From: "R M Kunene" <KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 11:12:05 GMT+200
Subject: Bortherly talks...
Priority normal
Dear Ntongela
As usual I was
excited to get your reaction although I feel it is
still incomplete
from you of course I expected a much more
in depth
reaction or even a series of controversial reactions
so that we can
have an open fight or a satisfactory solution.
The lady who is
typing this is very analytical she expected
something more
extensive from you as she has begun to
react to your
opinions about whoever is the subject of
discussion. She was dissappointed (she expressed this
openly)
She was
expecting an extensive and comprehensive series
of
comments. Since I rely on her and her
reaction I think in
one time or
other you will state explicitely whether you
agree or
disagree with whatever opinions you found
postulated about
the ideology ( as reacted to by me of
modernism or )
disagree in other words she was expecting a
battle royal
after reading your letter she could not hide her
dissappointment. Unfortunately for you not only is she
intelligent but
also beautiful I mean beautiful not pretty like
Miss or Mrs
Hollywood but someone who can afford to leave
her beauty to
follow her and if necessary be drapped so that
it can emerge on
its own unaided by the words. In short
she
is Miss Brain
she can be critical, evaluative and encouraging
dispariging etc.
Anyway I
understand that you are engaged in many things
personally I
would have liked you to tell us ie me and my
alter ego
exactly and exactly what you think I as you
understand am
not certain about some of my opinions and
consequently I
would like them to be afirmed or totally
discarded that
is to say I have very high opinions of your
valuations and I
despite my opinions find myself cautious as I
express them to
you especially when I touch such a delicate
subject as
modernism you would have noticed that I am not
hundred percent
convinced about its value as a social
idiology yet I
have to conceed that the technological
perspective as described by imperatives of technological
progress
valid. Of course social progress can be
impacted
by technological
progress by not in terms of in absolute.
On Jordan I
agree with you. Your assessment is pat
on in
fact I would go
further and say Jordan was in some way one
of those people
who are broken and undermined by the
desire to be
part of westernism without realising that
westernism by
itself is fundamental legging far behind from
the challenges
of humanism in other words westernism is
dominated by a
series of formulaie if not sometimes
drowned by them
to the point that they are suspended and
are made to
coexist without an intergrative process in other
words one can
find a very highly intellectual and progressive
formular which
is not responded to the person's
everyday
practises and
beliefs. In relation to Jordan to me a
person
like him is not
brave enough to choose one or other of the
directions in
short he is not Kunene who doesn't care
whether a
dogmatic marxists or dogmatic humanist
sentamentalist
without on his own evolving a doctrine and a
practise that is
intergrated. My example of this is that
of my
friend Che
Guevara who died in Bolivia persuing the
universal idea
of liberation and freedom for people. As for
Ngubane he could
not in a thousand years transcend these
frameworks yet
in order for one to achieve an intergration of
them one must
transcend them.
As for Ngubane I
agree with you and unfortunately I knew
the man
personally and had a youthful revulsion of his
infertile
dogmatism about the beauty of the (western
formulaie) it is
not real big crime to have a western
formulaie but it
is a crime to be totally absorbed by it to the
extent that you
yourself can cease to exist.
To be continued...fraternally......
From: "R M Kunene" <KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2000 15:06:24 GMT+200
Subject: answers, questions
Priority normal
Dear Brother
Ntongela
There is a crucial
point that I need to be covered. Namely
that what we are
comparing here are incompatibles or
partially
incompatibles. In short I think we
should separate
the focus on
ideologies as focused by those writers whether
its Ngubane or
Vilakazi by ideology here i mean the basic
and fundamental
springboard from which these writers come
from or at the
time of our focus where their minds are
centred. Broadly you will find that when you discuss
Zulusm
or Zulu
Nationalism and the implimentation of such doctrines
within the
framework of literature there is a great desperate
for instance
Kunene starts of from the very beginning, that
his engagement
in African thoughts and systems are
based
entirely and
totally on the meaning of the African continent
and its
philosophical and political roots. The
result always
is that focusing
on the locale such as Zululand or Yoruba
land or Ghana
land forces the author not to grasp the totality
of his
experience on the African setting. So
he would find
that there two
levels postulated by this perspective namely
that the
material he or she concerned with is based on either
the concrete
initiatives of that particular region but on the
other hand his
material would be based on the much more
universal
African experience an experience which makes
me identify who
is or who is not an African and this is not
based on colour
but on how that person utilises his
experiences on
the universal level of dealing with non-
Africans in
short someone can be black but not African
someone can be
white but be African example Moroccan,
Algeria there
maybe lighter in colour but meeting them i can
still tell this
person is from Africa by his manner and his
mentality. it is a complicated question which means
that
when you are
dealing with an issue concerned with a
literally text
what concerns me is whether that text is
motivated by an
ideology (Universal) that is African or not.
