eBook - PDF
Colonial Discourse and the Jesus-fication of King Chaka
How Thomas Mofolo's Chaka Turned the Zulu Monarch into a Messiah
- 215 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
Colonial Discourse and the Jesus-fication of King Chaka
How Thomas Mofolo's Chaka Turned the Zulu Monarch into a Messiah
About this book
Although Chaka is considered an African literary masterpiece, Thomas Mofolo has paradoxically been dismissed by critics as an author naively extolling the virtues of the white man's "civilizing mission" in Africa. Daniel M. Mengara's Colonial Discourse and the Jesus-fication of King Chaka: How Thomas Mofolo's Chaka Turned the Zulu Monarch into a Messiah offers a rereading of Chaka to show that Mofolo in fact astutely deconstructs, and then reconstructs, Zulu king Chaka into a messianic figure whose life trajectory and destiny blasphemously mirror those of Jesus Christ. This volume avoids the pitfalls of the traditional "mission interpretations" of Chaka and provides an interpretative inflection that paints a more nuanced and balanced picture and understanding of Thomas Molofo's fictional account of the mythologized historical figure. Mengara delves into the circumstances and controversies surrounding the publication of the novel and shows how Molofo "Jesus-fied" King Chaka in a sly, yet sacrilegious ploy to subvert the colonial discourse and missionary ethos of his time. This book stands as a reassessment of Thomas Mofolo's often-ignored nationalism and calls for a rediscovery of Mofolo's work in ways that resituate him within the history of the African novel as the undisputed pioneer of engaged African literature.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Colonial Discourse and the Jesus-fication of King Chaka by Daniel M. Mengara in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & African History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Chaka the Man and Chaka the Myth: Who Truly Was King Chaka?
- Chapter 2: The Chaka Manuscript: The “Lost Years” and “Lost Chapters” Controversy
- Chapter 3: Recontextualizing Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka
- Chapter 4: Thomas Mofolo and the “Jesus-fication” of King Chaka
- Chapter 5: When the Empire Strikes Back: The Sly Nationalism of Thomas Mofolo
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- About the Author