The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala

Prof Joel Cabrita from Stanford University, San Francisco, USA will be warded an honorary doctorate from the Theological Faculty, Uppsala University, tomorrow. Today she held her lecture with the heading:

Writing religion: research assistance & authorship in African religious history

Joel Cabrita has published important work on African Initiated Churches and her work is connected to the late Uppsala Professor Bengt Sundkler. He is did some groundbreaking work on the AIC’s. In his first book: Bantu prophets in South Africa (London: Lutterworth Press, 1948) he is rather negative to these kind of churches finding them to include too much paganism. Later he wrote Zulu Zion and some Swazi (Lund: Gleerup, 1976). In this book he has changed his opinion about the AIC’s and is more positive.

Joel Kabrita argued in her lecture that Regina Gelana Twala contributed to this change. But her contribution was never recognised. Kabrita has written a book about Twala:

Written out. The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala (Ohio University Press, 2023)

I really want to read it. So the question is: why was the contribution of Twala not recognised by Sundkler? One answer is that this happened in another time. In the 1950s senior researchers leaned heavily on their research assistants. But this answer is not enough. Sundkler was criticised for this already after his first book. In the second book he therefore named a number of his research assistants. Two of them were Peter Mkhize and Titus Mthembu. Cabrita argued that Twala was as important as they. So, why is Sundkler just silencing her? Especilly since she contributed a lot to the second book. Cabrita could show this with examples where Sundkler has copied from Twalas notes almost word by word.

Cabrita informed us that Regina Twala was not a Lutheran. But I cannot believe that this was a reason. Sundkler was an ecumenist. In her lecture, Cabrita showed that Twala in general struggled to get her work published. When she died in 1968 she left a number of unpublished book manuscripts behind. On the website of Standford university I read this as an explanation to the silencing of Twala. I think it comes from Cabrita’s book:

The literary gatekeepers of the racist and sexist society of twentieth-century southern Africa clamped down by literally writing her out of the region’s history. 

Ohio Press summarises and asks:

Systemic racism and sexism caused one of South Africa’s most important writers to disappear from public consciousness. Is it possible to justly restore her historical presence?

Cabrita answerd this humbly. She admits that she as a white scholar is privileged. She does not intend to come as a white saviour.

Nevertheless the gave us a few things to think about. We need:

- A new way of decolonizing knowledge

- Literary activism

- Greater due diligence in publishing

Cabrita also underscored that Twala found ways to publish her texts, albeit in newspapers and under pseudonyms like Intombazana. Cabrita wants to ensure that Regina Twala gaines recognition. She has even approached Oxford press, that published books by Sundkler. I got the impression that they were not amused.

African Church history in Uppsala

Wednesday last week Rev. Sthembiso Zwane arrived in Uppsala. He is the deputy director of

Ujamaa Centre for Biblical and Theological Community Development and Research

in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. We got to know one another when I was a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Ujamaa has strong links to the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at UKZN.

Sthembiso has had a comprehensive stay in Sweden. Starting with participating in the graduation ceremony at the Church of Sweden Institute for Pastoral Education on the day of arrival. He had met three of the students, when we visited Pietermaritzburg in October 2016. I have written about that in a blog post. In Swedish though.

The Contextual Bible Study he conducted at Crossroads, on Thursday, I have also written about this in a blog post recently. Also in Swedish. After this we met the Director of the Swedish Bible Society.

On Friday Sthembiso gave a lecture at a seminar at the Theological Faculty. He was invited by Professor Kajsa Ahlstrand (mission studies). The theme of the lecture was:

African Independent Churches (AICs) in Postcolonial Development

I already knew that the ‘I’ in the acronym AIC either can mean independent, indigenous, instituted or initiated. (At the seminar I learnt that some scholars also interpret the ‘I’ as international).

The AIC’s are the fastest growing family of Christian denominations in Southern Africa. They have often been described as syncretistic, meaning that they mix traditional, African religion with Christianity. Well, that is of course a risk with every church – that the Christian message is mixed with other values. For better or for worse. It is not difficult to understand that African Christians experienced that the mission churches had mixed its Christianity with colonialism. How about that?

Sthembiso himself is an ordained pastor in

The NDJ Ethiopian Catholic Church in Zion

Hence he gave the presentation as a practioner and insider more than as a scholar on AIC’s. Still, I think the lecture was very informative and well prepared. He also got a lot of appreciation from those who attended.

One interesting thing was that Professor Kajsa Ahlstrand urged us to visit the grave of the late Professor and Bishop Bengt Sundkler. Sundkler was a highly respected scholar on AIC’s and he wrote about them in a respectful way. Of course he was part of his time. (Sthembiso critiqued him in his lecture). But Sundkler was known to have spent time with the AIC’s and not only studied them on a distance. His two groundbreaking books:

Bantu Prophets in South Africa (1948)

Zulu Zion and Some Swazi Zionists (1976)

are still referred to in almost every article or book about the AIC’s. On Monday, before Sthembiso left for South Africa, we managed to find his grave. I know that it was an important moment for Sthembiso.

Sthembiso at the grave, which was a bit difficult to find.

It is not easy to read the text.

We also visited the Church of Sweden Mission grave, where, amongst others, another Swedish Scholar is buried:

Axel-Ivar ‘Dabulamanzi’ Berglund

His book

Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism (1976)

is a standard book on Zulu culture.

Axel-Ivar Berglund is buried together with his wife, Kerstin,
and one of his sons, Erik, who was my school mate.