This can become
clear when you compare Selope Thema in
the era where he
is an African totally in his writing and
Ngubane when he
is reluctant or ashamed to be an African.
It is the same
when we are discussing Kunene and Vilakazi
we must decide
whether Kunene is motivated at that point
by the basic
idiots that characterise the African system and
those in
Vilakazi that betray the influence of the phrasing
and the thinking
in the western perspective. Of course
this is
a difficult
issue for Vilakazi because he had to start by
framing the
structures in terms of language and shape in
writting of
African poetry whereas kunene although he did
not have
Vilakazi as a point of reference initially he revolves
and he is in a
position to (against Vilakazi in a short spell
because he
already has had some advantage in vilakazism
and he is
revolting against what exists but he is incomplete)
Kunene launches
his writtings at an earlier age of seven
years based on a
strong grip of his experience of the rising
sun. he is also helped by the fact that his family owns vast
land that belong
only to the family and therefore his mental
framework tells
him that he is an African dealing with
outsiders ie
Europeans in fact Europeans that visits his home
are welcome but
the children are often revolted at using the
utinsils that
have been used by Europeans. This is
not
exactly racism
although it may look like it but rather an idea
of the insiders
and outsiders. This enables him very
early to
base his mental
framework on an African traditional idiom
without the
sense of dealing with something inferior or
superior but
just as an invetibility. That is also
the problem
you would find
in Ngubane, Ngubane is as you say
influenced by
Thema at first because Selope is
anchored on
his African base
ie the land but Ngubane later on become
alienated from
his African place that is Thema and then
begins to persue
the idea of being elevated into a higher
and better
European life? That is where the
conflict arises
from it is also
a conflict that is going to bug many African
intellectuals
the African American are luckier ( then also
Latin Americans)
than Africans. In that they carry with
them
the buggage of
being African wherever they are because it is
the weapon for
them of survival consequently it would be the
African American
who will not be challenged radically by
the idea of
being African or European or whereas the African
is African at
his base but he is not challenged by any other
ism as is the
case with the African American who is
challenged or
incircled by Europeanism and has to fight with
all possible
weapons to be what he is. This vain
runs
through the
argumetn about the language you see my dear
Ntongela Africa
languages has an completely different
perspective in
ripping out the galaxies that
characterise its
richness. The Eurpenean language has got different
avenues through
which it reaches a similar goal that is why
the African who
uses the English language in writting
creatively, the
literature that is poetry is unable or limited in
trying to reach
the same centre as can be reached he or she
is writting on
an African language that is it makes it very
difficult for an
African text to be translated and centred to
attain the same
dramatic originality as in the case of those
using english as
their mother tongue equally the African who
are then
conditioned to write their poetical text in english
are unable to
achieve the same complexity of significance
as in the case
of an english author. it is easy for me
to pick
up those poems
in Vilakazi or ideas in Ngubane which are
derivative of
western creative works such works are limited
not becuase the
author is limited but because the linguistic
intent is
different. Don't worry yourself about
me and
Vilakazi there
is no doubt in my mind that the volume of
Vilakazis works
(analytical) are vaster than mine.
