Monarchs, Missionaries and African Intellectuals

Bhekizizwe Peterson

Description

Centred on two case studies, Bhekizizwe Peterson examines the development of black theatre in South Africa and the entanglements of different intellectual traditions.

Much of the work in the field of African studies still relies on rigid distinctions of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘resistance’, ‘indigenous’ and ‘foreign’. This book moves well beyond these frameworks to probe the complex entanglements of different intellectual traditions in the South African context, by examining two case studies. The case studies constitute the core around which is woven this intriguing story of the development of black theatre in South Africa in the early years of the century. It also highlights the dialogue between African and African-American intellectuals, and the intellectual formation of the early African elite in relation to colonial authority and how each affected the other in complicated ways.

The first case study centres on Mariannhill Mission in KwaZulu-Natal. Here the evangelical and pedagogical drama pioneered by the Rev Bernard Huss, is considered alongside the work of one of the mission’s most eminent alumni, the poet and scholar, B.W. Vilakazi. The second moves to Johannesburg and gives a detailed insight into the working of the Bantu Dramatic Society and the drama of H.I.E. Dhlomo in relation to the British Drama League and other white liberal cultural activities.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Note on Zulu Orthography

Introduction: Staging the (Alien)nation: African Theatre and the Colonial Experience

Chapter 1 ‘All Work and No Play Makes Civilisation Unattractive to the Masses’: Theatre and Mission Education at Mariannhill

Chapter 2 ‘I Will Open My Mouth in Parables’: Accounting for the Crevices in Redemption

Chapter 3 Parallel Time, Parallel Signs, Discordant Interpretations

Chapter 4 B.W. Vilakazi and the Poetics of the Mental War Zone

Chapter 5 The Bantu Men’s Social Centre: Meeting the Devil on His Own Ground

Chapter 6 The Bantu Dramatic Society According to a Gossip Columnist

Chapter 7 Contesting ‘The Bantu Imagination’: The British Drama League and the New Africans

Chapter 8 H.I.E. Dhlomo: Measuring the Distance between Armageddon and Revolution

Chapter 9 The Black Bulls: Assembling the Broken Gourds

Chapter 10 Hegemony and Identity: What a Difference ‘Play’ Makes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Littérature Africaine
• Littérature Africaine
• EDUCATION
• History of education
• General officer
• General
• History

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776145508
• Langue: English

Extrait

MONARCHS, MISSIONARIES & AFRICAN INTELLECTUALS
Wits Press RE/PRESENTS
Wits University Press celebrates its centenary in 2022. Since its inception, the Press has been curating and publishing innovative research that informs debate to drive impactful change in society. Drawing on an extensive backlist dating from 1922, Wits Press Re/Presents is a new series that makes important research accessible to readers once again. While much of the content demonstrates its historical provenance, it remains of interest to researchers and students, and is re-published in e-book and print-on-demand formats.
MONARCHS, MISSIONARIES & AFRICAN INTELLECTUALS
AFRICAN THEATRE AND THE UNMAKING OF COLONIAL MARGINALITY
BHEKIZIZWE PETERSON
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg 2001
www.witspress.co.za
Copyright © Bhekizizwe Peterson 2000
Published edition © Wits University Press 2021
First published 2000
http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/12021083283
978-1-86814-328-3 (Paperback)
978-1-77614-549-2 (Web PDF)
978-1-77614-550-8 (EPUB)
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Cover design: Hybrid Creative
Typeset in 10.5 point Plantin
For my parents Aaron and Thembisile Rose Peterson and my grandmothers Elsie Nxumalo and Madikeledi Malele
CONTENTS

