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Periodical issue Periodical issue Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Xhosa cattle-killing
Editors:Andreas, Chris
Davies, Sheila BonifaceISNI
Offenburger, AndrewISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:African Studies (ISSN 1469-2872)
Volume:67
Issue:2
Pages:139-291
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Xhosa cattle killing
historiography
conference papers (form)
2007
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cast20/67/2
Abstract:The millennial movement commonly known as the Xhosa Cattle-Killing constitutes a pivotal phase in the history of South Africa. Over time, a wide range of explanations of the movement has been offered. Inspired by new interpretations of, and responses to, this controversial event in recent critical work, the editors of this special issue convened a conference on 20 April 2007 at the University of Cape Town entitled 'New trends in the historiography of the Xhosa Cattle-Killing movement'. Some of the articles in this issue developed directly from papers that were presented, others were submitted by authors who were unable to attend. To showcase the diversity of current research, the issue juxtaposes literary and historical approaches to the movement. Jennifer Wenzel analyses the role of metaphor in Cattle-Killing prophesies and the archive that has accreted around them. Andrew Offenburger argues that the frequent scares of smallpox epidemics, and the colonial vaccination programmes implemented to counter their threats, contributed to the tensions in Xhosaland. Sheila Boniface Davies examines how the Cattle-Killing is used in Leon Schauder's film 'Nonquassi' (1939), a piece of war propaganda. Helen Bradford proposes a paradigm shift, utilizing vernacular poems and historiographical accounts by 19th-century Xhosa historians. Jeff Peires revisits his assertion that the prophet Mhlakaza and Wilhelm Goliat were the same person. Laurence Wright interprets a public lecture on Shakespeare, given by Archdeacon Merriman in 1857, as the speaker's disgruntled musings on his former servant Goliat. Finally, Renée Schatteman explores the Cattle-Killing as a generative site for contemporary fiction, notably Sindiwe Magona's 'Mother to mother' (1998) and Zakes Mda's 'The heart of redness' (2000). [ASC Leiden abstract]
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