Equally
there is no
doubt that kunenes works compared to Vilakazi is
like making an
comparism a life works (Vilakazi) to Kunenes
one months
works. Vilakazi was concerned with
the
problem of
transition to a much more formal structure as
dictated by the
english language in the context of
transposing
African ideas into a totally different western
contexts in
other words African poetry is performed and is
part of public
ceremonies and therefore has an instant
audience whereas
Europeans literally and poetic framework
is not only
private but also limited to an audience that is
supposedly can
excess what is written and what belongs to a
particular class
namely middle and upper class and the class
of people who
are literate in a literally sense and not
necessary in
terms of formal education. I am thinking here of
those people who
postulated their poetry in public or in
limited
audiences with recorders of the poetic works as they
were spoken such
as Mahabaratha etc.
I will write one
day and in depth and comprehensive essay
on Vilakazi I
would have to reread Selope Thema's text in
order to recall
and judge fairly the comparism you make as i
trust you
intellectually I think I would rely on your
judgement. The final word on Ngubane is that I think
he
was able to
transcend the limitations of one frame of thought
to another frame
of thought ie western and African. I
can
freely postulate
that a person who write in their language
and goes on to
write in a second language would produce
something better
in their original works and occassionally
write something
interesting in the second language.
Especially if
they use some of the idioms borrowed from the
first language
which invetible will sound fresh and unusual
in the second
language.
Finally in fact
one of the things that has made things difficult
for me
concerning having to finish your introduction to
Dhlomo is
precisely because I had an immediate and
pressing
deadline on Tambo which I think my friend here is
now about to
finish typing it, you can imagine that with all
these assignment
she is no longer smiling give me a chance
I will finish
soon.
Best regards to
all my friends and enemies.
Mathabo is well
thanks so is the rest of the family.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 11:04:16 GMT+200
Subject: greetings
Priority normal
Dear Brother Ntongela
What a great
relief to receive your letter. You can
imagine
that everyday I
tried to write an introduction to Dhlomo but
without your
comments and inspiration i am crippled.
What
is worse I have
been asked to write the chapter on Tambo,
the chapter on
liberation movement outside ( between you
and me i think I
will not write I will leave it to the hacks like
Shh...shh..shh..sh...
you know who) I like the idea that you
suggested on
writting on Vilakazi in fact I wrote a poem on
him a few days ago this means my spirit has
become linked
with him, I have
also forgiven him for having tended to write
in the spirit of
the english romantics. My objection to
him
was that he
tended to elevate, for my liking these english
romantic poets
but then i have revisited him and entered to
his spirit and
realised that he himself began to change into
an anthetic
african poet and writer. I think
Vilakazi
rediscovered
himself in the course of elaborating on the
idioms and
anthetic concepts of writting on african based
themes.
Whereas I began
from zero possessed by the gods that made
me see the ocean
and the sun simultaneously I was also
surrounded by
the spirit of both my great grandmother and
my grandfather
both these gods surrounded me and named
me as their
child. I would very pleased to write
on Vilakazi
but give me a
chance to write on the challenges before me
ie epics. Yes Ngubane I think he was a great and
disciplined
intellectual
except that such intellectuals in the South
African contexts
become glorified by liberals ie Middle class
or aspirants to
middle classism as a result they become
disorientated
and aspire to be elevated as intellectuals in the
European sense
by the way I would you to get in touch with
Maphalala who
seems to know a lot about Ngubane. Of
course I also
knew him intimately but as an aeristocrat I
dispise him he
seemed to have swallowed the pill of
foreignsm. Of
course by aeristocratism it means a
different
thing from the
decandent western style that appropriates all
the resources
enclose their gates to the destitute of the
community, he
also was striving hard not to the african but
our gods are
older always then foreign gods. Maphalala is at
the University
of Zululand in the department of history as the
Head of
Department. He is I think one of the
best if not the
best african
historian. His presentation at
graduation (Phd)
was in Zulu his
mother tongue. I am not being chauvanistic
here in fact I
am a bastard between Zulu and Swazi or Zero.
You could tell
him that I suggested his name to you he is a
friend of mine.
