A 'School' Person in a 'Red' Blanket: The Case of SEK Mqhayi. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chapman, Michael
• Is Part Of: Current writing. Volume 33:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 10
• Page End: 22
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Mqhayi -- Xhosa literature -- South African Literature -- custom -- modernisation -- aesthetic -- translation; Southern African literature (English) -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 820.996805
• DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2021.1901411
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1013-929X

Abstract

Abstract : The article considers the scope and purpose of the project, "Translating (South) African Literatures", in relation to the early twentieth-century Xhosa writer, SEK Mqhayi, two of whose works have been translated into English in the project. Turning to the several prompts to reflection offered by the project, I evaluate Mqhayi's contribution to an 'expanded' South African literary history. As does the project, my argument requires a return to the archive, in this case of Mqhayi's dual commitment to both Xhosa custom ('Red') and colonial-Christian modernisation ('School'). A brief comparison of Mqhayi's plain voice of ethical justice and, in the mid-1920s, the experimental modernism of his contemporary, William Plomer, raises the issue of an appropriate aesthetic in an expanded literary history, while I conclude with a key consideration in any translation project: the need for a 'usable' theory and practice of translation.