard, Four African Literatures, p. 212.
87. Isobel Hofmeyr alerts me to the fact that Chaka, Ntsikana and Jeqe all begin with descriptions of territory (interwoven with ethnography), suggesting that the emplotments of time discussed in this essay have their spatial counterparts as well, written perhaps under the influence of the imperial geography syllabus.
88. J.L. Dube, Jeqe: the Bodyservant of King Shaka 1930 (Alice, Lovedale Press, 1951), p. 55.
89. The term is Anthony Giddens's. See Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991).
90. Osborne, Modernity, p. 37.