The weekend we spent at

VärldensFest

in Västerås, where Sthembiso also conducted a Contextual Bible Study. It was a good opportunity to network with Christians from all over the world. It was in deed an honour for us to host him in our home both before and after the gathering in Västerås.

Shembe

I mitten, framför den heligaste platsen, sitter de beslöjade unga flickorna.

I lördags var vi med en grupp från School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics vid University of KwaZulu-Natal, som gjorde ett fältbesök hos Nazareth Baptist Church (iBandla lamaNazaretha) i Imbali här i Pietermaritzburg. Vi blev väl mottagna. Shembe är en så kallad Africa Initiated Church (AIC) och en av de största. Den tillhör den gupp som kallas Messiansk. De som hör till kyrkan tror att grundaren, Isaiah Shembe, var Messias. Därmed är det lätt att avfärda detta samfund, som har miljontals medlemmar. Ser vi lite djupare fanns hos Isaiah Shembe, liksom hos alla AIC’s en djup och befogad kritik av den västerländska synen på Kristus. Att upphöja Shembe till Messias kan ses som ett politiskt ställningstagande. Vi får ha med i beräkningen att det som den övervägande delen vita kristna i Sydafrika stod för när Shembe levde, var rasåtskillnad och det förtryck som följde med det.

Besöket var fascinerande. Vi fick ta av oss skorna, falla på knä vid ingången till templet och sedan sitta med och uppleva hur otaliga hymner sjöngs i ett mycket långsamt och suggestivt tempo. Det förekom predikan och bön. Allt gick väldigt lugn till. Kvinnorna gick in genom en särskild ingång och satt även separat. I mitten satt unga kvinnor. De var helt beslöjade. Alla medlemmar är klädda i vitt.

När gudstjänsten led mot sitt slut fick vi manliga lärare presentera oss. När vi sedan gått ut ur templet. Templet är en dunge med låga träd, som ligger på en kulle, omgiven av vitmålade stenar. Väl ute ur templet vidtog fotografering och glada konversationer.

För mig var det en stor stund. Jag har bara en gång tidigare besökt en AIC-gudstjänst. Det skedde i Bloemfontein 2006. Då hade jag ingen som förklarade vad som hände.

Denna gång var vi med lärare och studenter. På måndagen deltog vi i en analyserande och reflekterande lektion, som leddes av Dr Lilian Siwila. Det var skönt att åtminstone lektionen innebar att vi inte behövde dela upp oss i män och kvinnor utan kunde samtal fritt. Alltid bättre!

Idag är det fredag

Själv hade jag glömt bort att det var fredag, när jag gick upp till campus, för att undervisa en klass i praktisk teologi utifrån en text av Mercy Amba Oduyoye:

Women and Ritual in Africa

De flesta böcker på litteraturlistan i den kurs som handlar om homiletik (predikan) och liturgi (gudstjänst) kommer faktiskt från USA, trots att vårt universitet säger sig vara bra på kontextuell teologi. Märkligt, tyckte jag, så jag hittade åtminstone två böcker skrivna i Afrika. Den andra heter:

Celebrating Jesus Christ in Africa. Liturgy & Inculturation

Självklart firas gudstjänst annorlunda, beroende var på jorden vi befinner oss. Så är det även med tiden. Idag, onsdagen den 19 mars, är det fredag här i Pietermaritzburg. Inget konstigt med det. Den enda konstiga var att jag glömt bort det.

Så när jag kom in i sal 217 satt en helt annat klass där.

- Ska ni ha lektion här?

- Ja, har Du glömt bort att det är fredag?

Jo, det hade jag. Vi fick ju ett mejl från universitet för ett tag sedan:

Dear All

Just a reminder of the following compensatory days:
WED 19 MARCH follows FRIDAY TIMETABLE

TUESDAY 29 APRIL follows MONDAY TIMETABLE

Regards

Fredagen den 21 mars är Human Rights Day. Anledningen är att Sydafrika högtidlighåller minnet av massakern i Sharpeville, den 21 mars 1960, då 69 personer sköts av polisen under en fredlig demonstation.

Eftersom de är fler måndagar och fredagar under terminen, som blir allmänna helgdagar, flyttas lektionerna från en måndag (28 april) till en tisdag och från en fredag (21 mars) till en onsdag. Solklart!

Det som inte är helt klurigt är att detta meddelas en bit in i terminen när alla kursplaner är färdiga och utdelade.

Det stora som annars händer denna dag, är att the Public Protector (motsvarande Riksrevisionen), Thuli Madonsela, släpper sin rapport om Jacob Zuma’s privata hem – Nkandla. Det är stort säkerhetspådrag och mycket känslor i luften. Anglikanska kyrkans ärkebiskop, Thabo Makgoba, skriver på sin blogg:

We welcome the Public Protector's reports on corruption and mismanagement. We thank her for making the country accountable and transparent. Her office's work helps to develop our democracy, and I call on civil society to join the churches in defending it against the current assault.

En del kyrkoledare har gått ut offentligt och kritiserat henne. Framför allt är det biskop Pule Makgethi, som säger sig representera s k Africa Initiated Churches (AIC) med upp emot 1 miljon medlemmar. Enligt Citypress ska han ha sagt att hon förgiftar atmosfären i landet med sin kritik av makthavare.

Jag är mer benägen att hålla med den anglikanska ärkebiskopen. Mer transparens behövs. Men det är kanske inte första gången i världshistorien som vi skjuter budbäraren.

Jag återkommer senare idag med mer kring denna mycket spännande rapport. Trots att det är fredag denna onsdag.