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GWAYI TYAMZASHE |
| The important role of Gwayi Tyamzashe in the transformation of large portions of South Africa into the new age of modernity has not been recognized as it deserves to be. He seems to have been an uncompromising proselytizer of modernity. Without his six-year sojourn from 1884 to 1890 to Zoutpansberg (Northern Transvaal) and the nearby districts to open several Christian mission stations, a R. V. Selope Thema who is known to history as a passionate believer in modernity in total contempt of traditional societies, would not have been possible. As a teenager Selope Thema was enthralled with the imposing figure of Elijah Makiwane who visited Northern Transvaal in the early 1900s to re-examine the Free Church of Scotland mission stations which had been set-up by Tyamzashe nearly two decades earlier. Here is R. V. Selope Thema’s recollection of this momentous occasion in his 1936 autobiography Out of Darkness: From Cattle-Herding to the Editor’s Chair (unfortunately unpublished): “The growth of the congregation and the development of Church work demanded the attention and direction of a qualified minister od religion, and consequently, the leaders of the Church appealed to the authorities of the Free Church of Scotland at Lovedale to send them a missionary. The request was granted, and Reverends William Stuart and Elijah Makiwane were sent to survey the field. Their arrival caused a great deal of excitement among the people of our village and the neighborhood. There was praying and singing among the Christians, and there was singing and dancing among the heathens who had organized a big reed-pipe dance in opposition. The situation looked ugly and it seemed as if it would develop into a ‘civil war’, but eventually, with the help of my grandfather, tension was eased and peace restored. . . The singing and praying of the Christians made a profound impression upon mu youthful mind. . . So when one of my boy friends, a Christian lad, told me that the two missionaries were clever men who knew all about God, I decided to accompany him to church on a Sunday. The day came, and to me it was the greatest day of my life. . . When we entered the church, the two missionaries were seated in front of the congregation, and there was an impressive silence which made me feel afraid. We sat down in front of the two men who looked so dignified that I thought they were quite different to the rest of us. Mr. Makiwane was dark, and in his cleric garb, he gave me the impression that he was the darkest man in the world. Mr. Stuart looked whiter than all the white skinned people I had seen before, perhaps because he was clean shaven and neatly attired. But I attributed all this to the fact that they were the men of God. For on their faces was an expression of kindness such as I had never seen on the face of any man. I was impressed; I was fascinated. And when Mr. Makiwane prayed in Xhosa and I heard him, through the interpretation of Mokele Raphela, praying for men and women, boys and girls, who were still in darkness, I was thrilled and my imagination was stirred.” The conversion of R. V. Selope Thema into Christianity was one of the most consequential, because in due course he became arguably the greatest exponent of modernity within the New African Movement. The New African Movement literally constituted the modernistic historical texture of South Africa. So, in some ways, Gwayi Tyamzashe through Elijah Makiwane was responsible for this momentous change in the consciousness of R. V. Selope Thema. Tyamzashe was original in other unexpected ways. Perhaps he, more than the other Xhosa intellectuals of his generation, he was a direct disciple of Tiyo Soga in the sense of having been profoundly conscious of the achievements of the great man. It was the example of the intellectual brilliance of Soga that convinced Prince Gwayi Tyamzashe to follow in his tracts by studying in Lovedale Theology as a philosophical doctrine. Coming from a royal family, Tyamzashe seems to have a had a greater distance to travel between tradition and modernity than his other intellectual cohorts. Having travelled the largest historical mileage in the attainment of modernity, he seems also to have travelled the widest geographical radius in proselytizing on its behalf. Rather than being a modern man of the mind, he was a modern man of action. It was Tyamzashe’s praxis that seems to have impressed itself on John Knox Bokwe’s historical imagination. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of Lovedale, which coincided with his own 50th anniversary in commencing his education at this venerable institution, John Knox Bokwe payed tribute to Gwayi Tyamzashe by linking his name to that of Tiyo Soga, the founder of South African intellectual tradition: “I refer to Tiyo Soga. Mr. Govan helped us in that matter. Having arrived with Tiyo in Scotland, this black clay was worked up, and moulded with forms as white clay. Then it became clear that after all even this black clay from Africa, can become something of value ; and without doubt found it can be made also an article of admirable beauty. The (craftsmen) of Scotland worked this (black) clay till it became a well polished ornament that even to this day is a star of the heavens. It is still a model of what here in Africa a well trained and educated Native man should be. Tiyo had successful training to make him the full equal of those renowned for brains and becoming character formed out of white clay: Thus Govan helped us well as his Scotland. After having accomplished this with Tiyo Soga, I think it probable that the heads of Lovedale and its supporters must have considered that it would be difficult for the ama Seminar continued to have their moulding done over sea[s] as in the case of Tiyo. So it was decided that Lovedale make their own efforts. As one of the first results of their own effort came out GWAYI TYAMZASHE. They did not stint learning in that effort, but lifted it up to the highest, and fortunately the head of the Xosa youth look to learning readily. Thus the polishing of Gwayi followed a close second to Soga. The day they finally put him through stiff examinations was a great day with the missionaries of Lovedale: a day that British Union Jack flags were fkying as they are to day. Now-a-days you see it a common enough custom for a proper black African to sit at the same table as whites at Lovedale. We saw it for the first time at Lovedale allowed to Gwayi Tyamzashe who was elevated from the tables of the black ama Seminar to sit at the same tables with Missionaries and white teachers in a feast. That day we were fed with such sweet things, which it was the first time in our lives to swallow. It was a right choice begining this custom with one like Gwayi: for he was a man of good character, and so humble that he did not know what it is to be puffed up with pride. One may ask and say ‘after leaving Lovedale training what useful thing to his country did he accomplish?” Go to Kimberley and you will there hear said ‘The word of God was brought there by Gwayi Tyamzashe.’ Pass on to northern transvaal in Zoutpansberg. Even there you will hear of his foot marks by it being said: ‘The way here was opened by Gwayi Tyamzashe.’ There now you have mission schools some of which are sending their children to fill Lovedale” (“Lovedale: Its 75th Anniversary”, Imvo Zabantsundu, August 29, 1916). R. V. Selope Thema was one of these children whose path to modernity was opened by Gwayi Tyamzashe. Given Tyamzashe’s connection to Kimberley as John Knox Bokwe mentions, it may be possible that he also opened the path to modernity for the Kimberley-Thaba Nchu group of intellectuals, such as H. Isaiah Bud-M’Belle, Solomon T. Plaatje, Silas Modiri Molema and others. Should that turn out to be so, the historic importance of Gwayi Tyamzashe could not possibly be overestimated. | |