A Morula tree between two fields : the commentary of selected Tsonga writers

Abstract

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.