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 |
The properties of facts or how to read with a grain of salt | 101 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Albany Museum Alexander anti-colonial apartheid argue argument Bantu Bomvana border British Cape Colony Cape Town cattle chapter chief Ciskei claims colonial archive colonial officials colonised subject commission of inquiry concept Cory Crais critical critique of apartheid cultural D'Urban death of Hintsa difference disciplinary discipline of history discourse of history domination eastern Cape emerged epistemic event Foucault Gcaleka Gcalekaland Godlonton Grahamstown Guha Hintsa's death Hintsa's skull historians historiography imaginary structure Ityala Lamawele Kei River Kiewiet killing of Hintsa king knowledge Kreli Mfengu modes of evidence Molema Mqhayi mutilation narrative nationalism nationalist narration native Nicholas Gcaleka Peires political postapartheid postcolonial precolonial produced prose of counter-insurgency question racial reading regime of truth relation S.E.K. Mqhayi Sarhili sense settler colonial settler colonial history settler history settler public sphere social society Soga Soga's South Africa Southey specific story strategy subaltern studies subjection of agency suggests Transkei University Press violence writing Xhosa