Archibald Campbell Jordan
Archibald Campbell Mzolisa Jordan (born October 30, 1906 in Mbokothwane Mission, Pondoland , Cape Colony ; † October 10, 1968 in Madison , USA ) was a South African writer and linguist .
Life
Jordan was born in what was then the Tsolo District as the son of an Anglican priest. He received a Junior Certificate from Lovedale College in Alice . With a scholarship he was then able to attend Fort Hare University College . There he obtained a teaching diploma in 1932 and a Bachelor of Arts in literature and linguistics in 1934 . From 1934 to 1944 he worked as a teacher in Kroonstad . During this time he was elected President of the African Teachers' Association and learned about Sesotho . He wrote his master's thesis in 1942 at the University of Cape Town on Some features of the phonetic and grammatical structures of Baca , a Nguni language that had not been researched until then , in German, for example, “Some features of the phonetic and grammatical structure of Baca”. In 1957 he received his doctorate with the dissertation A phonological and grammatical study of literary Xhosa ("A phonological and grammatical investigation of written isiXhosa").
In the 1930s he wrote poetry in the Imvo Zabantsundu newspaper. In 1940 he published his first novel, Ingqumbo yezinyana, written in isiXhosa , which his wife Phyllis Ntantala-Jordan (1920-2016), who he had married in 1940, translated into English. The novel depicts the conflict between western ideas of school staff and the traditions of the local "ocher people". In 1944, Jordan became Senior Lecturer in Bantu Languages at Fort Hare University College - succeeding Davidson Don Tengo Jabavu - and two years later Senior Lecturer in African Languages at the University of Cape Town . In 1961 he received a Carnegie scholarship to study in the USA, but the South African authorities refused him a passport. He was only able to leave the country with an exit visa, together with his son Pallo Jordan (* 1942, minister with various departments from 1994 to 2009).
Archibald Campbell Jordan became professor of African languages and literature at the University of California, Los Angeles and later at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1962 . In 1968 he died in Madison after a long illness.
Awards
- 2004: Honorary Doctorate from the University of Port Elizabeth (posthumous)
- 2005: Order of Ikhamanga in Gold (posthumous)
Works
- 1940: Ingqumbo yezinyana. Novel.
- 1980: The wrath of the ancestors (English translation)
- 1970: Kwezo Mpindo ze Tsitsa. Stories.
- 1973: Tales from South Africa (English translation)
- 1972: Towards an African literature: the emergence of literary form in Xhosa.
Web links
- Portrait at sahistory.org.za (English)
- Dissertation for download at open.uct.ac.za (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h portrait at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on May 27, 2017
- ↑ Archibald Campbell Jordan Mzoliza, Xhosa writer and linguist, so. sahistory.org.za, accessed May 28, 2017
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jordan, Archibald Campbell |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jordan, Archibald Campbell Mzolisa (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | South African writer and linguist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 30, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mbokothwane Mission, Pondoland |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 10, 1968 |
| Place of death | Madison |