African Nationalism
Anglican Church
Bible Translation
Category=DCC
Category=DCF
Category=DNP
Category=DSBF
Category=DSBH
Church Affairs
English
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Grahamstown
isiXhosa
Jeff Opland
Jonas Ntsiko
Journals
Lyrical Poetry
Marguerite Poland
Narrative Poetry
National Harp
Obituaries
Polemical Articles
Politics
South Africa
Southern African Development Community
Tsolo
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
William Wellington Gqoba
Xhosa Literature
Product details
- ISBN 9781847014580
- Dimensions: 150 x 230mm
- Publication Date: 09 Dec 2025
- Publisher: James Currey
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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All the clearly identifiable writings of Jonas Ntsiko, the 'national harp' of South Africa, in English and in isiXhosa
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Xhosa literature was dominated by two writers: William Wellington Gqoba and Jonas Ntsiko. Gqoba's status and reputation are today assured, and he is well known and recognised by authorities who have written on the early history of Xhosa literature. In sharp contrast, Ntsiko's contribution to Xhosa literature is almost entirely overlooked. Very little is known about him and his substantial contribution to early Xhosa literature; not one of the items included here has subsequently been republished. Ntsiko is a ghostly presence, defined by his absence, an ancestral shade invoked by none.
Ntsiko (1850-1918) wrote under the pseudonym 'Hadi waseluhlangeni', the National Harp. This volume contains two substantial essays, by Marguerite Poland and Jeff Opland, that offer an account, for the first time, of Ntsiko's life and times, his early schooling in Grahamstown, his three years of study in England, his ordination as a deacon in the Anglican Church and his ten-year career in church service, ending abruptly in the termination of his licence. Thereafter, he grew progressively blind and ended his working life serving the magistrate in the rural village of Tsolo.
This book assembles for the first time all the clearly identifiable writings of Ntsiko in English and in Xhosa: journals, narrative and lyrical poetry, obituaries and polemical articles on the bible translation, politics and church affairs. It seeks to claim recognition for him as a major voice in the history of Xhosa literature, as an outspoken social critic and as a leading intellectual in the early formulation of African nationalism.
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press: Southern African Development Community
JEFF OPLAND held appointments at the University of Cape Town, University of Durban-Westville and Rhodes University and taught at the Universities of Toronto, Yale, and Leipzig as well as Vassar College before his retirement. PAMELA MASEKO is Executive Dean of the Humanities at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.
