Lecture One: The New African Movement PDF

Lecture One: The New African Movement Modern Africa: History and Philosophy Lecture by Mr. Ncityana The New African Movement and Modernity The historical imperative of the New African Movement was the making and construction of African modernity in South Africa. In a fundam...

Lecture One: The New African Movement Modern Africa: History and Philosophy Lecture by Mr. Ncityana The New African Movement and Modernity The historical imperative of the New African Movement was the making and construction of African modernity in South Africa. In a fundamental way, this imperative was imposed by European history into African history. The violent entrance of European modernity into African history through imperialism, capitalism and colonialism made the question of modernity an unavoidable historical issue. It was modernity that enabled Europeans to defeat African traditional societies and initiated their destruction. The New African Movement and Modernity In defeating African societies, European modernity imposed a sense of temporality and a different sense of history. The making of modernity in European history was a violent process of secularization from the reformations through to the enlightenment and to the French revolution. In African history it was a process of violent conversion into Christianity. Whereas, in one experience, modernity is a secular eventuation, in the other, it is inseparable from proselytizing and religiosity. The New African Movement and Modernity Since European modernity occurred as a process of destruction and creativity over centuries, transculturation was the informing logic of the relationship between the past and the present. In African context it was the matter of enforced acculturation of the past into the present, this enforced Europeanisation of the African which resulted in many tragic consequences. Modernity, specifically European modernity, in Africa was an instantaneous eventuation through imposition that clashed with the social ethos of traditional societies. Zemk’iinkomo Magwalandini After realising that the war of conquest waged by the white colonisers was being lost, one of Eastern Cape’s intellectuals named Isaac William Citashe wrote the poem “Zemka” translated to “To the rescue” The poem was written and published in 1882 and employs cattle figuratively, even though they are not mentioned explicitly. They are inferred as the wealth that is vanishing. This poem called for rethinking , reinvention, and continuation with resistance because cattle are central to economic, spiritual and cultural life of this African society. Zemk’iinkomo Magwalandini As the Xhosa intellectuals of the 1800s were the first African intellectuals in South Africa to experience the consequences of the violent entrance of European modernity into African history. They then form a huge part of the foundation of the New African Movement that began to reconstruct this European modernity into African modernity. This can be traced through the history of religion, philosophies, politics, literature, Music, Art, and films. Most of the disciplines above are responses by the New Africans who were responding to the kind of colonial erasure and dismissal of African thoughts and ways of being. New African Movement The New African Movement stretched over a century from about 1862 (Tiyo Soga) to 1960 Ezekiel Mphahlele. This movement consisted of writers, political leaders, religious leaders, artists, teachers, scientists who called themselves New Africans and New African Intellectuals. Dhlomo define the New African as: “The new African knows where he belongs and what belongs to him, where he is going and how, what he wants and the method to achieve it, he is proud, patriotic, sensitive, alive and sure of himself and his ideas. The new African might root himself proudly confidently in the countryside of his parents but would take ownership, fully and confidently of the city and all its promises and transformation” Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo. New African Movement These New Africans distinguished themselves from the old Africans through being engaged in creating knowledge of modernity (new ideas, new perspectives, new objectives, new formulations) rather than consolation and satisfaction with the old ways of traditional African societies. It was Pixley Ka Isaka Seme (1880-1951) who invented the idea and concept of the New African Movement with his great manifesto of the 1906 (The regeneration of Africa). The aim was to create and forge a complex “new African modernity” whose central nature would be liberation and decolonization by challenging, contesting and decentralizing the hegemonic form of “European modernity” that was occupying the cultural geography and the social topography of the territory that was four years later to be known as the Union of South Africa. New African Movement The South African Union that began in 1910 was a political and epistemic practice that was colonizing and dominating the historic imagination of all the oppressed people therein. The South African Native National Congress later African National Congress was the political practice of the New African movement. Through the SNNC, the New African Movement found an avenue for intellectual and cultural expression. There were other New African intellectuals, political and religious leaders who belonged to the New African Movement but aligned themselves with different political organizations. Political organisations such as the Indian Congress, the Communist Party, African People’s Organisation (A.P.O), and All African Convention (AAC). New African Movement Hundreds and hundreds of New Africans transacted their cultural alignments through newspapers as intellectual forums of cultural alignment within the New African Movement. There were many ideologies and philosophies of history governing and directing the historical visions of these New