The thesis of this study is that indigenous Tsonga literature forms a valid
and authoritative commentary on missionary Christianity. In this study, the
value of literary works by selected Tsonga writers is explored in three basic
directions: (a) as a commentary on missionary Christianity, (b) as a source
of and challenge to missiology, and (c) as a source of a Black missiology of
1 i berat ion. The momentous intervention of Swiss missionaries amongst the
Vatsonga, through the activities of the Swiss Mission in South Africa (SMSA)
must be granted. Similarly, its abiding influence formerly in the Tsonga
Presbyterian Church (TPC), now the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South
Africa (EPCSA), the Vatsonga in general and Tsonga literature in particular
must be recognized. But our missiological task is to problematise and explore
both missionary instrumentality and local responses variously and creatively.
The first chapter introduces the thesis, central issues of historiography and
ideology as well as an introductory history of the SMSA. In the second
chapter, the commentary of Tsonga writers through the media of historical and
biographical works on missionary Christianity is sketched. Selected Tsonga
novels become the object of inquiry in the third chapter. The novels come
very close to a direct evaluation of missionary Christianity. They contain
commentary on a wide variety of issues in mission. The fourth chapter
concentrates on two Tsonga plays and a number of Tsonga poems. In the one
play, missionary Christianity is likened to garments that are too sho· ~'
whilst in the other, missionary Christianity is contemptuously ignored and
excluded - recognition granted only to the religion and gods of the Vatsonga.
The fifth and final chapter contains the essential commentary of indigenous
Tsonga literature on missionary Christianity as well as the implications for
both global and local missiology.Christian Spirituality, Church History and MissiologyD. Th. (Missiology
