FUZE, MAGEMA ka MAGWAZA
- 2 Min Read
Magema ka Magwaza Fuze (1845-1922) wrote the first book to appear in print by any Zulu author, titled Abantu abanyama lapha bavela nakhona (“Black People: Where They Come From”), it was published in 1922 in Pietermaritzburg, Natal.
When Bishop John Colenso came to Natal in 1853, he at once established a school. In 1869, Fuze became one of the bishop’s pupils, and was later his interpreter and printer. One of the bishop’s three daughters, probably Harriette Emily, encouraged Fuze to write down his recollections of his people’s traditions. In his account, Fuze sought to tell the story of his people and to trace their origin.
In 1931, Alice Werner, writing in the Journal of the African Society, described the book as: “a curiously mixed production; along with valuable first hand accounts of Zulu customs and of incidents which had come within the writer’s own knowledge, e.g., the events of 1888, with the trial and subsequent exile of the Zulu chiefs, we find speculations as to the ultimate origin of the South African peoples from the Lost Ten Tribes.”
Fuze had accompanied King Dinuzulu into detention in St. Helena island for a short while, and the book evinces a proud sense of national power and exaltation in the Zulu identity. It also constitutes a nostalgic memorial to eroding customs and beliefs. The book is of special value as it contains and preserves much traditional oral poetry. It has also set the tone for much modern Zulu literature.
It has not been established exactly when Fuze wrote his book, which he appears to have done some years before its publication. But there are indications that the activities of the African National Congress and the cultural thrusts of the second decade of the 20th century had an impact on the author, resulting in his attempt to provide some historical foundations for black people’s unity while at the same time resisting the deleterious effects of white supremacy in South Africa. Its purpose was to prepare black South Africans for a dignified future by making them conscious of the greatness of their past history and cultural legacy.
WANDILE F. KUSE
