Albert Kropf

Albert Kropf (born March 27, 1822 in Potsdam , † December 20, 1910 in Bethel near Stutterheim , South Africa ) was a German missionary in South Africa. He wrote fundamental works about the people of the Xhosa as well as about their clergy, whom he referred to as "lying prophets of the Kaffir country". He also published a dictionary of the Xhosa ( A Kaffir-English Dictionary ), a language that was then known as the Kaffir or Kaffir language (Engl. Kaffir or Kafir).

Quote

“The more Christianity and civilization spread among the Kaffirs, the more the Kaffirs are partly stripped of its originality, partly completely reshaped and destroyed by these powers. It would therefore be time to record the Kaffir culture with its laws, manners and customs, as it originally was and as it was confronted by missionaries 50 years ago, and to present its history as a mirror to the latest colonization efforts. " ( Albert Kropf : The people of the Xosa Kaffirs ... (preface))

Major works

• The Xosa-Kaffer people in eastern South Africa and their history, character, constitution and religion. A contribution to African ethnology . Berlin Evangelical Mission Society , Berlin 1889
• The lying prophets of the Kaffir country . 2nd edition, Berlin Evangelical Mission Society, Berlin 1896 (1891?)
• Ntsikana, the first fruits of the Kaffirs and a prophet among his people . 2nd edition, Berlin 1891
• A Kaffir-English Dictionary (1899) . Kessinger Publishing Co., Reprint 2008, ISBN 978-1-4367-3512-4
• A Kafir-English Dictionary . 2nd ed., Lovedale Mission Press , Lovedale 1915

literature

• James J. Bovula: The King Death and His Servants . Speech given by the Christian Kaffir James J. Bovula in Tyumi in the Kafferland on December 25, 1885. Berlin 1888 (1901?) (Translated by Albert Kropf)
• Ernst Dammann:  Kropf, Albert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 88 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ernst Dammann:  Albert Kropf. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 4, Bautz, Herzberg 1992, ISBN 3-88309-038-7 , Sp. 693-694.
• Käthe Kropf: D. Albert Kropf: A picture of life . Bookshop of the Berlin Evangelical Mission Society, Berlin 1912.
• Ulrich van der Heyden / Joachim Kundler (eds.): Albert Kropf: The people of the Xosa-Kaffirs in eastern South Africa and their history, character, constitution and religion. A contribution to African ethnology, Berlin 1889, ed. and updated on the basis of Albert Kropf's corrections and additions , Bremen 2017.