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JOHN KNOX BOKWE |
| John Knox Bokwe belongs to the great constellation of Xhosa intellectuals who were first among African people that had to confront and make sense of the historical meaning of modernity in the period between 1880 and 1920. They were all born in the same decade of the 1850s: Elijah Makiwane and Pambani Jeremiah Mzimba were born in 1850, Walter Rubusana in 1858, and John Tengo Jabavu in 1859. This generation of African intellectuals was occupied with not only affirming the historical choices of their great predecessor Tiyo Soga (1929-71), the most fundamental among which that the African people had to align themselves with modernity, but also were preoccupied with the historical task of constructing African modernities in reaction to the European modernities which had made and formed them to what they were by pulling them away from African traditional societies. Consequently, one of the central intellectual dramas of this period was the search of the historical conditions and possibilities of creating African modernities against European modernities. This was a momentous task imbricated in paradoxes and conundrums. In founding in 1884 and in aligning themselves with John Tengo Jabavu's Imvo Zabantsundu newspaper against Lovedale Missionary Institution's Isigidimi sama Xosa (and Kaffir Express), Rubusana, Mzimba, Makiwane, Bokwe and others, were participating in the making of a new national historical project. It was also the willing of a new historical vision of African modernity when these intellectuals and others founded the Native Educational Association in 1879 and later the Lovedale Literary Society. Yet a most fascinating paradox is that these intellectuals' hostility toward the Ethiopian Movement founded by Mangane Maake Mokone (1851-1930) in 1892, was a failure to recognize that this historical intent of establishing to independent African churches, free from European hegemonic theological dictates, was part of the quest in constructing African modernities. Although John Knox Bokwe's central involvement with Imvo Zabantsundu was only in the years between 1898 and 1900, he nevertheless epitomized many of the contradictions, paradoxes and tensions of such centrally situated and positioned intellectuals such as Walter Rubusana. Hence Bokwe's book, Ntsikana: The Story of an African Convert (1914), was both a historical retrieval of Africanism and a historical reception of Europeanism. Precisely thirty years earlier in 1885 in the columns, editorials and articles of Imvo Zabantsundu, barely a few months after the founding of the newspaper, John Knox Bokwe was at the center of the intellectual controversy, which had implication on the nature of the intercrossing and intersection between Africanism and Europeanism, concerning the matter of 'native education'. The controversy, which enveloped the newspaper for months, was whether teaching classics (Latin and Greek) to Africans beneficial to their entrance into modernity, as it was supposedly evident in the instance of Europeans. John Knox Bokwe articulated a very astute political position on this matter which was unfortunately misunderstood by a large proportion of African intellectuals. His standing in South African intellectual history will endure, if we take the critical judgement of Z. K. Matthews as among the most authoritative, given that he has written the most informed intellectual and political history of those African intellectuals who were centrally engaged with the question of entrance into modernity: "During this period Bokwe turned his hand to many different kinds of work at all of which he proved himself very proficient. . . . A gifted musician Bokwe not only delighted Lovedale audiences with his singing and conducting of choirs but also with his playing of the piano and the organ and with his musical compositions. . . . His evangelistic work prospered and he established flourishing outstations in the surrounding farms, may of which were unfortunately abandoned because of evictions of Africans from Europeans farms in the area. . . . Rev John Knox Bokwe was a highly cultured man whose tastes and interests showed that he had assimilated the best elements of Western Civilisation. He moved with ease and confidence and proper decorum in any civilised circle, this did not, however detract from the deep interest he had in matters relating to his own cultural background. . . . The idea that in order to remain true to one's background and people one must shun all association with other cultures is falsified by the experience of all our great African leaders. Just as it has been said 'what does he know of England who only England knows?' so we can say 'what does he know of African culture who only African culture knows?' The leaders about whom we have written----Jabavu, Mzimba, Dube, Plaatje, Bokwe----and others about whom we are yet to write----Rubusana, Makiwane, Sihlali----drank deep at the spring of western civilisation and yet they remained true Africans, loyal to the best traditions of their people and good examples of what has been described as the African personality" ("Rev. John Knox Bokwe", Imvo Zabantsundu, July 29, August 5, 1961). This is compelling appraisal and evaluation. It should be declared in the interests of fair play that the passion in this statement may perhaps be explained by the fact that Z. K. Matthews was married to John Knox Bokwe's daughter, Frieda. In his autobiography, Freedom For My People, Z. K. Matthews relates that before being allowed to marry her, he had to explain to the contentment of Frieda's numerous why he possessed an English name. Bokwe has written other works including the following religious texts: Imbali kaNehemiya indoda yamadoda (1898, The Story of Nemiah: A Man among Men), Ibandla lezizwe ezifunda izibhalo (1892, The Church of Nations: The Study of Scriptures), and Iindumiso zika Davide (1921, The Psalms of David). | |