Africans especially regarding their intellectual, political and cultural practices. These include Ethiopians, Shembeism, African nationalism, Christianity, Marxism, Trotskyism, Hinduism, Islamism, Buddhism, Black Nationalism, Taoism, Feminism, Neo- Confucianism, and Judaism. New African Movement Each of these ideologues had its own distinct, complex and multiple permutations. It was a manifestation of these ideological contestations that made the entire force field of the New African Movement a dynamic political and international forum. A plethora of knowledge systems were constructed through the invention of new concepts such as “New African”, “New Africa”, “New South Africa”. Also, knowledge was constructed by examining the historical dialectical relationship between African tradition and modernity. New African Movement All this was part of the process of constructing a new intellectual and cultural history of South Africa from the perspective of Africans, Indians, Coloureds, instead of only that of Europeans. The newspapers of those days played a crucial role as they became forums of discussion, contestations, connecting, and shaping of this envisioned New South Africa and Africa. These newspapers facilitated monumental change in historic consciousness and political practice. Leading newspapers include Imvo Zabantsundu, Abantu-Batho, Izwi Labantu, Ipepa lo Hlanga, Bantu World, Indian opinion, Ilanga lase Natal, Tsalo ea Batho and many more. New African Movement These were edited by the likes of John Lanagalibalele Dube, Ruth First, Abdullah Abdurahman, Selby Msimang, Selope Thema, Alan- Kirkland Soga, Kush Ngubane and more. These newspapers lifted the people from ignorance. These newspapers contained native’s views, offered knowledge on what other races were doing. They offered knowledge on the development of the peoples of South Africa and Africa. New African Movement The launching of these newspapers in the late 1800s was a historic moment in the emergence of independent intellectual thought among African people who previously having depended on newspapers owned by missionaries could not freely express themselves about matters fundamental to their lived experience and about their suffering and oppression caused by the violent entrance of European modernity into African history. New African Movement and Christianity As a result of the New African Movement, black missionaries emerged. These Black missionaries made the most valuable contribution to the early effort of converting African people into Christianity. This is true here is South African and elsewhere in Africa. For example, amongst the Pedi people, black missionaries were responsible for the growth of the church among the people. They were so effective that King Sekhukhune chastised one of them as follow: “Jacob, it is actually all your fault that all my people believe. You brought belief here from the old colony (the Cape). The missionaries (white missionaries) are nowhere near as responsible as you”. New African Movement and Christianity One of the leading missionaries was Tiyo Soga, who was born in 1829. He became the first Black South Africa to be ordained. He acquired his education in a missionary school and later went to Lovedale and further studied ministry in Scottland (University of Glasgow). Thus, later he became a missionary, a teach, and makes up one of the first black intellectuals of the 1800s from the Eastern Cape to fashion the new African. New African Movement and Christianity He had a very strong African influence in his father who was councillor to King Ngqika. He married and Scott white woman. He never went to initiation school the way Xhosa males do to become man. Neither did he support the practise of ukwaluka (going through initiation school). But intellectually Soga was as African as everyone could as he contributed a great deal of intellectual work grounded in African ways of being. New African Movement and Christianity His intellectual contributions include but not limited to his recording of Xhosa histories as narrated by the elders. He further recorded Xhosa proverbs and other Xhosa oral forms to archive them for future generations. To his children Soga said “Take your place in the world as coloured, not as White men, as Kafirs not as English…For your own sakes never appear ashamed that your father was a Kafir, and that you inherited some African blood”. Soga believed in modernity, but not in complete obliteration of African-ness. New African Movement and Christianity Tile was an evangelist, theologian, and he was at the centre of founding black churches. Tile was trained at Healdtown as a theologian. Firstly, Tile served as probationer in Thembuland, while at this post he clashed with his superintendent, the Revd T. Chubb. This resulted in him leaving the Wesleyan church. At the same time, the Cape colony was quickly taking over the independent African kingdoms in the Transkei including the Thembu kingdom and this resulted into conflict and wars. New African Movement and Christianity Tile left the Wesleyan church for reasons such as: He was sympathetic to the national aspirations of Thembu people. He was also dissatisfied with the degree of white control in the mission (Wesleyan) church. He them founded the Thembu church. The Thembu church became the building blocks of the Ethiopian movement in South Africa which aimed to decolonize Christianity, and ground Christianity in African history and sensibilities. The Thembu Church was the first of later series of African independent church. New African Movement and Christianity Tile’s secession from Wesleyan Methodist to form the Thembu Church saw great activities of protest within the white churches based on the Bible. He work with the kings to petition colonial authorities. He was opposed to colonialisation of the kingdoms by the Cape. He strongly supported traditional leadership. Thus, he made King Ngangelizwe the head of the Thembu church.