Old Testament and AmaXhosa perspectives on circumcision : a comparative approach

Dissertation (MTh (Biblical Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2022.This study attempts to answer whether there are similarities between the perspectives on circumcision in the Old Testament, and amongst the amaXhosa. In trying to answer this question, I will be conducting a comparative approach to the ththecustom of circumcision from both perspectives. The Old Testament has two perspectives on circumcision: the one-from the pre-exilic and the other from post-exilic or the Priestly understanding of circumcision. During the pre-exilic period, circumcision was practised to enhance fertility and was conducted before marriage. We get this understanding from Genesis 34, when Jacob’s sons would not agree to give their sister to the Hivites in marriage unless all the Hivite males were circumcised. In this period, circumcision was simply a cultural ptice. From the post-exilic perspective, circumcision was understood as the sign or mark of the covenant between God and Abraham. It was instituted on males who were eight days old. We get this understanding from Genesis 17 and Leviticus 12. Secondly, Exodus 12 mentions that no male may participate in the Passover unless they are circumcised. All uncircumcised males are not welcome as part of the Israelites celebrating Passover. However, circumcision was not an exclusive practice; we see that even the non-Israelites are welcome to be circumcised and be part of Israel in the Passover celebration or festival. The post-exilic Israelite community changed circumcision from a simple cultural custom into a theological practice. Here, circumcision is practised to fulfil the command of God to Abraham and his descendants. For the amaXhosa people, circumcision is simple cultural practice performed on adolescent boys as a rite of passage to manhood. For the amaXhosa, in order for a male to be regarded as a man, he should undergo circumcision, and any male who is not circumcised is not considered a man. The uncircumcised male does not have status in the amaXhosa community or society. This practice is not just removing the prepuce from the male penis but is practised to fulfil the custom of the ancestors, as it is understood as an obligation to the ancestors. Comparison of the practice circumcision between the Old Testament and the amaXhosa shares some similarities, as well as some differences. We cannot conclude that the one was influenced by the other, for their approach or understanding of this custom is different.Old Testament StudiesMTh (Biblical Studies)Unrestricte

Ucwaningo ngolimi lwesigodi isicele.

Thesis (Ph.D) - University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, 2006.The present research examines the linguistic situation in the Lower South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal where isiZulu is used as the means of instruction and of administration, but IsiCele is used as home language by the Cele clan. The research was carried out in the areas of Ezingolweni, Emawuleni, Emfakuceba and KwaShonkweni, all being the Cele clans. Places known for use of Tekela and Lala dialects (Nhlangwini, Bhaca, IsiZansi, etc) have been investigated by other researchers. The research data was collected by asking questions to school leaving learners. The researcher also contacted educators, community leaders to examine the phenomenon such as language contact, language variations and language usage in the situation under investigation. He was also able to compile a sizeable list of lexical and further identified phonological and morphological variation from the standard language. The picture that emerges from the research is that the people under investigation (amaCele) speak a language with clear connection with their original language, which is isiThonga. The lexicon utilized for the expression of the material culture is however influenced by neighboring Xhosa an element that can be explained by the fact that for several decades the educators for the areas were drawn from the Cape. The material was then tested in taped conversations with elderly oral persons in rural areas. In the multicultural and the multilingual situation in South Africa, each wide spread cultural manifestation has a role to play and must be preserved as a treasure. The researcher suggests that ways should be found to encourage speakers of IsiCele to use with pride their language as an important tile in the cultural mosaic that is South Africa. It would be unwise and short-sighted to pursue a policy of blindly imposing Standard Zulu to obliterate the cultural heritage contained and manifested in IsiCele

Carrying the Cross: Isaac William(s) Wauchope's Ingcamango Ebunzimeni

Abstract This study was conceived and developed with the intention of initiating a discussion around the prison poems of Isaac William(s) Wauchope, Ingcamango Ebunzimeni. That an African minister had published poems that were initially composed in prison seemed to suggest to me that a complex matrix of events might have informed the writing of Ingcamango Ebunzimeni. Thus this study has sought to read the poems closely against the historical context that spawned them into being. The imprisonment of an African minister for fraud seemed to present, on its own, a curious development which needed to be pursued for Ingcamango Ebunzimeni to be read closely. My concern with Ingcamango Ebunzimeni is buttressed by another purpose. As a writer, Wauchope has received attention for largely one poem that he wrote. It therefore seemed germane to bring to the fore for further analysis a wider range of his writings in order to understand the uses which writing, as a social and political practice was put under by Wauchope. The colonial setting under which Wauchope lived out his life informed these writings and Ingcamango Ebunzimeni in profound ways. At the heart of this study and the subject that it explores there is, then, a certain kind of awareness of the contradictory nature of colonial modernity and how, in turn, this forced Christian Africans such as Wauchope to adopt stances that questioned the benevolence of such a social formation to Africans even where he and his contemporaries represented an emergent class of Africans that had assimilated into a largely westernised way of life

