Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Colonial Discourse and the Jesus-fication of King Chaka: How Thomas Mofolo's Chaka Turned the Zulu Monarch into a Messiah

Colonial Discourse and the Jesus-fication of King Chaka: How Thomas Mofolo's Chaka Turned the Zulu Monarch into a Messiah

Mengara, Daniel M.

Hardcover

African HistoryFiction AnthologiesGeneral Political Science

ISBN10: 1793650950
ISBN13: 9781793650955
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: Aug 30 2024
Pages: 214
Weight: 1.07
Height: 0.63 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
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.

Also in

General Political Science

View All