Thomas Mofolo

Thomas Mokopu Mofolo (born December 22, 1876 in Khojane near Mafeteng in Basutoland , today Lesotho , † September 8, 1948 in Teyateyaneng in Basutoland) was an African writer .

Life

Thomas Mofolo was born as the second son of the Christian couple Abiner Mofolo and Aleta Mputi. He belonged to the Basotho people . Mofolo attended the elementary school of the mission society Société des missions évangéliques de Paris , a forerunner of today's Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa , in Qomoqomong in the south of Basutoland. He then attended the school of the same missionary society in Masitise am Senqu . Mofolo was confirmed on August 26, 1894. He then began working in the printing and publishing house of the Mission Society in Morija . In 1896 he entered the teacher training college of Morija, where he obtained the teaching diploma in 1898. Then he returned to the publishing house. Because of the Second Boer War , he made an apprenticeship as a carpenter at the Leloaleng Technical School of the Mission Society in 1900 , and from 1901 worked as a teacher, first in the Northern Cape , then in Maseru . During this time Mofolos began writing. He had three marriages, from which three daughters and three sons emerged. In 1908 a first version of the Chaka was available in addition to various smaller writings , but it did not appear until 1926. The book was written in Mofolo's mother tongue Sesotho , but the publisher did not want to publish it. A time of crisis followed. On March 23, 1910, Mofolo gave up his activity in Morija, moved to Zambia to the copper mining area there and then to Witwatersrand in South Africa . From 1912 he hired workers for a mining company in Basutoland, an activity that lasted until 1928. In 1916 Mofolo went into business for himself and founded a flour mill in Teyateyaneng, which he sold in 1928. During this time he was also politically active, criticizing the excesses of the traditional system of rule and becoming a member of the Basutoland Progressive Association . After 1928, Mofolo leased and ran various farms with moderate success and eventually opened a guesthouse in Matatiele . In 1940 he returned to Teyateyaneng. In 1941 he suffered a stroke , the consequences of which he was only partially able to overcome. Thomas Mofolo died on September 8, 1948.

Works (selection)

• Chaka the Zulu ( Manesse Library of World Literature ). Translated from English and edited by Peter Sulzer. Manesse, Zurich 1953 (biography, first published in 1926 in Sesotho )
• Chaka Zulu (Manesse Library of World Literature), translated from Sesotho, epilogue and notes by Peter Sulzer. Manesse, Zurich 1982, ISBN 3-7175-1748-1
• Pitseng (German about: Im Topf or Pitseng (place name in Basutoland, today Lesotho)), Bildungsroman
• Moeti oa bochabela (German about: Der Ostpilger ), Roman

A further detailed discussion of the Chaka can be found in the above-mentioned Manesse edition, p. 316 ff. From p. 299 there is also a biography of Thomas Mofolo.

Services

Mofolo recorded historical events with his works. His novel Chaka stands out above the Zulu chief Chaka (1787–1828). This relates to the meaning of the man Chaka himself as well as to the intensity of Mofolo's language and the depicted conflict between “ natural religion ” and Christianity . This dichotomy is in the foreground in all of his works. In Chaka , the reader is confronted with a brutality and irrationality of the African-animistic exercise of power, which is partly suppressed in Europe. In his novels, Mofolo confronts Africa with the Christian ethics of responsibility and consistently uses this as a benchmark.

The book of Chaka is considered to be the most important piece of prose ever written in Sesotho. The library of the National University of Lesotho is therefore called the Thomas Mofolo Library (German: Thomas Mofolo Library) in honor of the author .

The township of Mofolo in Soweto in South Africa was named after Thomas Mofolo.

The successful television series Shaka Zulu , produced from 1986 onwards, is not based on the book by Thomas Mofolo.

Web links

• Thomas Mokopu Mofolo in ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA