Botha, at the launch of a book on Early African Intellectuals
27 September 2007
Programme director
Esteemed members of the families/descendants of our African Intellectuals we
honour today (of the Soga, Rubusana, Mqhayi, Jabavu and Ntsikana
families)
Executive Mayor of Amathole District Municipality
Honourable Saki Somyo
Vice Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare
Prof Derrick Swartz
CEO of the National Heritage Council (NHC), Adv Sonwabile Mancotywa
CEO of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA), Mr Phakamani
Buthelezi
COO of the NHC, Dr Somadoda Fikeni
Distinguished authors and members of the academia
Honourable parliamentarians and councillors
Government officials
Friends
Greeting to you all in the spirit of Heritage Month.
It is, indeed, a privilege and an honour for me to address you this morning
as we launch a book on the 19th and early 20th century African
Intellectuals.
This work on African intellectual history is yet another compelling
demonstration that arts, culture and heritage is far more complex and nuanced
than the way it is often perceived, that it is only about "song and dance."
It is also highly significant that this book is officially launched during
Heritage Month in the Eastern Cape, a region that gave birth to the
intellectuals that we celebrate today.
Prominent figures such as Ntsikana ka Gaba, Tiyo Soga, John Tengo Jabavu,
Mpilo Walter Benson Rubusana (also known as (aka) WB Rubusana) and Samuel
Edward Krune Mqhayi (aka SEK Mqhayi) are some of the great minds that left
indelible footprints in our intellectual landscape. Their works remain
influential in present day society.
These intellectual lived in the harshest of times and survived under the
most gruesome conditions when our country was subjected to colonialism. At that
time formal education was only acquired through missionary schools.
Institutions such as Healdtown, Lovedale and Fort Hare University College
played a pivotal role in moulding these African Intellectuals, who were later
to establish themselves and excelled in various fields.
Having read the manuscript, I can say, without hesitation, that this work
will to some extent fill the gaps and correct the distortions that exist in our
African intellectual history which understates or undermines the contribution
that Africans made in the evolution of this society, particularly in the area
of knowledge production.
I am, therefore, very excited about this initiative, and would like to
congratulate the NHC, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the Amathole
District Municipality and the University of Fort Hare for producing this
outstanding work.
More particularly, I wish to thank Mcebisi Ndletyana who is the editor of
this book as well as a contributor, Vuyani Booi, Mcedisi Qangule and Songezo
Ngqongqo who also contributed to this book. Thank you also to Barney Pityana
who wrote the foreword.
As this 2007 Heritage Month draws to a close, we are reminded of the
strategic value of our heritage as well as our arts and culture. As President
Mbeki indicated in 2004, when he appointed Dr Pallo Jordan and I to lead the
Ministry and Department of Arts and Culture, that we had actually not paid much
attention to this very important sector during the first decade of our
democracy.
We have, in the first ten years, focused more on the political and economic
challenges that our country faces and less on the strategic value of heritage
as an important asset which could be used to address challenges such as social
cohesion, cultural diversity, nation-building, moral regeneration, national
reconciliation and national identity.
Current debates around revival of positive societal values such as ubuntu,
promotion of indigenous languages, changing of place names, promotion of
national symbols and the promotion of cultural industries demonstrates how
serious we are about arts, culture and heritage in this country. It is,
therefore, a challenge to every one of us to make a contribution towards the
total transformation of our society and the building of a truly united,
democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, peaceful and prosperous nation.
The dominant image portrayed in our history books, particularly about the
history of colonial conquests and missionary experiences, was that of an
African wielding a spear and a shield, a warrior whose pre-occupation was war
and nothing else.
This book makes a great contribution and begins to challenge this
one-dimensional view about Africans. It introduces an alternative view (the
other side of the story) of a more nuanced and sophisticated African who is a
deep and critical thinker, a prophet, a poet, a scholar, an intellectual.