Yes I agree with
you I am one of the greatest poet the world
has ever seen in
fact I am an phenomenal in saying that i am
only talking
about him or her not me. In this context I am
only an observer
whatever I write or say in this context it is
all almost
dictated to me by some force or power about
which I am not
in total control of, yes I have been very lucky
in these days
there is a girl whose spirit corresponds with me
you can not
imagine I draw from her, I would say I am in
love but my
ancestors warned not to be so it is a question of
choice between
their creativity and my interest since they
are superior to
me they would easily distroy me the day I
choose the
latter as against their sacred mission.
I know
you as a sceptic
will not believe in these things but what
explaination can
I have to the phenomenal. It is enough
for
me to embrace it
so that I can have the sacred energy to
create on the
scale i am challenged to create at the present.
For you I wish
this kind of window to see into your own
creative powers.
I am with her
constant harrassments going to complete
Dhlomo in fact
it is an everyday thing for me from her I am
sure I would
finish in fact i have already written quite a
number of pages
but the question she constantly ask is how
many pages am I
suppose to write and when I answer that it
is 40 pages she
says that is crazy since it is not pages that
matter but the
substance. As i think of what she says
I think
she is right
because one becomes obsessed with the destiny
as dictated by
pages and not the free and outpourings of the
ideas.
At the moment
she is yawning as she feels this is a long
enough letter
can you confirm the number of pages that you
have legislated
that I should write.
How are you
beside all the challenges before you, are you in
good health well
you sound like but then a human being is
not the same as
he presents himself to the audience ie Me as
the part of the
audience but I ask you finally dont stop
writting me if
not in emails at least fax I need your daily
support as I
write this text believe me I have read,
underlined the
text you sent in all the significant segments
infact I think
if I had ten years to write my own text I utilise
the ideas and
themes contained in your text. Do you
know I
have
reservations about the idea of modernism which I think
is dictated by
the perspective of western technologism.
I
prefer progress
as defined by the Chinese and or Africans
prior to
colonisation.It seems to me modernism is an
appropriation of
the idea of western superiority to describe
technology as a
symbol of the highest achievements of all
phases of human
kind.
Yet to me
civilisation can be described as that which was an
exstant in the era of Pithecathropus Erectus. The
supposation that
poeple were once not civilised. Is an
incredible claim
since according to my own vision people
change their
environment in correspondence to the demands
of that
environment.
Best wishes.
Hope to hear
from you soon.
Your
brother Mazisi
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 10:26:04 GMT+200
Subject: touching base
Priority normal
Dear brother Ntongela
I have not heard
from you in a long time hopefully you are
well. You do know that if I don't hear from you my
creativity
can not flourish
in a way that I would like so please get in
touch and tell
me what has been happening on your side.
I am doing well
in the writting and everything is moving
smoothly but
again it would be much better if you can
contact me,
please.
Hope to hear
from you soon.
Best wishes
Your brother.
Mazisi Kunene
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 14:17:59 GMT+200
Subject: KEEPING IN TOUCH
Priority normal
Dear Brother Ntongela
Your words
always inspire and challenge me a greater deal
but it seems
that these days you have kept yourself silent,
why is
that? Please write to me, share what
has been going
on with you and
I shall wait your reply.
Your Brother
Mazisi Kunene
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 13:12:18 GMT+200
Subject: A short note
Priority normal
Dear Brother Ntongela
I am confronted
with a request of "Anthem of the
decades"
and
"Emperor Shaka The Great" can you try and trace these
books. They were both published by Heinmaan and partially
financed by
UNESCO. By the way did I tell you that
I
desperately the
record book which is used by offices I am
told it is
available at office depos every year and usually
copies follow
each year either they are trashed after
that or
sold very cheaply can you trace about ten volumes
for me I
need them
urgently for my magnus opus. This is
urgent for
this documents I
am prepared to go to America in the next
two months in
fact a friend of mine Norman Lea the film
maker has
invited me to come whatever whenever I so
choose. This is not a letter but a special request
to you
please respond
to my other letter I do enjoy the dialogue we
are having
through email.
