Full Description
Edition and translation of all of William Wellington Gqoba's clearly identifiable writings in isiXhosa and English, with a comprehensive introduction
William Wellington Gqoba (1840-88) was prominent among the African intellectuals emerging in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa towards the end of the nineteenth century.
By trade he was a wagonmaker, licensed preacher of the Free Church of Scotland, teacher, historian, poet, folklorist and editor. For much of his brief life he served on mission stations as a catechist, and ended his career as editor of the Lovedale newspaper Isigidimi sama-Xosa, to which he contrived to contribute subversive poetry outspokenly critical of Western education, the European administration of black people and the discrimination suffered by colonised blacks. Gqoba fashioned the figure of the Xhosa man of letters. Unrivalled in his time in the generic range of his writing, he was the author of letters, anecdotes, expositions of proverbs, histories and poetry, including two poems in the form of debates that stood for over fifty years as the longest poems in the Xhosa language.
This book assembles and translates into English all of William Wellington Gqoba's clearly identifiable writings. They offer an insider's perspective on an African nation in transition, adapting uncomfortably to Western mores and morality, seeking to affirm its identity by drawing on its past, standing on the brink of mobilisation to resist white control and to construct its social, political and religious independence of European colonialism.
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press: Southern African Development Community
Contents
Introduction
1. Indatyana: A few items of news (1873)
2. Ncedani: Please help (1875)
3. Utywala: Liquor (1875)
4. Ulaulo lwaba Ntsundu: The administration of black people (1880)
5. Isimangalo sika Tixo (Isaiah I.): God's complaint (1884)
6. Amabalana ahlekisayo: Amusing sketches (1884-5)
7. Ingxoxo enkulu nge mfundo: umzekeliso: A great debate on education: a parable (1885)
8. The native tribes, their laws, customs and beliefs (1885)
9. Ukububa ko Mfundisi wakwa Nondyolo: The death of the Stockenstrom minister (1885)
10. Ukububa kuka Mr. Philip Koti: The death of Mr Philip Koti (1885)
11. Umpanga ka Mfi u Rev. S. Mtimkulu: The passing of the late Rev. S. Mthimkhulu (1885)
12. Ilitye lesik῾umbuzo lika-John A. Bennie, wase-Lovedale: A memorial stone for John A. Bennie of Lovedale (1885)
13. Icebetshu lokusinda (Acts xxvi. 28.): A narrow escape (1885)
14. Ukububa kuka Miss Catherine Tukani: The death of Miss Catherine Tukani (1885)
15. Isikalazo sika Tixo (Amos iv. 6-13.): God's complaint (1885)
16. Imbali yama Xosa: The history of the Xhosa people (1887)
17. Imbali yase Mbo: The history of the eastern territory (1887)
18. Intsingiselo zama qalo esi-Xosa: The meaning of Xhosa proverbs (1887)
19. Ukububa komka Ntibane Mzimba: The death of Mrs Ntibane Mzimba (1887)
20. Ingxoxo enkulu yomGinwa nom-Kristu: A great debate between a heathen and a Christian (1887-8)
21. Isizatu sokuxelwa kwe nkomo ngo Nongqause: The motive for the Nongqawuse cattle-killing (1888)
Biographical appendices
Sources
Bibliography
