The Deaths of Hintsa: Postapartheid South Africa and the Shape of Recurring Pasts"In 1996, as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was beginning its hearings, Nicholas Gcaleka, a healer diviner from the town of Butterworth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, set off on a journey to retrieve the skull of Hintsa, the Xhosa king. Hintsa had been killed by British troops on the banks of the Nqabarha River over a century and a half before and, it was widely believed, been beheaded. From a variety of quarters including the press, academia and Xhosa traditional leadership Gcaleka's mission was mocked and derided. Following the tracks of Nicholas Gcaleka, author Lalu explores the reasons for the almost incessant laughter that accompanied these journeys into the past. He suggests that the sources of derision can be found in the modes of evidence established by colonial power and the way they elide the work of the imagination. These forms and structures of knowledge in the discipline of history later sustained the discourse of apartheid. The Deaths of Hintsa argues for a post-colonial critique of apartheid and for new models for writing histories. It offers a reconceptualisation of the colonial archive and suggests a blurring of the distinction between history and historiography as a way to set to work on forging a history after apartheid."--Publisher's website. |
Contents
Colonial modes of evidence and the grammar of domination | 31 |
Mistaken identity | 65 |
List of illustrations | 71 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
African agency Alexander apartheid argue argument attempt boundary British called Cape Town cattle century chapter chief claims colonial archive colonial history concept Cory critical critique cultural D'Urban death defined demand difference disciplinary discipline discourse domination eastern Cape effects emerged especially event evidence example figure formation frontier Gcaleka Godlonton historians historiography House imaginary inquiry interests killing of Hintsa king knowledge land later limits London marked merely modes of evidence Mqhayi narration narrative nationalist native noted offered official past Peires perhaps politics position possibility postcolonial present produced public sphere question reading reason record reference relation reports representation represented response resulted rise River rule Sarhili sense served settler Smith social society Soga South Africa specific story structure studies subaltern suggests translated truth University Press violence White writing Xhosa York