The rest of the
discussion will be continued in due course.
Best regards
Prof. Mazisi
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 12:10:21 GMT+200
Subject: Priority normal
P.S. there is a
theory that each universe give rise to other
universes
therefore I am not surprised that the constillation
of the Masilela clan coexisted with the Kunene clan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 12:06:03 GMT+200
Subject: Replying again
Priority normal
Dear Brother
Ntongela
Please
understand and understand clearly that I never never
as a flippant
and the lightheaded spirit. When I met
you in
Berlin you were
so serious for me that I felt embarrassed in
myself that I
was solely and utterly concerned with the war
against South
Africa. You will recall that I was
moving office
to office
looking for legal and illegal avenues to deal with
the issue of
liberation.
In short I was a
fanatic ready to die if necessary for liberation
in this I was
under the direction of none other than Mabhida
KaSitimela my
commander. I may have wrongly thought
the
issue of
discussing about Dhlomo, Ngubane even Vilakazi
will be
flippant. You can imagine that I never
even
discussed with
Tambo or anybody else about my writtings.
My writting of
Empire Shaka the great was not as an
obsession about
Zulus but about the strategies of war fare
that Shaka so
perfectly devised imagine in this
context my
joy to learn
that the book about Shaka the great was a must
for all members
of Umkhonto Wesizwe. I am telling you this
to give you an
idea or that you can recall my state of mind at
that time. I have not changed much the only thing that
has
changed is the
strategy and that I now have avoided to
indulge in those
things that were to lead to my physical and
mental
distruction such as the excess drinking which I had to
do considering
that I was travelling to every part of the world
preaching and
creating underground fanatics who were
volunteers from
other countries. Since I was in a
state in
which I was in
my mind destined to die in the battlefield I did
not even take
seriously those women who were hanging
around me, the
only woman I thought of seriously was a
friend of mine
who was Moroccan whose name I never got to
know only I knew
was that she was a member of an
underground
under Ben Barka Liberation Movement.
She
probably is now
dead because she was ready to be assigned
to some of the
most dangerous mission. I am telling
you this
because I was to
envoke in you the memory of the
atmosphere under
which I operated. I am sorry if I had
seemed to have
not taken you seriously, I ALWAYS took you
seriously and I
always thought you will be the only person or
the only
intellectual who could genuinely record our history.
Yes I will go to
Pietermaritzburg as soon as I can to see
Nyembezi the
poor alternative will be to send somebody
there.
Incidentally you
stated in one of your letters or was it an
enquiry that
Vilakazi was a central model for my writtings,
actually when I
began to write I had no model I was only
obsessed and
haunted by the sight of a big gigantic sun
emerging from
the ocean like a ball of fire as our house was
on top of the
hill nicknamed the hill of the quiet winds.
I was
mesmerised by
this whole spectacle where I could see the
sun rising
follow it around our building to its moment certain
in the
west. This even forced my father to
buy me a folding
table which I
could use for writting around the building and
when I went to
the forest to write. Yes at first I
tried Dhlomo
but I had to
switch to Vilakazi as he wa writting in Zulu well
since we were
aristocatic family the idea of writting in a
foreign language
was unthinkable and to my father a lowly
act. I am furnishing you with this data so that I
don't have to
do this later
pity some of the manuscript of this period are
lost, I may
state that a man called Ngema was the head
teacher was the
first man to acclaim that "My boy you wrote
this, this is
good poetry in fact great poetry. "
I was
astounded since
I didn't even know what he was talking
about all I knew
was that I too write according to the impulse
that was
troubling me. It was a fanatical drive
that some
thought towards
self-destruction. The only connection
people tended to
make was that since my mother was such a
great singer
maybe I will follow her. Well we all
could not
see nor could my
brother who tried piano and some ugly
foreign operatic
house. I was a barbarian who was always
ready to fight
and always had to have interventions from the
family to stop
my fighting no wonder that I have this gaping
hole in my head
from the same wars from a boy of the
Mkhize family
who did with the big boulder.
