In times gone by, Xhosa women were regarded as the custodians of their culture because they told iintsomi (folk tales) to their families, therefore passing down the tradition from one generation to the next.
The equivalent of this for men, was izibongo (praise poetry) which was reserved for public performances and has survived throughout the ages.
In times gone by, Xhosa women were regarded as the custodians of their culture because they told iintsomi (folk tales) to their families, therefore passing down the tradition from one generation to the next.
The equivalent of this for men, was izibongo (praise poetry) which was reserved for public performances and has survived throughout the ages.
Imbongi (praise poets) are men selected for the specific task of "delivering poems about chiefs as well as to act as social commentators about cattle, rituals or any event that was of importance to the people" says Athambile Masola, an honours student from the School of Languages.
Masola presented her thesis entitled " Defiance, invasion of space and the quest for identity in the Nation" at the first of a series of seminars organised by students at the Faculty of Humanities.
The subject of her research in the field of African Languages is Nontsizi Mgqwetho, a Xhosa woman who defied her tradition and her gender roles by writing poetry in the style of the Izibongo.
Therefore she could "speak to Xhosa people in a language they understood and make reference to their history" Masola elaborated.
Masola uses the context of the time that Mgqwetho lived in- the 20s- to try and discover what it was that made this woman do what she did.
As one of a handful of female poets whose work was published in the liberal multilungual newspaper, Umteteli Wabantu, Mgqwetho’s success in attempting to create a female voice in the public domain is significant.
Masola says Mgqwetho’s poetry "addresses the reality of black people and their quest for identity in a segregated and oppressive society. In order to do this, she puts on a different persona in every poem".
Masola focuses on these contradictions in her thesis, questioning the poet’s ever changing identities. She notes how in one poem Mgqwetho "does not see the Bible as entirely true as it has displaced the African from what they know as true" but then goes on to suggest that the kind of leadership demonstrated by Daniel and Joshua in the Bible is "the kind of leadership that will restore the African people"
These constant contradictions in Mgqwetho’s poetry are what caused Masola to question her "unstable identity".
So when Prof Chris de Wet from the Department of Anthropology asked her what she meant by suggesting that the poet’s identity was unstable, she answered that Mgqwetho "is neither of the urban nor the rural, she is neither a Red nor a convert, she is known as a woman but speaks as a man in a male-dominated space.
Her words are constantly shifting and it is difficult to construct her identity in her context". This is partly because so little is known about Mgqwetho’s life apart from the poetry that she printed.
"You need to find out who was reading Umteteli wabantu," De Wet advised her, suggesting that this would help Masola to understand the poet and her poetry a bit more.
Leaving the question unsanswered, Masola concluded by saying: "I have tried to let the poet’s voice come through rather than postulate what she was trying to do."