This work also reflects the rich heritage of this region and the
contribution it made to our entire nation. It is a fascinating story of African
intellectuals who were caught up between modernity and tradition but, at the
same time, it succeeds in correcting many of the falsehoods and misconceptions
of the documented history about us by foreigners. It will assist us a great
deal in counter-balancing the stories as told by authors like Charles Brownlee,
Theal and many other colonial administrators, anthropologists and missionaries
who wrote from the perspective of the colonisers' agenda.
This work dovetails with other projects of our Department of Arts and
Culture. Amongst these is one project which seeks to reprint and distribute
classical works of African writers with the aim of popularising their work and
also encouraging the culture of reading and writing. Another is the Oral
History Project which seeks to document the stories that are told by ordinary
people.
Today we will also be launching the Mdantsane Women's Oral History Project
because we would like to document and profile the works of women, as well. As
you may have observed, this book we are launching today only captures the works
of our fathers and none of the works of our mothers. In trying to correct the
imbalances of the past, we are mindful of unintended consequences. We should be
careful not to perpetuate the discrimination and marginalisation of the past.
The role played by women and the contributions they have made through their
writings should also be acknowledged and popularised.
In conclusion, let me, once again congratulate the institutions who worked
together to successfully complete and produce this invaluable book, a treasure
indeed. I hope it will be widely distributed and reach all the corners of our
country, particularly the rural areas, in order to enrich the knowledge of our
younger generation, "expose them to the power of ideas" as Vice-Chancellor
Swartz said earlier and inspire them to embark on similar projects.
I thank you.
The central role played by these institutions is highlighted in the historic
"I am an African" speech by Pixley ka Isaka Seme, which he made at the
University of Columbia in 1906. Addressing the subject of "The Regeneration of
Africa," Pixley ka Seme asserted, "The brighter is rising upon Africa. Already
I seem to see her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest, her
Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and her Zululand the seats of science and religion,
reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the spires of their churches and
universities."
While they were the products of missionary education, which obviously put
more emphasis on western values, the early African intellectuals sympathised
with their people. Many of them fought for the liberation of our country from
the bondage of colonialism. Through various aspects including education,
journalistic and literary writing, and religion, among others, these
intellectuals enlightened the African community and gave hope that one day we
will attain our freedom.
The influence of religion can best be illustrated through the life of
Ntsikana, who became the major proponent of Christianity among the African
people. Ntsikana was a pioneer Christian convert in the Xhosa community. He
even composed hymns in which he fused the western and African elements.
When talking about Ntsikana, Vuyani Booi rightly observes: "His hymns lived
on and continue to be popular to this day and his adaptation of Christianity to
African beliefs was to inspire what later came to be known as Black
Theology."
Many of you would know the hymn "UloThixo Omkhulu." It is the first hymn in
the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa hymnal. Even today we still
hear different versions of this song played on the radio and sung in choral
music concerts.
Another intellectual who emerged through religion is Tiyo Soga. Tiyo Soga
was the first African (Native or non-European as we were called then) to be
ordained as a Minister of Religion by the Glasgow Missionary Society on his
return to South Africa in 1857.
Tiyo Soga was instrumental in sowing the seeds of black theology which
spread throughout the Continent. It is through the works of intellectuals like
Tiyo Soga that we can understand the relationship between American Black Power
Movement and the Sophiatown Literary Renaissance in the 50s and 60s, as also
the Black Consciousness Movement of the late 60s and 70s in South Africa.
According to Mcebisi Ndletyana, Tiyo Soga was also one of the first people
to identify literary culture as key to the upliftment of Africans in this
country.
One of the leading early African intellectual, whose classical works are
still widely read, is the renowned poet, author and historian, SEK Mqhayi. Some
of his works have been adapted for TV screening. SEK Mqhayi was born on 1
December 1875 (three years after my father was born). Mqhayi died on 29 July
1945.
One of Mqhayi's famous poems "Ukutshona kukaMendi" (The sinking of Mendi),
commemorates the disaster that befell the SS Mendi submarine when 607 black
troops drowned during the First World War on 27 February 1917.
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
27 September 2007
Source: Department of Arts and Culture (http://www.dac.gov.za)