In conclusion
when I grew up then I had no skills whatsoever
of dealing with
women that is the softer side of life
consequently I
could not be saved. My relations then
with
women were
always disasterous that is impatient and ready
to dump and be
dumped. In other words I was simply
imbalance
perhaps nature needed me to have a vast and
divers
experience of life which I obtained. A
dictionary of
course I was
thought of a kind of beast all this was
inaccurate
discription by those who thought that was me but
in fact I needed
only to relate to my creative forces thank
god I am now
balanced in that I have no fears of life or
death
spiritually and otherwise.
I am going to
pursue the idea of writting a good introduction
on your book as
a way also of reviewing my own
theories,
of course these
theories I have already articulated in the
earlier part of
my essay we shall wait and see how critic my
approach and of
course since it is your book we must enrich
I am prepared to
critic whatever I say in balance of your
opinions. Finally meantime you should read my mind
about
some of the
statements arising from my own
approaches
e.g. that all
intellectuals from South Africa were influence,
controlled
undermined in one way or other by their absence
of an ideology
that springs from their own cultures and
traditions. In other words my stipulation is grossly
that no
one can be a
true intellectual without an anchorage in their
own traditions
and cultures in fact this is the energy the force
that escalate
the power of creativity.
Best regards as
always
*Greetings to
the family faraternally Mazisi
Kamdabuli We
Kunene.
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 12:15:23 GMT+200
Subject: Reply
Priority normal
First of all to
business first C.L.S.Nyembezi is very much alive
he had a stroke
but he is recovering very well or shall say
'Jazzically' so
I was told by reliable sources I intend to visit
him myself as
soon as I get settled with what I am doing
hopefully if he
is well I will carry a tape recorder.
As for Maphumulo
and Ngidi I remember their names in my
youth vaguelly
as my father was a great reader of his sacred
Ilanga Lase
Natali. I don't think they ever wrote
any book or
any big
literally work I will search though from Killie
Campbell Centre.
Jordan Ngubane
is a complicated character, yes I met him
many times in
fact he used to come to my place very often
fortunately or
unfortunately I belong to the Kunene family
that means
simply I am trained in loyalt. He could
call me
dogmatic for
having felt a certain revulsion for him
(motivated by my
loyalty to the organisation therefore
needing no
alternative opinions the fact that he had joined
the liberal
party and dogmatically anti-communist made me
have a deep
contempt for him) at the same time I realised
that he was a
man , an intellectual with deep loyalties
towards western
directions of intellectualism.He also was so
vicious on
Luthuli that I felt protective towards Luthuli whose
gentleness and
political I knew very well. In this
case he
seemed to be
trading on Luthuli's very soul to the
white
audience in
South Africa maybe my violent judgement on
him was based on
the fact that I knew Luthuli as my father
and I knew his
gentleness and generosity. It is a pity
that
you are not
writting on Luthuli that will give you an
opportunity to
judge on the fundamental question of
modernism and so
called traditionalism this I think will give
you an
incredible balance in your judgement and also give
you insight on
Tambo when you start writting about him.
Nevertheless I
still think that Ngubane was a man possessed
with a
disciplined but misguided political opinions by
misguided I mean
he was over influenced by western
intellectualls.
Of course there is Chinese intellectualism,
African, Indian,
PreAmerican intellectualism they are all
based on the
idea of searching for meaning on a universal
scale this we
must identify first before we make conclusions
about whether
this or that is fitting for a particular period or
era. Thank God we have reached the era of
universalism at
least within our
planet that for me will be a direction towards
modernism it
must include all trends positively (towards
relevant or a
relevant doctrine or doctrines towards
universalism)
On 'Jazz' I will
comment please treat Jazz as a way founded
by African
Americans towards modernism they were lucky
because their
religion was stylised in African directions and
therefore we can
regard them as a first and the most
dynamic force
towards recreating an alternative to
westernism we
must also bear in mind that they were lucky
also because
they were victims of the most vicious attempts
to sterilize
them and recruit them as appendages of the
western
doctrines. their revolt and reaction in
language and
in spirit and in
the preservation of what remain to define
them as African
became a quality of reenforcement towards
enabling them to
define themselves as Africans i.e.as
children of
Africa this has guaranteed them as our
ideological
leaders in the sphere of change that is why those
scholars and
writers in Cuba, Brazil, South United States are
correct when
they stipulate that they are the keepers of the
sacred
calabbash.