Preface and Acknowledgements
Note on Zulu Orthography
Introduction: Staging the (Alien)nation: African Theatre and the Colonial Experience
1 ‘All Work and No Play Makes Civilisation Unattractive to the Masses’: Theatre and Mission Education at Mariannhill
2 ‘I Will Open My Mouth in Parables’: Accounting for the Crevices in Redemption
3 Parallel Time, Parallel Signs, Discordant Interpretations
4 B.W. Vilakazi and the Poetics of the Mental War Zone
5 The Bantu Men’s Social Centre: Meeting the Devil on His Own Ground
6 The Bantu Dramatic Society According to a Gossip Columnist
7 Contesting ‘The Bantu Imagination’: The British Drama League and the New Africans
8 H.I.E. Dhlomo: Measuring the Distance between Armageddon and Revolution
9 The Black Bulls: Assembling the Broken Gourds
10 Hegemony and Identity: What a Difference ‘Play’ Makes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface and Acknowledgements
The completion of this book coincides with the end of the first five-year cycle of democratic rule in South Africa. The installation of the first democratically elected government in South Africa in 1994 was an overdetermined event. It ushered in an historical phase profoundly saturated with contending hopes, aspirations and fears, all loosely held together by the idea that the society is experiencing a ‘transition’. The tensions and hesitancies that currently typify the political and economic spheres are no less apparent in the realm of the cultural imagination. Here, there is the urgent need to create the collective myths that are to guide the country into the future. The task is to transform abstract ideas and emotions like ‘patriotism’, ‘nation’ and ‘independence’ into concrete, tangible forms and lived, felt experiences. Nowhere is such an enterprise more discernable than in the aura and controversy that surrounds the popular notion of the country being a ‘rainbow nation’. The metaphor of the ‘rainbow nation’ bears eloquent testimony to the pivotal role played by narrative as a primary cognitive tool for imagining the nation. Likewise, much that passes for scientific, economic and political writing on ‘nation building’, ‘reconstruction and development’, ‘reconciliation’, ‘identity’, ‘unity and diversity’, and so on, is fundamentally premised on the use of narratorial strategies .
As I hope this book will demonstrate, many of the anxieties that we are experiencing today are similar in many respects to the battles and visions of African intellectuals and artists at the turn of the century. There is much in the writings of Sol T. Plaatje, B.W. Vilakazi, H.I.E. Dhlomo and others that anticipates contemporary debates over issues like alterity and hybridity, memory, history and the politics of theatre.
At last I have the chance to thank the many people who assisted me and to give credit where it is long overdue. I now intend to keep my distance as promised, at least for a while.
My heartfelt appreciation to the staff at the Mariannhill Monastery, in particular Sister Adelgista, now sadly departed, and Father Bernard Pagitsch (Superior), both of whom were kind enough to grant me access to material in the Mariannhill archives. I would also like to convey my gratitude to the following librarians who frequently went beyond the call of duty: Fay Blain, Peter Duncan, Margaret Northey and Linith von Ahlefeldt, all of the John G. Gubbins Africana Library, University of the Witwatersrand; Carol Archibald and Claire Kruger, Department of Historical Papers of the University of the Witwatersrand; Bobby Eldridge and the staff at the Killie Campbell Africana Library, University of Natal; and librarians at the State Library in Pretoria and the Day Missions Library, Yale University.
My colleagues in the African Literature Department deserve special mention for creating a working environment that is collegial and academically innovative. Professors Zeke Mphahlele, Peter Thuynsma and Isabel Hofmeyr – all past Heads of the Department – deserve credit for the inspirational environment that they set in place and which is still very much a tradition today. Acknowledgement is also due to Dr James Ogude, Peter Rule and Phaswane Mpe for indulging my intellectual curiosity on many occasions while still finding the patience and grace to point towards possible insights that could be dredged from my ramblings. Similar praise is due to many colleagues at Wits and at the Centre for Southern African Studies, Yale University, for their response to parts of the work and for making valuable material available to me. Professor Tim Couzens deserves special mention in this regard. Merle Govind has been a source of remarkable support by holding things together as I increasingly got lost in the maze of writing. Special thanks are also due to the postgraduate students who attended my courses or whom I supervised; should they have the further misfortune to read this book I hope they can find some solace in the evidence that I listened and learnt much from them during our skirmishes. One such person is Wonderboy Peters who joined me as a research assistant at considerable financial cost to me despite his protestations to the contrary.
My dues become even more complicated when I look beyond the academy to the countless people and artists who have served as an inspiration and a constant reminder of the human, creative and political pertinence of the arts. Benjy Francis, Ramadan Suleman and Lesego Rampolokeng have been humbling in their friendship and support. As for my wife Pat Peterson, my parents Thembisile and Aaron Peterson, my mother-in-law Therisa van Wyk, and Thandi Ntshangase and Louisa Matthews, ‘nuff said elsewhere and everywhere except here’. To Abduragmaan, Sandra, Neo and Khanyisile, the teenage and juvenile contingent in our household, your constant interruptions tested my nerves but you helped to keep parts of me grounded and focused on the advancing millennium. Finally, I am greatly indebted to Isabel Hofmeyr, my supervisor, for her patience, insight and friendship over the years.
Parts of the dissertation have been published in journals in slightly different forms. Chapter 1 appeared as “‘All Work and No Play Makes Civilization Unattractive to the Masses”: Theatre and Mission Education at Mariannhill, 1900–1925’, African Studies , 54, 2, 1995; Chapter 2 as ‘“I Will Open My Mouth in Parables”: Theatre and Evangelism in South Africa between 1900–1925’, Theatre Journal , 46, 3, 1994; a much earlier version of Chapter 9 was first published as ‘The Black Bulls of H.I.E. Dhlomo: Ordering History Out of Nonsense’, English in Africa , 18, 1, 1991.
Note on Zulu Orthography
This book uses the modern Zulu orthography except when citing original material which predates its adoption. I have resisted updating the orthography used in the Mariannhill plays because I feel that it affords those who can read the language a suggestion of the texture of the dramas and, furthermore, the difference in orthography reinforces some of the discussion on the historicity and contestations over language. Zulu linguists whom I consulted also pointed out that the language of these plays differs from contemporary usage in a number of ways. For example, some words are of Xhosa origin while others have fallen out of common usage altogether.
Introduction
Staging the (Alien)nation African Theatre and the Colonial Experience
Nothing lasts long enough to have been . These fragments of everything descend upon us haphazardly . Only rarely do we see the immanence of wholes . And that is the beginning of art .
( Dambudzo Marechera , House of Hunger , 60 )
Since the late nineteenth century South Africa has conjured up the image of a dramatic spectacle in the popular imagination. The defeat of the British army in 1879 by the forces of Cetshwayo kaMpande Zulu (Cetshwayo, son of Mpande of the royal Zulu clan) at the battle of ISandlwane; the South African War of 1899–1902; the racial policies that informed successive governments, and their crystallisation in repression which involved the large scale resettlement and banishment of Africans; the varied forms of social response embraced by Africans, from the muted to the audacious; these are just a few of the social spectacles that typified South African history in the first half of the twentieth century. H.I.E. Dhlomo, after teasing out the manner in whi