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THOMAS MOFOLO |
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by Clement Martyn Doke The International Institute has done a great service in publishing Mofolo's classical work in this English translation. The book that has charmed for so many years the readers of Sotho (Sesuto) may now have its appeal to a much wider reading public. Chaka is a masterpiece of dramatic literature, and when it is realised that Thomas Mofolo is a humble of very moderate education wonder as his achievement is increased tenfold. In most dramatic fashion Mofolo traces the life of the great Zulu tyrant Chaka from the time when he was an outcast and a wanderer to the time when Isanusi, the “doctor,” gained his influence over him, persuaded him to part with every tender feeling and human attachment, and rewarded him with the “kingdom” for which he had yearned. But the price Chaka paid was too great, he became a beast craving blood, sacrificed his beloved Noliwe and his mother Nandi who had suffered so much for him, and his own death at the hands of his brothers was the only end possible to such a monster. We cannot help feeling that it is a pity that this subject was not treated by a Zulu writer. No Zulu writer has yet risen, however, to such high literary position as Mofolo. The English translation has been well carried out by Dutton and he is to be congratulated upon a most successful piece of work. It is not easy to translate from a Bantu language into English and retain just balance of the idioms of both. Mr. Dutton, I think, has been most successful in this. It is a pity, however, that he did not have his translations of the Zulu “ izibongo ” checked by a specialist in Zulu; for instance he translates “ uteku lwabafazi ” as “sea of the women” instead of “sport of the women,” edicently confusing the first word with “iteku,” “a bay.” There are other such errors in the translation from the Zulu. Bantu Studies , vol. V, 1931. (Chaka published by Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1931). |
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