Overview

In 1857, at the height of the colonial period, as Britain was advancing its control over southern Africa and absorbing the formerly independent African chiefdoms, the Anglican Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray, set up Zonnebloem College on an old wine farm on the outskirts of the city. Working in partnership with the British Governor, Sir George Grey, his plan was to enrol the sons and daughters of leading African chiefs and equip them with an English, Christian education, and then send them home to further the cause of Christianity and `civilisation' among their own people. This elite educational project, which was at the same time cultural and political in nature, soon gathered steam. Among the first entrants were Gonya and Emma Sandile, heir and eldest daughter of the Rharhabe chief Sandile; Nathaniel Umhala, son of the Ndlambe chief Mhala; and George Tlali, son of the great Basotho leader, Moshoeshoe I. Over the years a succession of sons from chiefly dynasties, sometimes spanning several generations, would come to Zonnebloem: the Moshoeshoes of Basutoland, the Pilanes of Bechuanaland, the Lewanikas of Barotseland, and the Lobengulas of Matabeleland. They and many others who followed in their steps would, after their education at Zonnebloem, take up careers as catechists, teachers, political secretaries, lawyers, newspaper editors and priests and serve their communities with distinction. Their stories - their trials and their achievements - are recounted here, often in their own words, drawing on a unique collection of school essays and letters to their various mentors that must form one of the earliest bodies of writing by Africans in southern Africa. This remarkable book, based on years of research and written with great sympathy, tells the little-known early history of the genesis of an African intelligentsia during the colonial period.

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9780639957913

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Janet Hodgson was born in Retreat, Cape Town, in 1936. Janet has lived in the Cape all her life, except for fourteen years as a mission theologian in the United Kingdom. In 1957, Janet obtained a BSc Agriculture degree (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University, followed by both an MA (with distinction, in 1975) and a PhD (in 1985) in Religious Studies from the University of Cape Town. She lectured part-time in Religious Studies at UCT while bringing up four children. In addition to her academic writing, she has published books in the United Kingdom, Canada and South Africa on a wide variety of subjects including mission, history, anthropology, African studies, indigenous spirituality, liberation theology, and biography. This is her thirteenth publication, which is based on her MA thesis as well as later research conducted in the 1990s. Janet has battled valiantly with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) for the last two decades. Despite her failing eyesight, she is still writing. In addition to an international career that has spanned teaching at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, working in the NGO sector and doing extensive conflict transformation facilitation, Theresa has an MA in Drama and a PhD in History, with co-supervision in Psychology (both from Rhodes University). The thread that holds her diverse professional and academic career together is her abiding interest in stories, historical memory and identity: the ways in which historical themes shape individual and collective identities in the present, and how the work each generation does (or fails to do) in addressing historical injustices and trauma shapes the stories of generations to come. Working with Janet Hodgson to bring the history of Zonnebloem College into the public domain has been a dynamic and enriching extension of this interest and passion. Theresa is currently a Research Fellow at the History Department, Stellenbosch University, and works as an independent consultant, writer and facilitator.

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