Description
Book SynopsisThis much-awaited volume uncovers the long-lost pages of the major African multi-lingual newspaper,
Abantu-Batho. Founded in 1912 by African National Congress convener Pixley Seme, with assistance from the Swazi Queen, it was published until 1931, attracting the cream of African politicians, journalists, and poets S.E.K Mqhayi, Nontsizi Mgqwetho and Robert Grendon. In its pages burning issues of the day were articulated alongside cultural by-ways. Comprising both essays on and texts from the paper, it explores the complex movements and individuals that emerged. The essays contribute rich, new material to provide clearer insights into South African politics and intellectual life. The Anthology unveils a judicious selection of never-before-published columns from the paper spanning every year of its life, drawn from repositories on three continents.
Abantu-Batho also had a regional and international focus, and by examining all these dynamics across boundaries and disciplines the book transcends established historiographical frontiers to fill a lacuna that scholars have long lamented.
Distinguished historians and literary scholars, together with exciting young scholars, plumb the lives and ideas of editors, writers, readers and allied movements. Sharing the considerable interest in the ANC centenary, this unique book will have a strong appeal and secure audience among all interested in history, politics, culture, literature, gender, biography and journalism studies, from academics and students to a general public interested in knowing about this early ANC newspaper, its people and the stories that once captivated South Africans.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Centenary History of Abantu-Batho, the People’s Paper Peter Limb Chapter 1 ‘Only the Bolder Spirits’: Politics, Racism, Solidarity and War in Abantu-Batho Peter Limb Chapter 2 ‘They Must Go to the Bantu Batho’: Economics and Education, Religion and Gender, Love and Leisure in the People’s Paper Peter Limb Chapter 3 Pixley Seme and Abantu-Batho Chris Saunders Chapter 4 Queen Labotsibeni and Abantu-Batho Sarah Mkhonza Chapter 5 ‘We of Abantu Batho’: Robert Grendon’s Brief and Controversial Editorship Grant Christison Chapter 6 The Swazi Royalty and the Founding of Abantu-Batho in a Regional Context 174 Chris Lowe Chapter 7 Abantu-Batho and the Xhosa Poets 201 Jeff Opland Chapter 8 African Royalty, Popular History and Abantu-Batho Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu and Peter Limb Chapter 9 ‘Johannesburg in Flames’: The 1918 Shilling Campaign, Abantu-Batho and Early African Nationalism in South Africa Paul Landau Chapter 10 Garveyism, Abantu-Batho and the Radicalisation of the African National Congress during the 1920s Robert Trent Vinson Chapter 11 An African Newspaper in Central Johannesburg: The Journalistic and Associational Context of Abantu-Batho Peter Limb Conclusion Assessing the Decline and Legacy of Abantu-Batho Peter Limb