I hope you still
have access to my document which I wrote
when I was in
America on your instigation on this subject.
There are some
people who are on the way to being
Africans and
there are some who have turned away
(ideologically)
from being African. It seems to me that
the
strength of
civilizations, modernism etc lies in a people to
anchor their
persepectives on their past i.e. ideologies that
define
them.
On Dhlomo I
think he was an intellectual writer without
doubt but never
equate him to the Kunene. The problem
we
have here is
that he tended to address the western audience
and was forced
to talk as if he was apologetic about his
tradition. His brother was lucky in this sense that he
was
writting in his
language, this note the attempts by people
who were totally
exiled from Africa that they began to create
languages that
were neo Africa or rooted and based on their
ideologies of
Africa some take a route of using gaja and
rastafarians
using hash to re experience (if only in fantasy)
the great
reality of Africans do not look down on them in
their attempts
to recoup their individualism, Africanism.
Likely we are
now moving towards an era that is going to
celebrate Africa
genuinely without the phony attempts of the
so called
intellectuals i.e. pseudo westerns. No
one can fully
celebrate this
quality of intellectualism in a foreign context
to do so one
must anchor totally in the culture and do I dare
say, the
language from which he comes from.
Finally my
verdict on Kunene and Dhlomo is simply it will
take a thousands
years for Kunene to be born again.
Hope to hear
from you soon.
M. Kunene
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 10:59:11 GMT+200
Subject: Reply
Priority normal
Dear Brother Ntongela
One must marvel
a creation for having created a species
called
American. Although this species is
limited in many
ways it has
(pending its deep and ancient cultures of China,
India, Africa
and Pre-America) unless they imitate and learn
from these deep
and massive civilization of the past they will
be in a position
to have created or create for themselves and
for humanity in
general a great civilization.
Note a new
civilization I refer to will combine the actual
human
civilization i.e. social civilization and mental
civilization of
crisis called technology and sometimes called
modernity. I know this is unfair to you before you
absorb the
great
perseptions that I will intergrate into the critic of the
introduction to
your Masterpiece and great research.
You ask me a
relevant question: How is Kunene rated
in
relation to
Dhlomo, Velakazi et al? Well I think
the answer
is simply and
logical none of these writers wrote with a
global and
universal perspective because they were trapped
in their own era
and local problems (note that Kunene
transcended the
politics from which he learned many things
relating to the
global challenges) First of all I
think Velakazi
was great of
course could not be greater than kunene Ha!
Kunene is a
phenomenal as generations hereafter will
affirm. Secondly you noticed that the people that
come
closer to
Kunene's estimation wrote in their language that is
Mqhayi, R.R.
Dhlomo and Vilakazi they had the challenge to
enter into the
depths of their souls that stretch invatible to
the eras of
their past, nobody who neglects the eras of the
contributions of
ancient times shall ever be great. The
reason to me is
obvious greatness issues from the womb of
the earth the
earth is our mother and all our wisdom comes
from this
connection and relationship. Yes, the
others have
made an effort
to glorify the spectacular exit of the mind to
things visual
i.e. the romantics and others but because they
abandon the
direct challenges of the earth they were
punished by the
earth and remain interesting but unachored
and minimal i.e.
not universal. I never underestimated
your
critisms in fact
I am learning a lot from your thesis here of
course I will
have my own views on modernism. I think
modernism is a
good idea as long as it is not glorified as a
psychological
condition in other words glorified without
realising that
it is an instrument of control glorified by those
who exercise
power. This is in relation to
circumstances
relating to
countries and movements such as missionarism,
technological
advancement as in ideological statement and
justification of
exercising power over the technological
disadvantaged it
means my Dear Ntongela that technology is
relevant to the
challenges imposed on us by the material
crisis of our
era. In short we are getting more and more
exposed to the
scarsity and organisations that relate to the
need to
transform our technologies in relation to the
President but we
are warned by history that we should never
totally abandon
that wisdom that mushroomed from our
relations
stipulated by our earth base.