Religion and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern Africa

This book investigates the role of religion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Southern Africa. Building on a diverse range of methodologies and disciplinary approaches, the book reflects on how religion, politics and health have interfaced in Southern African contexts, when faced with the sudden public health emergency caused by the pandemic. Religious actors have played a key role on the frontline throughout the pandemic, sometimes posing roadblocks to public health messaging, but more often deploying their resources to help provide effective and timely responses. Drawing on case studies from African indigenous knowledge systems, Islam, Rastafari and various forms of Christianity, this book provides important reflections on the role of religion in crisis response. This book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of African Studies, Health, Politics and Religious Studies

Selected papers from the 49th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

Descriptive and Theoretical Approaches to African Linguistics contains a selection of revised and peer-reviewed papers from the 49th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at Michigan State University in 2018. The contributions from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America, Africa and other parts of the world, provide a glimpse of the breadth and quality of current research in African linguistics from both descriptive and theoretical perspectives. Fields of interest range from phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics to sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, discourse analysis, language documentation, computational linguistics and beyond. The articles reflect both the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and the wide range of research areas covered by presenters at ACAL conferences

Religion and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern Africa

This book investigates the role of religion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Southern Africa. Building on a diverse range of methodologies and disciplinary approaches, the book reflects on how religion, politics and health have interfaced in Southern African contexts, when faced with the sudden public health emergency caused by the pandemic. Religious actors have played a key role on the frontline throughout the pandemic, sometimes posing roadblocks to public health messaging, but more often deploying their resources to help provide effective and timely responses. Drawing on case studies from African indigenous knowledge systems, Islam, Rastafari and various forms of Christianity, this book provides important reflections on the role of religion in crisis response. This book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of African Studies, Health, Politics and Religious Studies

From Volksmoeder to Igqira: Towards an intellectual biography of Dr Vera Bührmann (1910-1998)

Magister Artium - MAThis biography of Dr Vera Bührmann is an intersectional and interdisciplinary investigation of an unusual Afrikaner woman who occupied several unusual places in South African society. Through rigorous archival research and a wide reading of English and Afrikaans secondary sources, I examine the mythology that has grown up around Dr Bührmann and expose contradictions and inaccuracies inherent within these myths. I adopt a chronological approach but focus on certain key motifs. I dwell on her family background in order to demonstrate the depths of the Afrikaner nationalist tradition to which she was heir. I uncover the impact that physical anthropology had on her during her initial medical training at Wits and UCT in the 1930s. I highlight the intensity of her commitment to, and leadership roles in, the Ossewa-Brandwag and Dietse Kinderfonds, both extremist right-wing Afrikaner nationalist organisations. Vera’s marital crises reveal something of her ‘human’ side but are an important component of her story because she reinvented herself following her divorce in the early 1950s, furthering her medical qualifications as well as training as a Jungian analyst. I investigate the various fields in which she worked following her return to South Africa in late 1959 but focus on her cross-cultural psychiatry research with a Xhosa igqira in the 1970s and 1980s since much of the mythology that surrounds her is based on publications that flowed from that research. I engage critically with her published works and associated archival records and present evidence which shows that the view that she underwent a ‘Damascus Road’ experience with respect to her racial politics is unfounded. The racial politics of her ancestors and the ideology of the radical right-wing Ossewa-Brandwag remained with her throughout her life, despite attempts (by Vera and others) to camouflage it. In addition, I show that her use of Jungian depth psychology as a framework for cross-cultural psychiatry research contributed to the reification of apartheid racial politics. This study draws attention to the many pioneering achievements of this remarkable woman but argues that a more nuanced approach to her legacy is needed in light of the evidence of her persistent racial prejudice