Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume 2: The Dialectics of Modernity on a South African Frontier (Of Revelation and Revolution)

In the second of a proposed three-volume study, John and Jean Comaroff continue their exploration of colonial evangelism and modernity in South Africa. Moving beyond the opening moments of the encounter between the British Nonconformist missions and the Southern Tswana peoples, Of Revelation and Revolution , Volume II, explores the complex transactions—both epic and ordinary—among the various dramatis personae along this colonial frontier. The Comaroffs trace many of the major themes of twentieth-century South African history back to these formative encounters. The relationship between the British evangelists and the Southern Tswana engendered complex exchanges of goods, signs, and cultural markers that shaped not only African existence but also bourgeois modernity "back home" in England. We see, in this volume, how the colonial attempt to "civilize" Africa set in motion a dialectical process that refashioned the everyday lives of all those drawn into its purview, creating hybrid cultural forms and potent global forces which persist in the postcolonial age. This fascinating study shows how the initiatives of the colonial missions collided with local traditions, giving rise to new cultural practices, new patterns of production and consumption, new senses of style and beauty, and new forms of class distinction and ethnicity. As noted by reviewers of the first volume, the Comaroffs have succeeded in providing a model for the study of colonial encounters. By insisting on its dialectical nature, they demonstrate that colonialism can no longer be seen as a one-sided relationship between the conquering and the conquered. It is, rather, a complex system of reciprocal determinations, one whose legacy is very much with us today.

In the second of a proposed three-volume study, John and Jean Comaroff continue their exploration of colonial evangelism and modernity in South Africa. Moving beyond the opening moments of the encounter between the British Nonconformist missions and the Southern Tswana peoples, Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume II, explores the complex transactions—both epic and ordinary—among the various dramatis personae along this colonial frontier.

The Comaroffs trace many of the major themes of twentieth-century South African history back to these formative encounters. The relationship between the British evangelists and the Southern Tswana engendered complex exchanges of goods, signs, and cultural markers that shaped not only African existence but also bourgeois modernity "back home" in England. We see, in this volume, how the colonial attempt to "civilize" Africa set in motion a dialectical process that refashioned the everyday lives of all those drawn into its purview, creating hybrid cultural forms and potent global forces which persist in the postcolonial age.

This fascinating study shows how the initiatives of the colonial missions collided with local traditions, giving rise to new cultural practices, new patterns of production and consumption, new senses of style and beauty, and new forms of class distinction and ethnicity. As noted by reviewers of the first volume, the Comaroffs have succeeded in providing a model for the study of colonial encounters. By insisting on its dialectical nature, they demonstrate that colonialism can no longer be seen as a one-sided relationship between the conquering and the conquered. It is, rather, a complexsystem of reciprocal determinations, one whose legacy is very much with us today.

Annotation In the second of a proposed three-volume study, John and Jean Comaroff continue their exploration of colonial evangelism and modernity in South Africa. Moving beyond the opening moments of the encounter between the British Nonconformist missions and the Southern Tswana peoples, Of Revelation and Revolution , Volume II, explores the complex transactions--both epic and ordinary--among the various dramatis personae along this colonial frontier. The Comaroffs trace many of the major themes of twentieth-century South African history back to these formative encounters. The relationship between the British evangelists and the Southern Tswana engendered complex exchanges of goods, signs, and cultural markers that shaped not only African existence but also bourgeois modernity "back home" in England. We see, in this volume, how the colonial attempt to "civilize" Africa set in motion a dialectical process that refashioned the everyday lives of all those drawn into its purview, creating hybrid cultural forms and potent global forces which persist in the postcolonial age. This fascinating study shows how the initiatives of the colonial missions collided with local traditions, giving rise to new cultural practices, new patterns of production and consumption, new senses of style and beauty, and new forms of class distinction and ethnicity. As noted by reviewers of the first volume, the Comaroffs have succeeded in providing a model for the study of colonial encounters. By insisting on its dialectical nature, they demonstrate that colonialism can no longer be seen as a one-sided relationship between the conquering and the conquered. It is, rather, a complex system of reciprocal determinations, one whose legacy is very much with us today. Of Revelation and Revolution is at once a highly imaginative, richly detailed history of colonialism, Christianity, and consciousness in South Africa, and a theoretically challenging consideration of the most difficult questions posed by the nature of social experience. Although primarily concerned with the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Of Revelation and Revolution also looks forward to the age of apartheid and beyond. Of Revelation and Revolution is a study of the colonization of consciousness and the consciousness of colonization in South Africa. It traces the processes by which Non-conformist Christian missionaries, among the earliest foot soldiers of British colonialism, sought to change the hearts and minds, the signs and practices, of the Southern Tswana. As such, it is a historical anthropology of cultural confrontation--of domination and reaction, struggle and innovation. Its chronological span is approximately a century, between 1820 and 1920, although it is not written according to the strict demands of chronology. But it also casts its eye forward to the present, toward both everyday resistance and historical consciousness in apartheid South Africa. Similarly, while it focuses on a particular people--those made, in the nineteenth century, into an ethnic group called "the" Tswana--its compass extends to the predicament of black South Africans at large Contents......Page 10 List of Illustrations......Page 12 Preface......Page 14 Chronology......Page 22 1 Introduction......Page 26 2 Preachers and Prophets: The Domestication of the Sacred Word......Page 88 3 Cultivation, Colonialism, and Christianity: Toward a New African Genesis......Page 144 4 Currencies of Conversion: Of Markets, Money, and Value......Page 191 5 Fashioning the Colonial Subject: The Empire's Old Clothes......Page 243 6 Mansions of the Lord: Architecture, Interiority, Domesticity......Page 299 7 The Medicine of God's Word: Saving the Sould by Tending the Flesh......Page 348 8 New Persons, Old Subjects: Rights, Identities, Moral Communities......Page 390 9 Conclusion......Page 430 Appendix......Page 440 Notes......Page 442 Bibliography......Page 532 Index......Page 586 University Of Chicago Press Contents 10 List of Illustrations 12 Preface 14 Chronology 22 1 Introduction 26 2 Preachers and Prophets: The Domestication of the Sacred Word 88 3 Cultivation, Colonialism, and Christianity: Toward a New African Genesis 144 4 Currencies of Conversion: Of Markets, Money, and Value 191 5 Fashioning the Colonial Subject: The Empire's Old Clothes 243 6 Mansions of the Lord: Architecture, Interiority, Domesticity 299 7 The Medicine of God's Word: Saving the Sould by Tending the Flesh 348 8 New Persons, Old Subjects: Rights, Identities, Moral Communities 390 9 Conclusion 430 Appendix 440 Notes 442 Bibliography 532 Index 586 ISBN-13:,9780226114446,ISBN-13:,9780226114439 IN THE EARLY 1990s, with apartheid well into its eleventh hour, the "homeland" government of Bopthuthatswana committed anthropology, at least of a sort. v. 1. Christianity, colonialism, and consciousness in South Afric v. 2. The dialectics of modernity on a South African frontier.