Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, South Africa,1985. / In the first chapter we are given the biography of Joyce Jessie Gwayi, including a section on her domestic position, her present occupation and her state of health. It is her state of health that has made it impossible for her to undertake any further literary work. This has been the worst drawback to the budding Zulu historical novelist. Here also a few writers of various Zulu books are reviewed. Most of these books found their way into the classroom because there had been no Zulu literature except the Holy Bible. This was so chiefly because, for a long time, schools belonged to missionaries whose primary aim was to bring the Christian Gospel to the Black people.
Moses Ngcobo, Gwayi's husband, inspired her because, as a novelist, he had already written the historical work on the Xhosa National Suicide.
Gwayi wanted to write about Dingiswayo Mthethwa, her ancestor, after discovering through research that the names Gwayi and Mthethwa were synonymous, used in the Transkei and Natal respectively.
She discovered that Shaka Zulu grew up under the guidance of Dingiswayo Mthethwa and that after uniting the Zulu and the Mthethwa Tribes, he initiated a period of conquest. Gwayi seems to have been interested in this period which is known as "Difaqane" and thus used the Tlokoa Tribe, with its 'warrior queen', as the subject of her first novel Bafa Baphela, It was after the completion of this novel that she wrote Shumpu after which she wrote the third book Yekanini.
The theme, structure and plot in each novel conform to the pattern as has been diagrammatically represented in the dissertation. There is exhibited a very well developed sunrise, noontide and sunset trend in each novel.
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To achieve this the novel must have a variety of characters. We find Gwayi's heroes and heroines behaving realistically, especially in view of the fact that some of them are real historical people. Both her simple and complex characters behave very much like ourselves or our acquaintances. There are characters central to the plot and also those who are included simply to enrich the setting of the story. Gwayi even has characters who are ancestors of living people.
In Chapter Four, the milieu of Gwayi's books is discussed. Ancient people have a different culture from modern people so that as her characters lived prior to westernization, they conform to their environment. This aspect is obtained from traditional and oral history because Zulus were, up to then, illiterate. Attire, food and religion, however, remained largely unchanged for a long period of time. Ancestor worship, it is true, has been disturbed by the introduction of Christianity. On the military side it was Dingiswayo Mthethwa who regimented his warriors and Shaka Zulu who revolutionized the method of fighting by introducing a short spear (Iklwa).
It is the style, language and technique that disclose the fact that the novels have been written by two people. (Gwayi confirmed this fact to the author.) The language in the first two books leaves much to be desired. For example, some expressions are used in such a manner that a non-Zulu reader may be confused. This is regrettable since Gwayi cannot now do anything about it. The language of the third book is good. The structure could have been Gwayi's, but Ngcobo so deftly manipulated the language that this book proves to be the best of the three. Ngcobo ends the book so conveniently that the reader becomes anxious to know what happened to Zwide Ndwandwe and Shaka Zulu when Dingiswayo had gone. It leaves the reader with a wish to read his next book, which deals with the conflict between Zwide and Shaka.
It is unfortunate that Gwayi and Ngcobo do not revise and edit the books to the advantage of the future Zulu reader.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1158 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Creators | Mayekiso, Amlitta Cordelia Theresa-Marie |
| Contributors | Ngcongwane, S.D. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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