My friend here
is telling me to wrap up this email and I will
since people
like her will only get angry inside are more
dangerous than
those people who frequently express their
anger in
spectacular demostrations. I will conclude
by
saying the
obvious namely that the control of language with
all its
philosophies is crucial it always pulls back to base
and in fact you
define the universe and the universal in
terms of our
anchorage to the earth. Yes I know you
will
disagree with me
but after a while you will think and
rethink
and begin the
process of admitting that perhaps Kunene had
a point or was
right (any chance for that happening).
You asked what
am I doing here well here is the answer, I
am contested
cake between the University of Natal and Natal
Technikon on the
verge of my being moved from Natal
Technikon sent
its messangers and said thank you we are
here to collect
Kunene at which point Natal Varsity said No
he is ours since
then they had continued say it with a bang
by providing me
with offices but no telephone thanks to the
students who
made so many telephone calls that the phone
was disconnected
unless I paid R27000, which I did not have
and still not
have therefore I am here at Natal Technikon
with three
offices with a telephone and peace to write my
many
Masterpieces. Fortunately there are
friends here one
of them being
the one who is typing for me without pay but
hoping to be
paid eventually and often capable conversing
intellectually
with me. I wish this lady on you she is
great
without
realising it if only she could stop one habit which I
wont mention it
since she is typing this note.
I have a great
artist here named Andries Botha who
fanatically
looking everywhere for funding for me so that I
am totally free
from any concern or thought about money.
That explains
everything she says to Wrap up so I will.
Thank you for
being there for me to talk to .
Best regards
Mazisi Kunene
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "R M Kunene"
<KuneneM@umfolozi.ntech.ac.za>
Organization: Technikon Natal
To: NMASILEL@bernard.PITZER.EDU
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 10:14:50 GMT+200
Subject: Reply
Priority normal
Dear Brother Ntongela
Today I
completed reading and rereading your tome on
Dhlomo but you
poisoned my mind when you quoted Dholmo
refleting on the
importance of creativity "South Africa is
legging behind
other countries because in cultural as in
social matters,
she neglects and even deliberately stifles the
real soul of the
country... the African... but the Muses
recognise not
colour frontiers, and South Africa will only
reap poverty and
shame for her sins against the Voice and
Spirit of God;
for art is of God. That is why it
cannot be
taugth or
acquired. It is inborn or god-given
those who stand
against artistic
talents challenge The Creator Himself... the
irony is that it
is the African who will in the near future
produce
outstanding and even performing talent."
Although
this statement
can be taken as prophetic in predicting the
coming of Mazisi
Kunene, arguably the greatest African poet
in the
twentieth-century, how does Dhlomo's own creative
achievement
measure up in the context of this astonishing
and
extraordinary valorization of the creative act and art
itself! The person who defines others as inferior
and
incapable of a
higher capacity for intellectual reasoning
defines himself/herself
as such. Such a person has entered
the propaganda's
sphere as a varitable defination of the
Other. He or she has become a victim of those in
power who
must of
necessity define the mind that must rule on his or her
behalf. It is no surprise therefore that the rulers
must not
and do not
believe the tenants of their doctrine about the
ruled and yet
fear them. From here begins your
chapter on
the critic and a
valuation of Dhlomo's intellect and
contribution. Not so long after this beginning I shall
send
you the whole
chapter of the introduction. Give me
only a
few weeks maybe
days and you will receive the introductory
treatise as
handled by me the Master.
Thank you for
everything and exposing me through your
manuscript to a
whole lot of ideas, challenges and necks to
slew. Wait for my sword. I promise you I will use both
hands. It me Mazisi Kamdabuli W`Ekunene.