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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:So Who Was Elias Kuzwayo? Nationalism, Collaboration and the Picaresque in Natal
Author:La Hausse, PaulISNI
Year:1992
Periodical:Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:32
Issue:127
Pages:469-507
Language:English
Geographic terms:South Africa
Natal
Subjects:Zulu
politicians
biographies (form)
History and Exploration
nationalism
Ethnic and Race Relations
Politics and Government
About person:Ellen Kate Kuzwayo (1914-2006)ISNI
External link:https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1992.1545
Abstract:The starting point of this article is an exploration of the fragmented record of the life of Elias Kuzwayo, a petty criminal, failed populist and confidence trickster, born in the late nineteenth century in the hinterland of Pietermaritzburg, Natal, in South Africa. The article suggests that the idea of the 'picaresque', explored in both literary criticism and symbolic anthropology, when provided with sufficient historical content may help to illuminate some of the central features of Kuzwayo's career and serve to identify other historical figures like him. It is argued that Kuzwayo's career represents a vivid example of a picaresque elaboration of the broad terrain of ambiguity and structural contradiction occupied by members of Natal's fractured African 'middle classes'. Viewed through the lens of the picaresque, Kuzwayo's career serves to raise questions about the emergence of certain styles of African political leadership and the sources of political authority during a period of massive social and economic transformation. It also illuminates particular kinds of collaboration engaged in by Zulu intellectuals with the apartheid State after 1948. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French (p. 536).
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