Much of Southern Africa’s documented historical past is dominated by the written information of the colonial mission. As a end result, the area’s historical past is both murky or uncared for. But Rhodes University’s Library Services, by way of its Cory Library department and in collaboration with the University of Cape Town (UCT), plans to change this by way of the Five Hundred Years Archive (FHYA) mission. The mission seeks to make numerous historic supplies accessible to researchers.
The group at Cory Library has collaborated with UCT to digitise and make accessible among the work carried out by Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi (S.E.K. Mqhayi), one of many first black South African writers to be printed in isiXhosa within the early twentieth century. Emerging from the Eastern Cape’s wealthy mental historical past, S.E.K. Mqhayi usually advocated towards colonialism and promoted using African languages.
FHYA is housed on the UCT’s History Department, and it’s a mission that goals to draw attention to the uncared for areas of Southern Africa’s previous, significantly the time earlier than European colonialism. A wealthy array of historic sources can be made accessible on an accessible digital platform, together with printed and unpublished texts, sound recordings, archaeological gadgets, objects, and pictures. Rhodes University Library Director, Nomawethu Danster, mentioned this features a digital presentation of outstanding isiXhosa writers comparable to Mqhayi.
Researchers can use these plentiful archives to generate and share scholarship about this distant previous. “Projects like this are important because they are needed to decolonise information. What drives the library, and maybe myself in this case, is that the Global South have become consumers of information from the Global North,” defined Danster.
History on Africa and South Africa is written by students within the Global North and is saved behind costly paywalls. Danster mentioned this mission would be certain that details about the historical past of South Africa is freely accessible to those that want it, together with each researchers and most people. “We want to promote African intellectualism and scholarship and to make it accessible at no cost to society. We need to be creators, distributors and disseminators of this knowledge. That is what libraries are all about,” added Danster.
Mqhayi was part of an mental line of resistance in the direction of the colonial rule, which might affect apartheid battle heroes comparable to Robert Sobukwe. Danster mentioned uncovering these histories and selling African scholarship and archives will equally echo into the longer term. “If we don’t promote African history and scholarship today, the next generation won’t be able to find a way forward. Decolonising knowledge is a big project. It is a long-term movement. Somebody must start, and then the next generation will hopefully continue,” she mentioned.
The Mqhayi assortment on the Cory Library types a part of the Lovedale Press Collection, which was donated by the Mission Council of the Free Church of Scotland. The Lovedale Press was a missionary printing press positioned close to what’s at present the city of Alice within the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It was the Mission’s want that the gathering be made accessible to bona fide analysis college students of any race group, and the FHYA Project will be seen as fulfilling that dream: Mqhayi’s work is now going to be made accessible to everybody.
The assortment contains manuscripts and correspondence between Mqhayi and the Lovedale Press about his publications. These are both typed or handwritten in cursive font in English, together with communication concerning a few of Mqhayi’s unpublished works, which the Lovedale Press rejected. “They censored and banned manuscripts when they felt the contents were unchristian,” defined Cory Library librarian Vathiswa Nhanha. They rejected his manuscript Ulwaluko (Circumcision), through which he argued that the Xhosa follow of circumcision was appropriate with Christianity and Ukuphakama komzi oNtsundu ngokwesiko lakowabo (The progress and growth of the Native folks in accordance to their customs and traditions).
Also accessible within the assortment are copies of earlier editions of his printed books, uDon Jadu, Ityala lamawele, Inzuzo, Life of Elijah Makiwane, uMqhayi waseNtab’ozuko, uMhlekazi uHintsa, Rubusana, and Isikhumbuzo somPolofeti uNtsikana.
The Library Director mentioned she hopes the library can have the sources sooner or later to do an analogous mission with extra of the wealthy archives at present housed by the Cory Library and different establishments in Makhanda. As custodians of data, Danster mentioned libraries have a vital position within the decolonial motion.
“Libraries are full of knowledge from the Global North, and we are responsible for perpetuating this status quo. Yes, we cannot do away with what we already have; people depend on it. But it is also a wake-up call for us to say, ‘We’ve got treasures in the Cory Library. What are we doing with what we already have?’ And as knowledge custodians in Makhanda, what are we doing with what the local archive has to offer? We need to help change how things are done,” concluded Danster.
ISSUED BY THE DIVISION OF COMMUNICATION AND ADVANCEMENT ON BEHALF OF RHODES UNIVERSITY.